(Michael Guest, Steven Palazzo, Trent Kelly)
The legislation passed the House on a party-line vote 219-206
Last night, 206 House Republicans voted against the short-term debt limit bill that would have increased the deficit by $480 billion. This included Mississippi Congressmen Michael Guest (MS-3), Trent Kelly (MS-1) and Steven Palazzo (MS-4) who each voted against H.R. 5304, a bill that would suspend the debt ceiling.
The legislation passed the U.S. House on a party-line vote 219-206 with every yes from Democrats and every no from Republicans. The bill has now passed both the House and Senate. It delays any long-term action to address the debt ceiling until early December.
“Under Democrats, government spending is out of control. Democrats want to add trillions of dollars to the national debt and raise the debt ceiling to pay for it. The White House, Senate, and House of Representatives are controlled by a single party, and that party has a path to increase the debt limit to fund their own spending priorities. I do not intend to help them on this fiscally destructive path,” Congressman Guest said in a recorded statement.
In August, Congressmen Kelly, Guest and Palazzo joined over a hundred of their Republican colleagues in signing a letter as a promise to vote against raising the debt ceiling.
“We, the undersigned Republican Representatives, are letting Democrat Representatives and the American public know that we will not vote to increase the debt ceiling, whether that increase comes through a standalone bill, a continuing resolution, or any other vehicle. This is a problem created by Democrat spending. Democrats will have to accept sole responsibility for facilitating it,” the Members had written.
“We should not default on our debts under any circumstances,” the Republican authors wrote. “If Democrats threaten a default, it will only be because they refuse to vote for the debt ceiling increase necessitated by their own irresponsible spending.”
