Press Releases

Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) issued the following statement after the House of Representatives passed the Senate amendments to raise the debt ceiling without corresponding spending cuts:

“In our legislative process, each side must give up some priorities to come to a common agreement.  Over the past several weeks, my colleagues and I made numerous attempts to compromise, but the President and the Democrat-controlled Senate never negotiated in good faith with House Republicans.  In fact, while House Republicans were considering a proposal that would have only required the President and his political appointees to live under Obamacare like the rest of the American people, the President told House Democrats that he would veto any debt ceiling bill that included that provision.  If Obamacare is good for the goose, why is it not good for the gander?*  Further, the final agreement’s only ‘concession’ to Republicans is that the Administration follow what is in existing law – that Americans receiving taxpayer-funded Obamacare subsidies be required to verify that they meet income eligibility requirements.

“However, Republicans don’t control the White House or the Senate, and we did not win this Obamacare battle.  But I continue to believe that the health care law is a train wreck that can not and will not work, and remain committed to seeing it repealed and replaced. 

“It is true that this evening’s Senate amendments raise the debt ceiling for nearly four months and put us on a track to negotiations to agree to a budget for the first time since 2009.  But the President, who once called letting the debt rise unchecked ‘unpatriotic,’ has been insisting that he won’t negotiate over raising the debt ceiling.  While hopeful, I am skeptical that the President and Senate will change course, and come to the table to constructively work with Republicans to rein in the federal government’s spending addiction.  We need a clear, disciplined, well-thought-out spending reduction plan in order to decrease our deficits and our debt, preventing us from further burdening future generations of Americans with excessive debt.  For that reason and others, I could not in good conscience vote in favor of the Senate amendments.”

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*The President would be the gander, the American people would be the goose.

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