Rep Meeks: The People of the 5th Congressional District Have Prevailed with Today’s Vote to Raise the Debt Limit
Rep Meeks: The People of the 5th Congressional District Have Prevailed with Today’s Vote to Raise the Debt Limit
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Democrats and Republicans came together in a bipartisan effort to fund the U.S. government by raising the debt limit. Representative Gregory W. Meeks (NY-05) voted in the affirmative to raise the debt limit, ensuring that the U.S. economy remains on a path to create jobs, increase stability, and foster growth. In doing so, Representative Meeks helped protect families from rising interest rates that could have been devastating to mortgage and car loans, retirement savings, pensions, student loans, as well as small business loans.
Representative Meeks’ vote helps avert a potential crisis similar to the one that caused the U.S. to have its credit rating downgraded in 2011. Increasing the debt limit is an essential measure that sends positive signals to investors around the world that the U.S. government is committed to repaying its debts. Today’s increase also extends the debt limit until March of 2015, ending a potential conflict over the debt until after the New Year.
“The people of the 5th District have prevailed with today’s vote to raise the debt limit. We have avoided the political mistakes of 2011 and 2013 by putting people before politics. It is my hope that the brinksmanship that led to our credit downgrade are behind us. Moving forward, I intend to pursue a similar bipartisan path that can lead us to address the pressing issues facing our community such as extending unemployment insurance, fixing our immigration system, and providing flood insurance relief so that our neighborhoods can fully recover from Superstorm Sandy and other natural disasters.”
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