These Tampa Bay U.S. Reps say it’s time to trim the nation’s debt

In response to questions from the Tampa Bay Times, three local Republican Congress members suggested they would withhold votes to raise the limit without spending cuts, but didn’t provide specifics on what conditions they would demand.

Meanwhile, Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, called on the Republicans to “act with urgency to pay our bills on time and not cause additional chaos.”

Castor said spending cuts and “tax fairness … can be achieved, but not at the risk of the full faith and credit of the United States of America.”

The Times asked Republicans what, if any, conditions they would demand to vote to raise the debt limit:

• Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, advocated a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget and said, “The time for action is now … Nobody wants to default on our debt, but neither can we afford to keep spending money we don’t have. … We cannot keep raising the debt ceiling without addressing the root cause of the debt.”
• Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-St. Petersburg, called debt and spending “unsustainable” and said, “if I have to rock the boat to get our spending under control and deal with the inflation that’s crushing American families, I’ll do it.”
• Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, advocated “using the pending debt limit legislation as a catalyst for strategically addressing our spending problem instead of continuing to kick the can down the road.” He said defaulting on the U.S. debt “would be devastating; however, we will not squander this opportunity to enact the spending reforms desperately needed.”
• Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Brandon blamed “reckless spending by Democrats” for inflation and debt and said, “Republicans stand ready to come together to address this issue and have a serious discussion about our debt obligations.”