Don Bacon speaks on debt ceiling vote, plans to approve

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Representative Don Bacon says he plans to vote to approve raising the debt ceiling when the deal comes to a vote on Wednesday.

“It’s not as much as we wanted, it’s more the democrats wanted, that’s how compromises work,” Bacon told 6 News. “Now we need to curtail spending, and we’re going to curtail some spending, but we also need to raise the debt ceiling. I’ll be voting yes on Wednesday.”

Bacon says he does like some things about the proposal.

“It caps spending in future years, it reduces spending in non-defense, non-VA spending, which we’ve added a lot to our spending last two years. I think that’s also good. We’re reducing some of the money that’s going to the 87,000 I.R.S. agents. So there are some reductions there. We’ve also put a measure in place if we go into a continuing resolution, which we do all the time, is going to be in the 99% of the budget, this incentivizes the Senate to pass appropriations bills faster.”

“We have like 12 compromises that we were able to get out of this so I feel good about it. Now some things I would have liked to have seen, I would have liked to see a commission that would have recommended long-term spending, how do we do better there. We didn’t tackle long-term spending, this whole agreement is on 30% of our spending so I’d like us to do more but this is a good start.”

As well, Bacon says he expects there will be some members on both sides who will not support the debt limit deal.

“I think we’re losing a lot of those votes but we got two more days and the leadership will talk to on both sides, I’ve already heard from some of them. “I don’t like to say far right, I call them more in the populist’s realm, I would say they have already said they don’t want to vote for it and we hear the same thing on the progressive wing.”

However, Bacon added that he expects the deal to pass with an overwhelming vote as the county needs the bill to continue to function, but it took a lot of work to get there.

“In my seven years I’ve never seen these kinds of bills pass that easily. It’s always been a little bit partisan, and you know you’ve got two groups that want their priorities, and we have a spirit in our country right now where consensus is a bad word, compromise is a bad word, but that’s what has to happen when you have three branches of government. A bicameral and separation of powers, you gotta work with the other side. And our culture right now is not to do that, and it’s not right, it’s not good for the country.”

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