Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Congressman Steve Scalise (R-La.), along with other House GOP leaders, reacted Friday to plans by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to tack a Pentagon appropriations bill with legislation that would increase the nation's debt ceiling amount by $1.8 trillion by unveiling the" CAP the DEBT Act."

The bill would repeal the Gephart Rule, which allows debt ceiling increases to be included in joint budget resolutions without a direct vote. Under the Scalise legislation, changes to the national debt ceiling amount would have to pass both Congressional houses with two-thirds majority vote.

Congressman Scalise said that the CAP the DEBT Act is being filed because "the liberals that are running this Congress have been on a wild spending spree for the last three years, since Speaker Pelosi has had the gavel."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that the ceiling increase would be tacked to a spending bill headed to the House floor next week and that legislation is largely expected to be the pending $636.4 billion Pentagon appropriations bill that would partially fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prior to Pelosi's announcement, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that increasing the ceiling is necessary in order to pay the country's mounting bills.

However, Scalise was not happy with the proposed method for increasing the national ceiling, saying “the ultimate sign of hypocrisy is [that] this Democrat liberal group running Congress is going to now again hide behind our troops and throw this increase of the national debt ceiling on a defense bill."