Hoyer Also Regrets Voting Against Raising Debt Ceiling

By Rachel Christiansen

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters on Tuesday that, like President Obama, he too regrets voting in the past against raising the nation’s debt limit.

Hoyer called his vote in 2006 a “mistake.” Yesterday, White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters that President Obama regretted his decision to vote against an increase that same year as a member of the U.S. Senate.

“The point we were trying to make when we voted against the debt limit was that cutting revenues, i.e. taxes, on a regular basis and then increasing spending was a policy that will inevitably lead to debt,” Hoyer said during his weekly briefing. 

Republicans, who may not agree to raising the current limit unless a series of deficit reduction items are included, are expected to make a big issue out of Hoyer and Obama’s reversals. With the nation’s debt fast approaching the current limit of nearly $14.3 trillion, Congress will likely have to act sometime next month.

Hoyer said that, by preventing a “clean” debt limit vote from happening, GOP lawmakers are holding the debt limit “hostage.”