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Toomey (Re)Introduces Payment Prioritization Plan As Debt Ceiling Deadline Looms

By John McDonald, PoliticsPA Contributor

Calling it “increasingly possible” that Congress and President Obama will not reach an agreement to raise the debt ceiling by the August 2 deadline, United States Senator Pat Toomey on Tuesday introduced legislation which would prioritize which payments the U.S. Treasury would make if the federal government’s debt ceiling isn’t raised.

Under Toomey’s aptly named “Ensuring the Full Faith and Credit of the United States and Protecting America’s Soldiers and Seniors Act,” the Treasury would be obligated to prioritize interest on its debt, social security payments, and salary due to active duty military service members.  Leftover revenue, Toomey continued, could be used to make additional payments once those initial priorities had been met.

“This bill is not and is not meant to be a substitute for raising the debt limit,” Toomey said during a Capitol Hill press conference attended by nearly twenty Republican colleagues.  “What this bill is all about is minimizing whatever disruption might otherwise occur if the debt limit is not raised prior to August 2.”

The freshman U.S. Senator also decried what he perceived to be “scare tactics” employed by President Obama and Congressional Democrats as the debt ceiling deadline approaches.  Stark predictions about the severity of a potential default made by the President and his Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner – with whom Toomey publicly sparred over debt payment prioritization earlier this year – were “meant to intimidate Congressional Republicans into voting for the package that the administration wants,” Toomey said.  “Frankly, it’s irresponsible and it’s dangerous.”

Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-Philadelphia), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, declined to comment on Toomey’s proposal, adding, “I am totally in support of President Obama’s approach that he outlined in his speech Monday night.”

Toomey’s first attempt at prioritization legislation – the Full Faith and Credit Act – was derided by Democrats as a “Pay China First” measure and defeated along party lines in March.

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