Mike Ross makes assurances after his announcement yesterday to pursue other goals

Congress continues to negotiate a solution to the nation’s impending debt limit crisis. Without a solution, the Department of Treasury has said the federal government can continue to pay its bills until August 2, 2011, when the United States would begin defaulting on its financial obligations here at home and around the world. As we approach this deadline, Congress must stop the partisan games and work together to find a practical solution that strengthens our economy and protects America’s place as the world’s superpower.

Last week, I voted against a Republican spending package called Cut, Cap and Balance, H.R. 2650, because it would have forced radical spending cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. It also included a balanced budget amendment that would have imposed a spending cap of 18% of GDP within the decade. Federal spending has not been 18.0% or less of GDP since the 1960s, when both Medicare and Medicaid were just beginning. Given our struggling economy and the rising number of seniors retiring, capping spending at 1960s levels would only lead to drastic cuts in Medicaid and Medicare.

I have long supported and voted for spending cuts and a balanced budget amendment, but this bill was crafted with pure political motives and is not a real or practical solution to our nation's fiscal crisis. We must pursue a fair and balanced approach. Any proposed spending cuts must not punish working families, seniors or veterans in the process. They did nothing to get us in to this fiscal crisis. They are barely getting by as it is and we should not balance the budget on their backs.

Instead of trying to legislate pure ideology, let’s stop the partisan bickering, work together and find a fair and reasonable solution to our fiscal crisis.

Fortunately, a bipartisan, practical plan has emerged from the so-called “Gang of Six” in the Senate – a bipartisan group of Senators who have been working for months to find common ground on a way to address the national debt.

This plan is a two-step proposal that would immediately reduce the deficit by $500 billion and place our nation on a stable, fiscal path. The plan would slash our nation’s deficits by $3.6 trillion over ten years and stabilize our publicly-held debt by 2014. The plan would also impose unprecedented budget enforcement rules, so if Congress does not meet certain spending targets, across-the-board cuts would be automatically made to reach those targets. Finally, once the plan has passed in the Senate, the Senate Finance Committee would be required to report a Social Security Reform plan that ensures the life-saving program’s solvency for at least the next 75 years.

While this may not be the final plan, it demonstrates that we can find a reasonable, balanced and bipartisan solution to one of our nation’s biggest crises by simply working together. I remain very optimistic about the Gang of Six’s plan, because it’s a practical approach that doesn’t cater to the extremes of either side. It also ensures that Social Security and Medicare will be around for generations to come.

As your Congressman, I will continue to be a moderating force in this debate, working with the House and Senate to find practical solutions to address our nation’s debt limit and fiscal crisis. We must get this done now, because it’s past time that we stop deficit spending, get our fiscal house back in order and start focusing on how we can revive our economy and put more Americans back to work.