BILL NUMBER: AJR 14INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Monning (Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Mitchell) JULY 6, 2011 Relative to the national debt ceiling. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AJR 14, as introduced, Monning. National debt ceiling. This measure would urge the Congress of the United States to raise the national debt ceiling without delay in order to continue the current economic recovery and preserve the fiscal integrity of the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs and other important public necessities. Fiscal committee: no. WHEREAS, The nation reached its debt limit on May 16, 2011, and only through extraordinary means has it been able to postpone default through August 2, 2011; and WHEREAS, The United States Treasury Department asked Congress to modify the law to raise the national debt ceiling from its current amount of $14.2 trillion; and WHEREAS, The United States government will be unable to perform routine transactions without raising the debt ceiling, making it impossible to fund federal services and programs depended upon by millions; and WHEREAS, Modification of the national debt ceiling should be bipartisan and largely a procedural congressional action, as has always been the case; and WHEREAS, Congress has never failed to raise the debt ceiling, and the United States Treasury Department has never had to default on paying previously authorized congressional commitments; and WHEREAS, Refusing to raise the national debt ceiling does nothing to reduce the existing obligations or reduce the federal deficit; and WHEREAS, Without an increase in the national debt ceiling, the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs will be unable to provide the same levels of services to the millions of seniors nationwide who worked hard to pay into the system and expect to receive the benefits they earned; and WHEREAS, Twelve percent of the entire population of California is enrolled in the federal Medicare program. A refusal to raise the national debt ceiling, combined with efforts to privatize the Medicare program, is a vote against Medicare for Californians; and WHEREAS, California, like the rest of the nation, is suffering from a prolonged national recession. While the recession is beginning to show signs of abatement, this recovery depends on the ability of the United States Treasury Department to continue necessary transactions; and WHEREAS, The burgeoning economic recovery that California and the United States are experiencing will be jeopardized if the national debt ceiling is kept at its current level; and WHEREAS, Raising the national debt ceiling will allow California's economy to continue creating the thousands of jobs needed in the Golden State; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature of California urges the Congress of the United States to raise the national debt ceiling without delay in order to continue the current economic recovery and preserve the fiscal integrity of the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs and other important public necessities; and be it further Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, to each Representative from California in the Congress of the United States, and to the author for appropriate distribution.