(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) our March 2022 Porker of the Month for calling the debt ceiling a “figment of your imagination in terms of its validity.”

Taxpayers, who are bearing the costs of the $30 trillion national debt, should be concerned about Rep. Jackson Lee’s out of touch statement.  The debt ceiling is a limit on how much debt the U.S. government can have at once.  Past increases to the debt limit were rarely met with commonsense spending cuts, and if the debt ceiling is eliminated, then there is no limit on how much money the government can borrow, spend, abuse, and waste.  Rep. Jackson Lee is letting taxpayers know she does not care how much of their money is spent or wasted.  Her disregard for taxpayers is also evident from her $13.4 million in earmarks in the omnibus spending bill, including $9.95 million for stormwater detention basin and culvert improvement, $1.95 million for water mains and fire hydrant improvement, and $1.5 million for the Houston ship channel.

CAGW President Tom Schatz said, “Rep. Jackson Lee’s claim about the debt ceiling and her earmarks both epitomize Congress’s willingness to ignore the country’s dire financial condition.  She is telling Americans that $30 trillion in debt does not matter and there is no problem should it be increased to infinity.  Perhaps Rep. Jackson Lee had just returned from Disney World when she made her comments and was thinking about the Journey into Imagination with Figment ride, but the national debt is quite real, and its continued growth has serious consequences for the future of the country.  For acting like America’s fiscal problems don’t exist, Rep. Jackson Lee is a perfect choice for CAGW’s March Porker of the Month.” 

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.  For more than two decades, Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers and government officials who have shown a blatant disregard for the taxpayers.

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