Rubio, others call on Obama to pay down debt with $45 billion in unused taxpayer money

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) and several other congressional Republicans are proposing that the Obama administration use billions in unspent money being held by the government to pay down the debt.

Their Decrease Spending Now Act, S. 379 and H.R. 828, finds that the administration is sitting on $45 billion in discretionary funds that it has not spent. It says that money should be used to pay down the debt, instead of letting it sit in accounts with no other purpose.

The amount of unused money cited by the bill is equivalent to more than half of the $85 of the sequester that is due to take effect on Friday.

"Washington's reckless spending culture has produced this situation where hundreds of billions of dollars are borrowed and then left unspent because Congress routinely bites off more than it can chew," Rubio said in press release with Price.

"Let's reform the spending culture in Washington so that unspent and unnecessarily borrowed money is rescinded and dedicated to pay down the debt, instead of letting it sit around until someone decides to spend it."

"Leaving billions of taxpayer dollars to gather dust in federal coffers only encourages fiscal irresponsibility," Price said. "By rescinding this unspent and unobligated money — funds that the government can clearly do without — we can contribute to the larger goal of breaking the government's habit of borrowing and spending money we cannot afford."

Their legislation requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to rescind funds from unobligated balances in discretionary accounts. But this requirement would not apply to the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, or the Social Security Administration.

In the Senate, the bill is sponsored by Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Roy Blunt (Mo.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Mike Lee (Utah), John McCain (Ariz.), Jim Risch (Idaho), John Thune (S.D.) and David Vitter (La.).

In the House, it's sponsored by Reps. Larry Bucshon (Ind.), John Culberson (Texas), Bill Flores (Texas), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Mike Pompeo (Kan.), Pete Sessions (Texas), Lynn Westmoreland (Ga.), and Joe Wilson (S.C.).

---