Business, Government Legal News from throughout WVManchin to reject increase in U.S. debt limit

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said he will vote against the latest debt ceiling hike. The $1.2 trillion increase would be the second highest in history and would allow U.S. debt to reach $16.4 trillion by the end of the year.

"When the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the greatest threat to our national security is our debt – not another nation, not another army, not the fear of another attack – we've hit the wall," Manchin said. "But this problem is not a Democratic or Republican problem, it's an American problem. Since both parties share blame for creating it, we must work together to fix it."

Last March, Manchin was the first Senate Democrat to announce he would vote against raising the debt ceiling without a long-term fix in place.

"Last fall, I was hopeful that the super committee would succeed, but it did not. Since then, our leaders have done nothing to develop a meaningful, long-term solution to address our nation's debt and deficits," Manchin said. "So today, I cannot in good conscience vote to raise the debt ceiling to an unprecedented $16.4 trillion in the absence of any real fix or pathway to a real fix."

Without a debt fix, by 2012, the total U.S. debt is projected to reach $21 trillion, more that U.S. spends on education, energy and defense combined.

"We all know that solving our debt crisis will not be easy, but it is absolutely incomprehensible that all our leaders are ignoring one of the best frameworks we have: the bipartisan, commonsense Bowles-Simpson agreement that emerged from the President's fiscal commission," Manchin said. "Whether we choose to follow the Bowles-Simpson framework or another idea, we must do what is right: eliminate wasteful spending, cut our deficits and achieve meaningful tax reform."