Florida Senators and Congressmen react to debt ceiling crisis bill

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - After a late night at the Capitol the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 made it through the Senate.

NewsChannel 7 reached out to our local congressmen and senators in regard to the bill to see how they voted.

Congressman Matt Gaetz voted no for the bill and sent us the following statement:

“After Wednesday night, there are only four Republicans in the D.C. Swamp who have never voted to raise the Debt Limit for this Woke and Weaponized Government. I’m proud to be among them. Because NOT ONLY does this awful Biden-McCarthy Deal gaslight years of more reckless, inflation-inducing spending. NOT ONLY does it lock in the terrible policies of our Addled President rather than reversing them. But, friend, think about this – if our path of unsustainable spending and debt continues, then EVERY AMERICAN will be feeling the impact once the U.S. dollar loses its position as the global reserve currency and CHINA is the one calling the shots! Apparently, losing America’s position as the greatest country in the world is worth more accessible programs for the homeless according to many in the Swamp.”

However, Congressman Neal Dunn did vote yes and took to Twitter to share his feelings about the bill.

“I made a commitment to my district in November that I would help get our economy back on track. The best way to do that is to prevent a debt by default by supporting the Fiscal Responsibility Act,” Rep. Neal Dunn tweeted.

Heading over to the Senate, both Florida Senators voted no to the bill.

Senator Rick Scott sent NewsChannel 7 the following statement:

“I voted no today because this legislation will only bury us deeper in debt and does nothing to stop the rampant inflation Biden and the Democrats have caused with their addiction to reckless government spending. There will never come a day when the permanent political class in either party in Washington will stand up in favor of curtailing runaway spending and debt. The politicians in Washington will never accept that they are wrong, so we have to force change. I have spent every day of my time in the Senate fighting to pass commonsense reforms that shake some sanity into this place and today made it even clearer that our work must continue. We won’t compromise on debt. We won’t say ok to ‘good enough.’ I am committed to stopping this madness and will keep working with my conservative colleagues in the Senate and House to actually get something done for the American people. We need to pass No Budget, No Pay to make sure Congress doesn’t get paid unless a real budget is passed. We need to end reckless spending and we won’t stop focusing on making sure Congress actually starts passing budgets.”

NewsChannel 7 did not hear back from Senator Rubio.