Congressman Tim Bishop issued the following statement after the Government Accountability Office "estimated that delays in raising the debt limit in 2011 led to an increase in Treasury's borrowing costs of about $1.3 billion in fiscal year 2011."
Bishop said: "When the House GOP threatened to let America default on its debt last year, we all knew that it would hurt our economy. Now we know how costly it really was. According to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, the debt ceiling brinksmanship cost taxpayers $1.3 billion in higher borrowing costs. I hope the House GOP will take this report as an opportunity to shelve their my-way-or-the-highway negotiation tactics and work with Democrats to pass a middle class tax cut and other efforts to help the economy and create jobs. And we just learned from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that the GOP's attempt to repeal health care reform would have added $109 billion to our debt. I'm proud of my votes and to stand on the side of fiscal responsibility."