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{
    "id": 1545162,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545162/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 212,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this very important debate. I will begin by referring to the Constitution, which is my Bible or my Koran, on matters governance. Article 220 of the Constitution provides for how our budgets have to be made, their content, timing and form. Within that particular section, it is clearly stated that our debts must be contained in the annual budgets that are made. The proposals to borrow and where money is to be borrowed from should be in the budget that comes to the Parliament every year. Contrary to that, Parliament has done something very strange and totally unconstitutional in this country, by enacting something called the debt ceiling in the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act. The concept of a debt ceiling has got history. Before 1917, in the United States of America (USA), the Congress used to approve every debt that was borrowed by the Treasury for the executive in America. In 1917, when the USA joined the First World War, Congress began the idea of allowing their Treasury to borrow on need. That morphed into the culture where they began the so- called debt ceiling in an attempt to contain the appetite for money by the executive. Up to now, they have a Debt Act that was passed under Obama trying to address these issues, but they have not done that very well. So, we have borrowed the idea of a debt ceiling from the Americans. They did it out of an emergency situation and failed to return to the The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}