U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) released a statement after her vote against the massive Bipartisan Budget Agreement that the Senate approved.
“Governance requires tough choices, and if everything is a priority then nothing is a priority. Our priority should be ensuring our men and women in uniform have the resources they need to defend U.S. interests, our allies, and freedom. Holding those resources hostage to bloated, inefficient and wasteful federal spending is shameful and inappropriate.
“In 2010, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said, ‘the most significant threat to our national security is our debt.’ It is time Congress takes this threat seriously.
“We have a responsibility to our children and grandchildren to clean up this fiscal mess. I cannot in good conscience support legislation that funds the government at the expense of adding to our national debt,” Blackburn concluded.
The Senate approved a massive two-year budget that raises spending $320 billion over current levels and lifts the debt ceiling for two years, Politico said, putting an end to a possible government shutdown. The budget was worked out in a compromise with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The vote was 67-28, with a majority of Republicans voting for it, Politico said. Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) lobbied for approval.
The budget will set spending at $1.37 trillion for the fiscal year starting in October, BBC News said. Federal government debt is already at $22.5 trillion.
The editorial board of The Orange County Register decried the bipartisan spending binge of a budget in an editorial, which is here.
While the lack of bipartisanship in Congress is often decried by the well-meaning, it is too often the case that bipartisan agreements are precisely the wrong thing for the country.
Such is the case with the recently announced federal budget deal and the bipartisan desire to spend as much money as politicians can get away with.
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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
Thank you, Senator Blackburn.
Does anyone know how our US Congress people voted? Like Kustoff? Blackburn voted like a conservative should have.
At least there’s one Tennessee Republican that is also a fiscal conservative!