Over the past year, Congress has passed several large spending bills and bailouts and I proudly voted against all of them – enough is enough! Only 17 out of 435 Members of Congress that have voted “No” on all of the bailouts and I am pleased to say that I am one of those 17 Members of Congress. I opposed H.R. 5140, the Recovery Rebates and Economic Stimulus for the American People Act of 2008 ($145.9 Billion); H.R. 3221, the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 ($1 Trillion +); H.R. 1424, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 ($700 Billion); H.R. 7321, the Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act ($17 Billion) and H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ($787 Billion).
I voted against these bills because I felt that they were examples of wasteful government handouts at the expense of the American taxpayers. Congress has a responsibility to help fix the cause of our current economic situation and hold those accountable for their actions. We cannot do that when we continue to reward failure. We have a duty to protect American taxpayers from more debt, higher taxes, and untold financial risk and we cannot fulfill that duty when we are irresponsible stewards of federal funds. You can rest assured that I will continue to oppose big spending bills which provide wasteful spending.