Lamborn Responds To Year-End Spending Bills In The House

Press Release

On the final day of votes this year in the U.S. House of Representatives, Members voted on three large bills:

* H.R. 3326 - the FY2010 Defense Appropriations bill - a $636.3 billion troop funding bill
* H.R. 4314 -- a bill to raise the federal debt limit by $290 billion
* H.R. 2847 -- an estimated $150 billion second so-called Stimulus bill

Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05) released the following statement reacting to each of the bills.
FY2010 Defense Appropriations

"I am proud to give my support to this bill to help our men and women in uniform and their families. The legislation includes funding for critical national security needs and essential funding for health and quality of life programs for our military. I am pleased to back the 3.4 percent military pay raise.

"I pushed to ensure the bill does not contain $100 million requested by the Administration for the disposition of detainees in the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility. This is a misguided proposal that will needlessly put Americans at increased risk.

"National defense is one of the federal government's few Constitutionally-mandated duties. It is necessary spending to protect the welfare of our nation." - Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05)
Debt Limit

"I voted against this reckless bill because it enables the federal government to borrow more money at a time when the responsible thing to do is stop spending on non-essentials. This bill is the equivalent of an individual who has maxed out his credit cards, and rather than paying down his debt, runs to the bank and asks for more credit.

"The federal government has already amassed a $12 trillion debt -- $39,000 for every man, woman, and child in this country and this bill just piles on more debt. We are on an unsustainable course that will have devastating long-term consequences for our economy. We are on a path that will lead to less private investment, lower productivity, and weak economic growth." -- Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05)
Second Stimulus

"This "Son of Stimulus' pours billions into the very same failed programs included in the original stimulus. In some cases, such as infrastructure, very little of the money from the first stimulus has even been spent. In other cases, where the money from the first stimulus has been spent, it has failed to create jobs or been wasted.

"The bill also includes more than $1 billion in a "Housing Trust Fund" that could potentially be accessed by the widely discredited ACORN.

"Since the first stimulus bill passed, we've lost 3 million jobs in this country, hardly a record we want to repeat. This stimulus bill is simply more of the same from Washington Democrats still bent on spending their way out of this recession, despite the obvious lack of success the first stimulus had." -- Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05)

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