Backs Biggest Spending Increase Since Carter Administration

Washington- Flying in the face of Democrats' campaign promises for fiscal responsibility, Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) voted today to pass another nearly half-trillion dollar spending bill through what is quickly becoming the biggest spending Congress in History.  In fact, this spending bill that Abercrombie backed today is the largest one-year increase in discretionary spending since the Carter administration – outside of spending authorized after the Sept. 11 attacks.  (House Roll Call 86)

“Now that they have one of their own in the White House, Democrats in Congress are moving to give domestic government agencies 8 percent more money, on average, to spend this year atop the whopping $787 billion in economic stimulus funds. Just a day before President Barack Obama gives Congress a budget blueprint for the upcoming 2010 budget year, the House is taking up a massive $410 billion spending bill wrapping together the budgets for a dozen Cabinet departments through next September.” (Associated Press, 2/25/09)

“While middle-class families and small businesses across America are forced to make tough spending decisions every day in the face of an economic recession, Neil Abercrombie and congressional Democrats haven’t lost their appetite for spending in Washington,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain.  “After supporting the pork-laden stimulus at the expense of American taxpayers, this latest spending bill adds insult to injury for Abercrombie's empty promise to work for fiscal responsibility.”

“Despite all the White House hoopla Monday about ‘fiscal responsibility,’ Washington is showing little inclination to practice what it's preaching.”

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Monday defended the coming spending spree, which includes an estimated 9,000 earmarks, or local projects, said to cost about $5 billion. She called the bill ‘the unfinished business of last year, when the president refused to address the priorities and needs of the American people.’” (McClatchy, 2/23/09)

In all, Democrats in Congress have voted to spend another nearly half-trillion dollars in taxpayers’ hard-earned money.  Republicans, meanwhile have called for a spending freeze in Washington.  Instead of wasting more tax dollars on pet projects, Republicans have implored Democrats to hold the line on spending, but Neil Abercrombie's only response was: forget it.

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(Source: News Release from National Republican Campaign Committee)