Rep. Gosar on Obama-Boehner Budget Deal: Epitomizes Everything Wrong with Congress

Statement

Today, U.S. Congressman Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04) released the following statement after voting against H.R. 1314, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, as well as the rule for this bill, both of which ultimately passed the House by a vote of 266-167:

"The greatest authority granted to the House of Representatives by the Constitution is the "Power of the Purse'. Yet, you would never know it by looking at this bill and by today's actions. It is hard to imagine a worse "deal' than this awful agreement that was negotiated in secret, with no input from rank-and-file members, with no committee hearings and with no votes on any amendments. This terrible deal was shoved down our throats in less than 48 hours by a lame-duck leadership team that worked with Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama to get it across the finish line. Once again, the opinions of the American people have been silenced through a broken legislative process that ignores regular order and consolidates power among a handful of "leaders'.

"Among its many failures, this bill suspends the debt ceiling through March 2017 and hands Washington politicians a blank check that will add more than a trillion dollars to our national debt. It does nothing to solve the current fiscal crisis facing our country, shackles future generations with more unsustainable debt, steals $150 billion from the Social Security Trust Fund and utilizes Washington math and budget gimmicks that will never materialize in an attempt to pay for $80 billion in new authorized spending. This deal busts through budget caps established by the Budget Control Act (BCA) just a few years ago. I fully and vigorously supported the BCA, and still do. The BCA is the only successful effort to reduce spending for three years in a row since World War II. But this deal abandons that one fiscal victory achieved by Republicans since we took back the House majority.

"This terrible bill epitomizes everything wrong with Congress and is another example of why I have been calling for new House leadership. We need more bold conservatives that are fed up with the status quo in Washington D.C. that will stand with me and others to stop this dysfunction. Other than one minor tweak to Obamacare, I can't think of one single victory that conservatives got out of this deal. With Republicans in charge of the House and Senate, our leadership team should have said NO Deal."

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