Sep 27 2008

Another $634 Billion Courtesy of Your Representatives

Published by Bane Windlow at 7:09 pm under Bob Etheridge, Bob Inglis, David Price, Federal, GK Butterfield, Govt Waste, Gresham Barrett, Heath Shuler, Henry Brown, James Clyburn, Jim DeMint, John Spratt, Lindsey Graham, Mel Watt, Mike McIntyre, North Carolina, Patrick McHenry, Richard Burr, South Carolina, Sue Myrick, US House, US Senate, Virginia Foxx, Walter Jones

The U.S. Senate today overwhelmingly sent President Bush a spending bill of $634 billion to keep the government “operating beyond the current budget year.”  If only that were the case.  This budget passage, as every other, consisted of a hogfest of a Congressional pen of pigs in starched white shirts feeding from the trough that you and I provided.  This thing is stuffed with thousands of earmarks in addition to $25 billion of taxpayer funded loans to help bailout the automakers.  The bill was presented in its final form from the House to the Senate as H.R. 2638, Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2008, sponsored by none other than our very own Representative David Price (D-NC-04).

How did our representatives vote?  As usual, in the Senate Jim DeMint stood up and vocally opposed the legislation.  Lindsey Graham joined him in voting against it.  Richard Burr made a rare and unusual move, voting Present, Giving Live Pair.  What this means is that somebody else who not present at the vote and knew they wouldn’t be who planned on voting the opposite way Burr was made a deal with him to vote present so that the outcome wouldn’t be altered by their absence.  In other words, for the sake of argument, let’s say Burr was hypothetically going to vote No, but John McCain was absent and was planning to vote Yes which would cancel out Burr’s vote anyway.  McCain would ask Burr to vote Present then so that the same result is produced.  As I said, this is just a hypothetical.  Burr may have intended to vote Yes and made a deal with an absent Senator who wanted to vote against it.  And we can’t forget Liddy Dole who as usual voted for her pork.

In the House we had the following voting for the waste:

  • G.K. Butterfield (D-NC-01)
  • Bob Etheridge (D-NC-01)
  • David Price (D-NC-04)
  • Howard Coble (R-NC-06)
  • Mike McIntyre (D-NC-07)
  • Robin Hayes (R-NC-08)
  • Sue Myrick (R-NC-09)
  • Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10)
  • Mel Watt (D-NC-12)
  • Brad Miller (D-NC-13)
  • Henry Brown (R-SC-01)
  • Joe Wilson (R-SC-02)
  • John Spratt (D-SC-05)
  • Jim Clyburn (D-SC-06)

Voting against the waste were:

  • Walter Jones (R-NC-03)
  • Virginia Foxx (R-NC-05)
  • Gresham Barrett (R-SC-03)
  • Bob Inglis (R-SC-04)

Heath Shuler did not vote.

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One Response to “Another $634 Billion Courtesy of Your Representatives”

  1. # Save the GOP » Blog Archive » $638 Billion Spending Bill Passes Senateon 27 Sep 2008 at 7:23 pm

    [...] reliable Russ Feingold (D-WI).  Richard Burr (NC) voted Present, Giving Live Pair, an usual move I explained here.  John McCain did not [...]