By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Congressman Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, made a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representative critical of the compromise spending bill expected to reach the House this week.
Afterwards Brooks released a statement explaining why he opposes the bill.
“Yesterday, the House passed with my supporting vote a spending bill that increases national security spending by more than $50 billion while limiting all other federal discretionary spending at 2017 levels. As such, yesterday’s spending bill walked a narrow path between financial responsibility and adequate national security funding,” Brooks said. “Today, Senate Democrats demand excessive non-defense spending that America simply cannot afford. Despite America’s dire financial straits, Senate Democrats demand that we spend money we don’t have, have to borrow to get, and cannot afford to pay back. In sum, the Senate Democrat spending bill is a debt junkie’s dream. If the Senate Democrat debt junkie spending bill passes, America’s annual deficit in 2018 is likely to blow through the trillion dollar mark indefinitely until the country suffers a debilitating insolvency and bankruptcy that destroys a proud nation it took our ancestors centuries to build.”
“In a national bankruptcy, the Constitution and federal statutes mandate that debt service and entitlement spending be paid first, leaving little, if anything, for national defense or NASA,” Brooks continued. “As such, in a national bankruptcy, the military and NASA would likely be zeroed out, thereby risking the lives of all Americans while, at a local level, doing great damage to the Tennessee Valley’s economy.”
“I cannot and will not vote to destroy a country it took our ancestors centuries to build,” Brooks said. “Yet, that is exactly what I am asked to do by those who want me to vote for the Senate Democrat debt junkie spending bill that America simply cannot afford.”
Brooks said that, “Republicans won the House in 2010 in part because of the danger posed by America’s 4-year string of trillion dollar deficits. House Republicans sliced America’s deficit to $438 billion in 2015. But then our finances took a dramatic turn for the worse. America’s deficits surged to $585 billion in 2016 and $666 billion in 2017….This bill must not pass.”
Senate Republicans have to have votes for Democrats in order to pass a continuing resolution as the Republicans lack the votes in the Senate to override a Democratic filibusters. Conservatives, including Brooks, oppose this bipartisan plan that authorizes high levels of spending on domestic spending.
Congressman Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, represents Alabama’s 5th congressional district.
