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After decrying Obama budget, Sen. Hutchison votes for all appropriations bills
AUSTIN – Congressional Quarterly reported yesterday that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison was one of 13 Republican Senators who had voted for all five fiscal year 2010 appropriations bills to pass the Senate this year. Last night, Hutchison and her wasteful colleagues made it a perfect 6-for-6 by voting for the Department of the Interior appropriations bill.
Though Sen. Hutchison has a 16-year tradition of supporting earmark-laden bills, her comments this past May indicated she might finally be ready to cease her support for out-of-control spending that has nearly tripled our nation’s federal debt since she arrived in Washington.
On May 7, 2009, Sen. Hutchison issued the following press release: Sen. Hutchison Reacts to the Administration’s Budget Plan; Calls Proposal “the Largest Spending Plan in Our Nation’s History” (Release is available online at http://hutchison.senate.gov/pr050709c.html)
In the release Sen. Hutchison said, “After unprecedented government spending passed by the Democrats in the Stimulus and Omnibus appropriations bills, in addition to what was passed in 2008, the American people expect and deserve restraint, something that was not found in the budget plan released today,” and, "Overall non-defense spending increases by nearly 12 percent, making this the largest spending plan in our nation’s history.”
Also in this release, Sen. Hutchison boasts that she backed an alternative Republican budget supported by Sen. John McCain. Yet since then, while McCain has opposed all six Obama spending bills, Hutchison has voted for every one of them.
“Senator Hutchison continues her campaign of contradictions,” said Texans for Rick Perry spokesman Mark Miner. “After saying she was against President Obama’s bloated budget, the Senator has voted six times to fund it. Kay Bailout has once again stood with the fiscally irresponsible policies of Washington instead of protecting the checkbooks of Texans.”
Below is yesterday’s Congressional Quarterly article describing Republican support for Obama’s spending bills.
Spending Bills Garner GOP Support
By David Clarke, CQ Staff
September 24, 2009
Back in April, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch made clear how little he thought of President Obama’s first budget proposal.
“If you look at the proposed budget, you can see the reckless spending. This budget increases discretionary spending by $490 billion over five years,” the Utah Republican said. He added, “This is absurd.”
Yet, Hatch has voted for all of the fiscal 2010 appropriations bills that have passed the Senate so far and that hew closely to Obama’s proposal. And he’s not alone among his GOP colleagues.
Republicans have complained all year that the spending policies of Obama and congressional Democrats threaten to ruin the federal budget — but that hasn’t stopped numerous GOP senators from voting for the annual spending bills moving through Congress.
The Senate has passed five of its 12 fiscal 2010 spending bills so far, and none of those bills has received fewer than 17 “yes” votes from the 40-member Senate Republican Conference. A sixth — the fiscal 2010 Interior-Environment spending bill (HR 2996) — will likely pass this week with similarly strong GOP support.
The Energy-Water spending bill (HR 3183) drew 31 GOP votes, the Agriculture bill (HR 2997) received 24 and the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development (HR 3288) and Legislative Branch (HR 2918) bills each got 17. The Homeland Security bill (HR 2892) received 32 GOP votes and, like the Defense bill, on which the Senate is likely to vote soon, usually gets bipartisan support.
Many of the “yes” votes have come from members of the Appropriations Committee or from senators such as Hatch who have home-state colleagues on the panel.
“I know how hard it is to get those things done, plus my colleague is on the Appropriations Committee, so I try to support him wherever I can,” Hatch said, referring to Robert F. Bennett, R-Utah.
Republicans also point out that the appropriations bills don’t affect broader areas of fiscal policy they are concerned about, notably the growth of mandatory spending.
Most of the votes have been in favor of domestic programs, such as those concerning agriculture, the Army Corps of Engineers, transportation and housing — all areas where Republicans have often aimed their criticism at Democrats for spending too much.
Overall, Democrats plan to spend $75 billion, or 7 percent, more in fiscal 2010 than they did in fiscal 2009 on the 12 annual spending bills, not including emergency spending.
‘Still a Real Concern’
House Republicans have been less supportive of domestic spending bills this year than their Senate colleagues. Domestic bills drew the votes of about 10 percent to 15 percent of House Republicans, with the exception of the Energy-Water bill, which received 79 GOP votes in favor and 90 against. The House has passed all 12 of its fiscal 2010 spending bills.
Senate Republicans say the voting pattern doesn’t tarnish their reputation for favoring a smaller government footprint.
“I wouldn’t read too much into it. There is still a real concern on our side on the level of spending and borrowing,” said John Thune of South Dakota, who heads up the GOP Policy Committee and voted for the Agriculture, Energy-Water and Homeland Security measures.
The appropriations bills make up what is known as discretionary spending, which amounts to about one-third of all annual spending. Republicans said their main concern is with the other two-thirds of the budget — mandatory spending.
“The big spending problem in America is health care. The annual appropriations bills that run the government are very important, but they are a sideshow,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the GOP Conference chairman. “The main show is entitlement spending increases in Medicare and Medicaid, and until we fix those, we are on a path that will bankrupt the country.”
A Breed Apart?
Thune noted that many of the GOP senators who voted for all the bills are members of the Appropriations Committee. Twelve Republicans serve on the committee.
Three of the six Senate GOP leaders are on the committee — Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Alexander. Murkowski and Alexander voted for all the bills, while McConnell voted for all but the Transportation-HUD measure.
Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona has voted for only the Homeland Security spending bill. John Cornyn of Texas, who heads the Senate GOP campaign organization, voted for Homeland Security, Energy-Water and Agriculture.
Republican fiscal hawks tend to clash with appropriators because GOP members of the committee often support higher spending levels than do the most conservative Republicans.
“There are Republicans, Democrats and appropriators in Congress,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has long wrangled with the spending panel because of his opposition to earmarks.
Senate Democrats have been much more united on appropriations, with few opposing any of the spending bills.
Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., have each voted against three spending bills. Bayh opposed the Agriculture, Homeland Security and Transportation-HUD bills, while McCaskill voted against Energy-Water, Legislative Branch and Transportation-HUD.
Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad, of North Dakota, and Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, both of Colorado, also opposed the Legislative Branch bill.
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