HOW DID YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVE VOTE YESTERDAY?

Passage of the bill late Wednesday in the House and Senate ended a Washington-created crisis that closed much of government for 16 days. The legislation was carried to passage in the House by strong support from Democrats and 87 yes votes from majority Republicans who had originally sought to use the measure to derail Obama’s three-year-old health care law. The final vote was 285-144 in favor.

The legislation will reopen the government through Jan. 15 and permit the Treasury to borrow normally through Feb. 7.

The Associated Press has the full vote tally:
Voting yes were 198 Democrats and 87 Republicans.
Voting no were 0 Democrats and 144 Republicans.

ALABAMA  - HOUSE
Democrats:
 Sewell, Yes
Republicans:
Aderholt,  No
Bachus, Yes 
Brooks, No
Roby, No
Rogers, No

ALABAMA - SENATE
Richard Shelby,  No
Jeff Sessions, No

BROOKS VOTES TO PROTECT AMERICANS FROM HALF TRILLION DOLLAR DEBT INCREASE
Today Congressman Mo Brooks(AL-05) joined Alabama Senators Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions, and Alabama Congressmen Mike Rogers, Robert Aderholt, and Martha Roby in voting “No” to increasing America’s debt ceiling, and debt, by more than half a trillion dollars,[1] without cutting one dime in out-of-control federal government spending.

In explaining his vote, Congressman Brooks stated:
          
“America suffers from decades of financial irresponsibility.  The past five years of deficits have averaged more than $1 trillion per year, the worst in American history.  America will soon blow through the $17 trillion debt mark, again, the worst in American history.

“Earlier this year, President Obama’s Comptroller General Dodaro warned Congress and the White House that America’s deficits, debt and finances are on an ‘unsustainable path.’ President Obama’s former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, warned Washington that America’s greatest national security threat is not Iran, not Al-Qaeda, not China, not Russia . . . it is our debt.
          
“While it is good to fully open the federal government and raise the debt ceiling, it is necessary that Washington do it in a financially responsible way.

“Today’s Senate bill is financially irresponsible.  It further deteriorates America’s financial solvency and, over the long haul, creates an unhealthy funding environment that will slowly but surely bleed NASA and national defense of the money they need to carry out their missions.

“The federal government is in this financial mess because of years of out-of-control spending and deficits, followed by higher and higher debt burdens.  Yet, in exchange for raising America’s debt by more than a half trillion dollars, the Senate bill fails to give American taxpayers one cent in spending cuts, or any other substantive measures that address the cause of America’s financial difficulties.

“Rather, the Senate bill does the very thing that has gotten America into this financial mess.  It kicks the can down the road a few months, thereby forcing America to revisit the government shutdown and debt ceiling issues with one major difference:  America will have another half trillion dollars in additional debt burden that undermines our ability to fix the problem, thus creating an even greater threat to our solvency and survival as a world power and nation.

“I am more than willing to vote to properly fund the federal government and raise the debt ceiling so long as Congress simultaneously passes a balanced budget constitutional amendment or spending cuts that both address the underlying deficit problem and give our children and grandchildren, and America, a brighter future.

“Deficits and debt are a potentially fatal disease eating away at America.  The Senate bill prescribes pain-killing drugs that mask the symptoms yet do nothing to cure the otherwise fatal disease.
          
"As we have to pay our creditors more money because of increased debt loads and rising interest rates, then there is less money available to fund productive programs like NASA and national defense. Long-term, this half-trillion increase in debt burden significantly and adversely affects our ability to properly fund NASA and national defense missions.

"Some claim this battle over financial responsibility was a loss for the Republican Party.  I disagree.  It was a loss for the American people, particularly our youth, who are going to have to pick up this tab that is already in the neighborhood of $58,000 for every man, woman and child in America. More than $110,000 for every man, woman and child in America who is in a family that pays income taxes.

"I am frustrated and disappointed that this generation of irresponsible elected officials in Washington care so little about the future of our children and grandchildren. We have the prosperity we enjoy today because of the generations who sacrificed before us. We have the same obligation to our posterity, yet we have totally and completely discarded that principle."
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