Rep. Paul Gosar Explains Why He Voted For 2011 Budget Deal; It Was "For the Troops"

Although he was not as quick at getting out his news release as three of his Arizona GOP colleagues, here is Rep. Paul Gosar's (R-CD1) explanation as to why he voted for the bill that continues funding of the federal government - the manifestation of last week's last minute deal which avoided a government shutdown.

“Today I voted for H.R. 1473, a continuing resolution that funds the government for the remainder of fiscal year 2011. This was not an easy decision, but there is one thing I will not do- I will not play politics with our troops. I am extremely disappointed that some in Congress wanted to use our brave men and women in uniform to gain political points. That is wrong and I will never leave our troops without the funding they need to do their job. Without this funding, our military would be defunded by tomorrow night. I could not accept this.


“I also want to highlight how the tone in Washington has changed throughout this entire process. When I came to Washington in January, the Senate and Administration had no intention of cutting any spending, and in fact were talking about increasing spending for programs that we simply cannot afford. Today, Congress voted for the largest spending cut in our history and it will cut $315 billion over the next ten years. We are changing the way Washington works. This is one aspect of the bigger picture; we will continue to fight for spending cuts in the debt ceiling, the budget and individual appropriation bills.

“Let me be clear, we still have a long way to go and we must stay focused. I am looking forward to debating next year’s budget so that we can start to make long-term changes to the government’s spending problem and begin to curb the skyrocketing debt. If the last Congress had done its job and passed a budget and didn’t spend trillions and trillions of taxpayer money with no accountability, perhaps we would not be in the fiscal disaster we are in today. But I cannot change the past; I can only work with you to find solutions to the problems we face today so that our children and grandchildren aren’t left to clean up this mess in the future.”





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