Lincoln Breaks Promise to Support Deficit-Neutral Health Care Spending

Wednesday, 21 October 2009 16:39

In the News

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) supported a $250 billion increase to our national debt and broke her promise to support deficit-neutral health care spending, when she voted in favor of the costly "doc fix" legislation in the U.S. Senate today.

The $250 billion bill - which did not include any budget offsets to cover its enormous price tag - was rejected by a bipartisan majority of Senators, including 12 of Lincoln’s fellow Democrats who expressed concerns that the fiscally irresponsible legislation only added to the ballooning federal deficit without any plan to pay for it.

U.S. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, was reportedly "furious" at the prospect of passing this bill without any plan to pay for it, while U.S. Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) said the bill was "not fiscally responsible."

Nonetheless, Lincoln was not deterred by the hefty quarter-trillion price-tag and fell in line with the rest of her Democrat colleagues in voting for the bill.

"After voting to increase our national debt by a quarter-trillion dollars today, Blanche Lincoln has continued her pattern of supporting out-of-control Washington spending bills and broke her promise to the people she represents in Arkansas," said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokeswoman Amber Wilkerson Marchand.

"Like all Americans, Arkansans are increasingly frustrated at a Congress that continues to recklessly spend money that is saddling future generations under an avalanche of debt," Wilkerson Marchand continued. "With her votes this year in favor of the trillion-dollar stimulus, the bloated budget, and now today’s quarter-trillion debt increase, Lincoln has forfeited any right to portray herself as a fiscal moderate and she will be held accountable for aiding and abetting this runaway train of Washington spending next fall."

Among those in the Democratic Conference voting NO were: Sens. Byron Dorgan (N.D.), Robert Byrd (W.Va.), Kent Conrad (N.D.), Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) Jon Tester (Mont.), Jim Webb (Va.), Mark Warner (Va.), Ron Wyden (Ore.), Herb Kohl (Wis.), Russ Feingold (Wis.) Bill Nelson (Fla.), Evan Bayh (Ind.) and Claire McCaskill (Mo.).