February 13 – As the U.S. House of Representatives debated the $787 billion Democrat spending bill, Congressman Zach Wamp went down to the floor to encourage his colleagues to vote against this massive spending bill. The legislation passed the House 246 to 183. Following is a statement from Congressman Wamp: 

“We know there’s a problem and Republicans have great empathy with the people that are hurting. Our constituents are your constituents, but there’s little faith that the federal government is going to make things better. The financial rescue didn’t work, the TARP was mismanaged grossly and the auto bailout didn’t work.” 

“They are looking and seeing home budgets being cut to get through hard times, local governments being cut, and state government budgets being cut. But only in Washington can we spend our way into prosperity – it’s an ill-conceived thought, a wrong approach and confidence is lost.” 

“If ever there was a massive bill where the devil was in the details, it is this bill. And there are many devils in the details of this bill. The government is ill equipped to ramp up and do these things. We’re going to be disappointed over time, there’s going to be waste, fraud and abuse everywhere you look.” 

“Just because the Republican Party spent too much money in the past and lost our way on financial matters doesn’t mean the Democratic Party is taking the right approach. There are so many bad things in this massive spending bill. It is a huge amount of debt to incur all at one time, and I don't think it's going to help. It's a flawed notion that we can borrow our way out of this mess. This bill could actually weaken the economy and slow recovery down.”