Washington, DC – Ways & Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) released the following statement regarding his “no vote” today on the budget resolution:

“Massive amounts of taxing and spending are not economically viable, yet that is what this budget proposes. It includes more than $1 trillion in new health care spending, and $1 trillion in new energy taxes. It will double our national debt in five years and triple it in 10.  From whom will we borrow the money?

“While spending on health care is expensive and necessary, the issue is not that we aren’t already spending enough; it is that we spend the money inefficiently. Per capita health care spending in the U.S. is already twice as high as in Canada and two and a half times higher than in the U.K. The Democrat budget will exacerbate this trend of inefficiency rather than help improve the quality of health care.

“The Democrat energy taxes will increase the cost of manufacturing nearly every product in this country, which in turn directly hurts the budgets of families across America. In my home state of Michigan, these increases mean a higher electricity bill of $668 per each man, woman and child – $2,676 for a family of four. Those are staggering costs for a family to pay, especially in these already difficult economic times.

“Spending in this budget is the highest it has been in 60 years – levels not seen since World War II. This will lead to higher taxes, slower economic growth, and fewer jobs for middle class families.  Every generation has improved the nation’s prosperity. This level of spending and borrowing would make us the first generation to fail to do so. This is unacceptable.

“Hopefully once this partisan exercise is over, we can return to the real work the American people sent us here to do: getting the economy going again, reforming healthcare and promoting energy independence.”

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