GREGG: HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE VOTE STARTS THE CLOCK TICKING ON A MASSIVE, $2.3 TRILLION EXPANSION OF GOVERNMENT

March 16, 2010 – (RealEstateRama) — Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, today commented on the House Budget Committee’s 21-16 vote to report the shell reconciliation bill “without recommendation” to the House.  The House Rules Committee is expected to substitute the Democrats’ reconciliation language that pertains to the Senate-passed health care bill before sending the reconciliation bill to the House floor for a final vote later this week.

“Today’s House Budget Committee vote starts the countdown to a massive, $2.3 trillion expansion of government that will bankrupt this nation. Instead of being properly utilized as a budget tool, this reconciliation bill is being misused as a means to an end. It is simply a way to buy votes in order to pass an expensive and unpopular health care bill that few Americans want and that will drive our children deeper into debt.

“The fact that this reconciliation bill may be used to jam through a government take-over of the health care system, and enjoy procedural protections in the process, shows that the majority is willing to go to extreme lengths to steamroll the minority and the American taxpayers in pursuit of its liberal, big-government agenda. I am hopeful that Senate Democrats will listen more closely to their constituents and realize that people are not in favor of this scorched-earth strategy on health care reform.”