Three Minnesota reps vote no on budget deal
The U.S. House passed the budget deal struck last week by President Barack Obama and congressional leaders. The vote was 260-167, with 59 Republicans voting against.
Two of those Republican no votes came from Minnesotans. Rep Chip Cravaack said the bill didn't cut enough spending.
"When I was elected last November, I told the people of the Eighth District I was serious about addressing our exploding deficits and beginning the process of reining in our massive $14 trillion national debt," Cravaak said. "We need to take dramatic actions to pull us back from the financial cliff we are rapidly approaching."
Rep. Michele Bachmann had earlier said she would oppose the deal because it didn't defund the federal health care.
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DFL Rep. Keith Ellison was the other no vote from Minnesota. He has said he opposes any cuts in federal spending that target the middle class. Ellison joined 107 other Democrats in opposing the bill, but Minnesota Democrats Collin Peterson, Betty McCollum and Tim Walz all voted for it, as did Republicans John Kline and Erik Paulsen.
The deal averted a government shutdown and cut $38 billion in spending for the current fiscal year. It's the first of several budget votes to come.
UPDATE:
The Senate just passed the bill 81-19 and sent it to the president.
Here's Bachmann's statement:
"The American people gave us a mandate last fall to cut spending, and to fight to repeal ObamaCare and defund Planned Parenthood. This CR fell woefully short in terms of spending cuts, and left the other two key issues as stand-alone amendments. I was pleased to vote for both of those amendments, but they were defeated in the Senate.
"Going forward, House Republicans must fight for deep cuts in spending that will begin to pull us out of the hole that was made vastly deeper by President Obama's runaway deficit spending. We also must take every opportunity to cut off the flow of taxpayer dollars to ObamaCare and to the nation's largest abortion provider."