Vote Alert: Massive Spending, Debt Ceiling Raise, and Democrat Priorities Funded

Once again, failed leadership in the United States Congress has resulted in the creation of a massive catch-all spending bill passed in the dead of night. Republicans and Democrats struck an agreement that will create a $1.5 trillion budget deficit this year and kick our country’s fiscal issues down the road yet again.

This bill is the largest spending increase since the 2009 “stimulus.” It increases the budget caps by $300 billion for two years, which will almost certainly result in trillions of dollars more in spending over the next 10 years now that the guardrails of the Budget Control Act have been removed.

In addition, it extends the Children’s Health Insurance Program, an entitlement that was meant to be phased out by Obamacare, for 10 years without any reforms, at a subsidy level higher than the one that President Bush vetoed a decade ago.

The budget-busting deal also includes a bailout for hospitals, which are flush with cash from the Medicaid expansion. It has $89 billion in disaster relief, full of spending that is either debatable, not imminent, or completely divorced from the hurricanes. For example, this “hurricane relief” expands farm subsidies to dairy and cotton farmers.

Hypocritically, the bill contains several extensions of tax breaks for crony special interests, despite Republican assurances that tax reform would simplify the tax code by eliminating such carve-outs.

Perhaps worst of all, this bill raises the debt ceiling for a full year, thereby pre-empting any leverage Republicans may have had to mitigate the spending binge with subsequent reforms. This package does not include any provisions dealing with any major issue conservatives care about, such as foreign aid for dubious or enemy factions or funding for Planned Parenthood, sanctuary cities, or a border wall.

The Senate moved to end debate and vote on the bill on February 9, 2018 at 12:59 a.m. in a roll-call vote of 73 – 26. The bill was then passed and sent to the House.

The House of Representatives agreed to the Senate bill and passed it at 5:32 a.m. in a roll-call vote of 240 – 186.

To see how your elected officials stack up or other votes that compose the Liberty Score, view our full scorecard here.

Conservative position: NO

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U.S. Senate

YEAs — 73

Alexander (R-TN)

Baldwin (D-WI)

Barrasso (R-WY)

Blumenthal (D-CT)

Blunt (R-MO)

Boozman (R-AR)

Brown (D-OH)

Capito (R-WV)

Cardin (D-MD)

Carper (D-DE)

Casey (D-PA)

Cassidy (R-LA)

Cochran (R-MS)

Collins (R-ME)

Coons (D-DE)

Cornyn (R-TX)

Cortez Masto (D-NV)

Cotton (R-AR)

Cruz (R-TX)

Donnelly (D-IN)

Duckworth (D-IL)

Durbin (D-IL)

Fischer (R-NE)

Gardner (R-CO)

Graham (R-SC)

Hassan (D-NH)

Hatch (R-UT)

Heinrich (D-NM)

Heitkamp (D-ND)

Heller (R-NV)

Hoeven (R-ND)

Inhofe (R-OK)

Isakson (R-GA)

Jones (D-AL)

Kaine (D-VA)

Kennedy (R-LA)

King (I-ME)

Klobuchar (D-MN)

Leahy (D-VT)

Manchin (D-WV)

McCaskill (D-MO)

McConnell (R-KY)

Menendez (D-NJ)

Moran (R-KS)

Murkowski (R-AK)

Murphy (D-CT)

Murray (D-WA)

Nelson (D-FL)

Perdue (R-GA)

Peters (D-MI)

Portman (R-OH)

Reed (D-RI)

Roberts (R-KS)

Rounds (R-SD)

Rubio (R-FL)

Schatz (D-HI)

Schumer (D-NY)

Scott (R-SC)

Shaheen (D-NH)

Shelby (R-AL)

Smith (D-MN)

Stabenow (D-MI)

Sullivan (R-AK)

Tester (D-MT)

Thune (R-SD)

Tillis (R-NC)

Udall (D-NM)

Van Hollen (D-MD)

Warner (D-VA)

Whitehouse (D-RI)

Wicker (R-MS)

Wyden (D-OR)

Young (R-IN)

NAYs — 26

Bennet (D-CO)

Booker (D-NJ)

Burr (R-NC)

Cantwell (D-WA)

Corker (R-TN)

Crapo (R-ID)

Daines (R-MT)

Enzi (R-WY)

Ernst (R-IA)

Feinstein (D-CA)

Flake (R-AZ)

Gillibrand (D-NY)

Grassley (R-IA)

Harris (D-CA)

Hirono (D-HI)

Johnson (R-WI)

Lankford (R-OK)

Lee (R-UT)

Markey (D-MA)

Merkley (D-OR)

Paul (R-KY)

Risch (R-ID)

Sanders (I-VT)

Sasse (R-NE)

Toomey (R-PA)

Warren (D-MA)

Not Voting — 1

McCain (R-AZ)

House of Representatives*

*Minority party (Democrats) in italics

 YEAs  —  240

Abraham

Aderholt

Allen

Amodei

Arrington

Babin

Bacon

Banks (IN)

Barletta

Barr

Beatty

Bera

Bergman

Bilirakis

Bishop (GA)

Bishop (MI)

Bishop (UT)

Blackburn

Blunt Rochester

Bost

Brady (TX)

Brooks (IN)

Buchanan

Bucshon

Burgess

Bustos

Butterfield

Byrne

Calvert

Carbajal

Carter (GA)

Carter (TX)

Cartwright

Castor (FL)

Cheney

Coffman

Cohen

Cole

Collins (GA)

Collins (NY)

Comstock

Conaway

Connolly

Cook

Costa

Costello (PA)

Courtney

Cramer

Crawford

Crist

Cuellar

Culberson

Curbelo (FL)

Davis, Rodney

DeLauro

DelBene

Denham

Dent

DeSantis

DesJarlais

Deutch

Diaz-Balart

Donovan

Doyle, Michael F.

Duffy

Dunn

Estes (KS)

Esty (CT)

Evans

Farenthold

Faso

Ferguson

Fitzpatrick

Fleischmann

Flores

Fortenberry

Frelinghuysen

Fudge

Gallagher

Garamendi

Gibbs

Gonzalez (TX)

Goodlatte

Gottheimer

Gowdy

Granger

Graves (GA)

Graves (MO)

Green, Al

Green, Gene

Grothman

Guthrie

Hanabusa

Handel

Harper

Hartzler

Heck

Higgins (LA)

Higgins (NY)

Hill

Himes

Huffman

Huizenga

Hultgren

Hunter

Hurd

Issa

Jackson Lee

Jenkins (KS)

Jenkins (WV)

Johnson (OH)

Johnson, E. B.

Johnson, Sam

Joyce (OH)

Kaptur

Katko

Keating

Kelly (MS)

Kelly (PA)

Kilmer

King (NY)

Kinzinger

Knight

Kuster (NH)

Kustoff (TN)

LaHood

LaMalfa

Lamborn

Lance

Langevin

Larsen (WA)

Larson (CT)

Latta

Lawrence

Lawson (FL)

LoBiondo

Loebsack

Loudermilk

Love

Lucas

Luetkemeyer

Lynch

MacArthur

Marchant

Marino

Marshall

Mast

McCarthy

McCaul

McCollum

McHenry

McKinley

McMorris Rodgers

McNerney

McSally

Meehan

Messer

Mitchell

Moolenaar

Mullin

Murphy (FL)

Nolan

Nunes

O'Halleran

O'Rourke

Olson

Palazzo

Pascrell

Paulsen

Pittenger

Poe (TX)

Poliquin

Reichert

Rice (NY)

Roby

Roe (TN)

Rogers (AL)

Rogers (KY)

Rooney, Francis

Rooney, Thomas J.

Rosen

Roskam

Ross

Royce (CA)

Ruiz

Ruppersberger

Russell

Rutherford

Ryan (OH)

Ryan (WI)

Scalise

Schneider

Scott (VA)

Scott, Austin

Scott, David

Sessions

Sewell (AL)

Shea-Porter

Shimkus

Shuster

Simpson

Sinema

Slaughter

Smith (NJ)

Smith (TX)

Soto

Stefanik

Stewart

Stivers

Taylor

Tenney

Thompson (CA)

Thompson (MS)

Thompson (PA)

Thornberry

Tipton

Tonko

Trott

Tsongas

Turner

Upton

Valadao

Vela

Visclosky

Wagner

Walberg

Walden

Walorski

Walters, Mimi

Weber (TX)

Welch

Wenstrup

Williams

Wilson (SC)

Wittman

Womack

Woodall

Yarmuth

Young (AK)

Young (IA)

NAYs — 186

Adams

Aguilar

Amash

Barragán

Barton

Bass

Beyer

Biggs

Blumenauer

Bonamici

Boyle, Brendan F.

Brady (PA)

Brat

Brooks (AL)

Brown (MD)

Brownley (CA)

Buck

Budd

Capuano

Cárdenas

Carson (IN)

Castro (TX)

Chabot

Chu, Judy

Cicilline

Clark (MA)

Clarke (NY)

Clay

Cleaver

Clyburn

Comer

Cooper

Correa

Crowley

Curtis

Davidson

Davis (CA)

Davis, Danny

DeFazio

DeGette

Delaney

Demings

DeSaulnier

Dingell

Doggett

Duncan (SC)

Duncan (TN)

Ellison

Emmer

Engel

Eshoo

Espaillat

Foster

Foxx

Frankel (FL)

Gabbard

Gaetz

Gallego

Garrett

Gianforte

Gohmert

Gomez

Gosar

Graves (LA)

Griffith

Grijalva

Gutiérrez

Harris

Hastings

Hensarling

Herrera Beutler

Hice, Jody B.

Holding

Hollingsworth

Hoyer

Hudson

Jayapal

Jeffries

Johnson (GA)

Johnson (LA)

Jordan

Kelly (IL)

Kennedy

Khanna

Kihuen

Kildee

Kind

King (IA)

Krishnamoorthi

Labrador

Lee

Levin

Lewis (GA)

Lewis (MN)

Lieu, Ted

Lipinski

Lofgren

Long

Lowenthal

Lowey

Lujan Grisham, M.

Luján, Ben Ray

Maloney, Carolyn B.

Maloney, Sean

Massie

Matsui

McClintock

McEachin

McGovern

Meadows

Meeks

Meng

Mooney (WV)

Moore

Moulton

Nadler

Napolitano

Neal

Newhouse

Noem

Norcross

Norman

Pallone

Palmer

Panetta

Payne

Pearce

Pelosi

Perlmutter

Perry

Peters

Peterson

Pingree

Pocan

Polis

Posey

Price (NC)

Quigley

Raskin

Ratcliffe

Reed

Renacci

Rice (SC)

Richmond

Rohrabacher

Rokita

Ros-Lehtinen

Rothfus

Rouzer

Roybal-Allard

Rush

Sánchez

Sanford

Sarbanes

Schakowsky

Schiff

Schrader

Schweikert

Sensenbrenner

Serrano

Sherman

Sires

Smith (MO)

Smith (NE)

Smith (WA)

Smucker

Speier

Suozzi

Swalwell (CA)

Takano

Titus

Torres

Vargas

Veasey

Velázquez

Walker

Walz

Wasserman Schultz

Waters, Maxine

Watson Coleman

Webster (FL)

Westerman

Wilson (FL)

Yoder

Yoho

Zeldin

 Not Voting — 5

Black

Blum

Bridenstine

Cummings

Jones

*Minority party (Democrats) in italics