WASHINGTON – After voting against both the Democrat and GOP spending bills, Senator Mike Lee of Utah released the following statement:

“The fight over cutting $10 billion or $60 billion is not a serious discussion about how to fix what’s broken,” said Lee. “It does not begin to address our massive $1.65 trillion deficit, and completely ignores any long-term structural restraints necessary to impede Congress’s insatiable appetite to spend. If you think of our annual deficit as a football field, the Democrat proposal moves the ball just over half a yard toward the goal line. The Republican proposal moves it just three and a half yards. That is not a winning strategy for the country.

“As long as these spending proposals maintain the status quo on our deficit and debt without instituting some measure of external structural control, I will oppose them.”

Senator Lee has proposed a Balanced Budget Amendment that would act as a strict structural restraint on spending and force Congress to prioritize its constitutional obligations. During an interview this week, Senator Lee reiterated his willingness to filibuster any effort to increase the national debt, without first voting on a Balanced Budget Amendment.

“I will resist any effort to raise the national debt ceiling, and that will include utilizing the filibuster rules,” Lee said. See the full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZxFSwgNp-0