Roy Blunt: Congressional Democrats Should Pass Important Legislation Before Christmas Recess

On Monday afternoon, House Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri issued a statement calling on House Democratic leaders to use the limited number of legislative days left this session to get done what the House Minority Leader says it should have already done.

"Now, with only a handful of legislative days left until Christmas, the majority will have to put aside the political games and work with Republicans...For our troops, spending Christmas away from their families is hard enough without being denied the funding necessary to accomplish their mission. But all we've seen this session is legislation that satisfies the majority's perceived political needs first, instead of the real and growing needs of our troops in the field...[Moreover], Democrats' first stab at [passing the annual appropriations bill] produced a series of spending bills that sought to dole out billions more than was requested. Now comes word they'd like to 'split to difference' on their reckless spending agenda with Republicans -- between the $22 billion of unnecessary spending suggested by them, and the zero dollars in unrequested funding suggested by us...Almost a year has passed since Democrats took over the reins of this Congress with promises of openness, accountability, and a renewed sense of purpose. These next few weeks will go a long way toward determining how serious they were in making that pledge," Blunt stated.

Blunt's statement comes as President Bush also presses the Congress to pass what he feels are some of the most important pieces of legislation on its plate, and as a rising tide of Democrats express growing discontent and disgruntlement with the lawmakers they voted into power in the hopes that key domestic issues would be addressed and runaway government spending practices reigned in and made more transparent.

The Democratic Majority in Congress, which bills itself as the New Direction Congress, has proposed the greatest single year tax hike in United States history this year.