Rep. Tim Burchett, who voted against all three versions of last weekend's continuing resolution legislation to keep the government open, told Newsmax on Wednesday that lawmakers were "not being honest with the American public on the spending that is involved.
"We say it's a clean CR and the reality is, it's not clean," the Tennessee Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "I feel like we really just missed the boat on the whole thing. It was a golden opportunity to hand President [-elect Donald] Trump something worthwhile."
Burchett added that he is "ticked off" because the legislation was passed as one bill rather than individual measures, "as the Tennessee Legislature does. There's a reason Tennessee has a balanced budget."
Passing continuing resolutions, meanwhile, is a continuation of the "bad spending policies" from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, said Burchett.
"This is COVID-era spending levels that we're doing, and nobody can name me one program or project or anything that the federal government has added to our backs since COVID that is a success," he added.
Congress also passed "another bloated National Defense Authorization Act with another $9 billion additional dollars, so I'm sure they'll spend it," said Burchett.
"I just feel like we can do so much better and I hope in the new year we do," the congressman added.
"The DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] thing is great. They're talking about cutting $2 trillion. But, you know, we [add] $1 trillion every hundred days. So we need to dig a little deeper than that."
Several Republicans are saying that House Speaker Mike Johnson's seat is in jeopardy after the vote, but Burchett said that it ultimately will be up to Trump and where his support lies.
"I would caution folks into realizing that the person doesn't even have to be a member of the House, doesn't have to be elected to Congress. I don't know in the history of our country if that's ever happened," he added.
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