WASHINGTON– U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) today voted to cut $57 billion from the bloated federal budget by supporting the House-passed year-long Continuing Resolution today.

“We can’t keep spending money we don’t have. American families have tightened their belts, Washington must do the same. The House-passed bill puts us on the path toward fiscal responsibility which is why it got my vote,” Boozman said.

The Senate debated and voted on dueling resolutions to fund the government for the remainder of the 2010 fiscal year. H.R. 1, the House-passed bill cuts $57 billion from the federal budget by reducing discretionary spending, eliminating duplicative and ineffective programs and removing earmarks. An amendment proposed by Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), that was also voted on today, merely cuts $4.7 billion from the budget, a fraction of the amount slashed in the House-passed bill.

Neither measure passed.

Boozman said the Inouye Amendment “hardly even acknowledges there’s a problem” and said supporters of this alternative are barely “scratching the surface” of the problem.

“Senator Reid and his colleagues say that $4.7 billion is all he is willing to cut, which makes you wonder if they are even listening to the American people,” Boozman said. “Given an opportunity to vote for a bill that makes a commitment to fiscal responsibility vs. a bill that hardly even acknowledges there’s a problem, the Senate majority took the easy way out. Scratching the surface is not what the American people want. We were sent here to make the tough choices, not take the easy way out.”

Boozman pointed out that fiscal responsibility is more than just an economic issue; it has become a national security issue.

“40 cents of every dollar we spend is borrowed money and many of these lenders aren’t exactly friendly countries. This puts our nation’s future in a very precarious position,” he said.

-30-