First District Congressman David McKinley says he wants to see the U.S. House of Representatives take up a true bipartisan budget bill.
“I am not in Washington just to represent Republicans. I am there to represent everyone in the First District of West Virginia and they were shut out in this,” Congressman McKinley, a Republican, said on Friday’s MetroNews Talkline.
On Thursday, he was one of ten Republicans to vote against the budget proposal from U.S. House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan.
That budget was approved with a 221-207 vote. Not one Democrat voted for the bill that, if approved, would make $4.6 trillion in federal cuts over the next decade.
The proposal would balance the budget in that time through reductions to Medicare, Medicaid and other aid to the poor, including food benefits. It would also repeal the Affordable Care Act, the health care reform law, and create two tax brackets for individuals, 10% and 25%.
Congressman McKinley says he supports some of the Ryan budget but, he says, it should have been more of a bipartisan effort, “When we put a bill before us on the floor, why doesn’t it have bipartisan support?”
He says he voted against the plan because it addresses the Keystone pipeline and opens federal lands to energy exploration, but is silent on coal ash legislation and the value of fossil fuel research.
McKinley says he was also a “no” vote because the budget leaves in place $716 billion in Medicare cuts; lacks reform to foreign aid while hurting U.S. infrastructure and does not protect agencies like the FBI from large cuts.
Second District Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican, voted for the Ryan budget during Thursday’s vote.
Third District Congressman Nick Rahall, a Democrat, joined all Democrats in voting against it.