Congressman Steve Scalise, who represents the first congressional district in Louisiana, loves to make speeches against government spending. Here’s a sample of Scalise’s anti-spending rhetoric from just a six-month period of time.

(If you get tired of reading from his speeches, just zoom to the bottom of this article for the surprise ending)

February 4, 2009: “Big government spending in Washington is not going to solve this problem. Let’s let middle-class families who are out there tightening their belts already in States that are trying to balance their own budgets show the better way as opposed to the failed old approaches of liberal, big government spending.”

February 11, 2009: “Spending massive amounts of money doesn’t work. It saddles future generations with more debt.”

March 3, 2009: “The American public has been concerned about where the economy is–but they are also real concerned–and we’re seeing more and more each day–real concerned about the gross level of spending that’s coming out of this administration as a response to the crisis.”

March 4, 2009: “This rampant spending and tax increases are dangerous to our country and our economy at a time when we are having trouble and difficulty all across the land.”

March 11, 2009: “As people are tightening their belts and dealing with these tough economic times in their own way, in responsible ways, it seems like Washington, this is the only place where they seem to be going on a wild spending spree, spending money that we don’t have on programs that actually are causing more problems, actually hurting our economy.”

March 23, 2009: “As these record levels of spending and taxes and record levels of borrowing have been laid out, you’ve heard a chorus of echoes, not just by those of us here in this Chamber who are strongly opposed to that irresponsible spending , to that unprecedented level of taxing that will literally stifle the growth of small businesses and middle class families, but also the borrowing that affects our next generation. This isn’t money that we have.”

March 25, 2009: “I think what is concerning people are some of the policy decisions coming out of Washington right now: these proposals by President Obama for these record levels of spending.”

March 31, 2009: “In many ways, we’ve got problems in our financial systems, but we’ve got big problems here in Washington as it relates to spending and borrowing and taxing.”

April 29, 2009: “We’re very concerned about the direction of our country because of the reckless spending and borrowing that goes with it and what it would do to our future generations, to our kids and grandkids, where, literally, we will be borrowing this money from China, from India.”

July 14, 2009: “Stop the spending , the borrowing and the taxing and let’s get Americans back to work.”

July 23, 2009: “Why is it that Washington and Congress, especially, is spending money out of control at a rate that is unprecedented, and it cannot be contained?”

I think you get the idea. Congressman Steve Scalise sure hates spending… or at least that’s what he says.

If Representative Scalise really opposes government spending, then why did he craft TWENTY FOUR separate spending earmarks and slip them into appropriations bills in the House of Representatives? Those are just the earmarks he’s devised so far this year.

All those earmarks are for spending for Scalise’s pet projects, creating extra government debt so that he can gain political support from people in his home district. So, I think what Steve Scalise means to say is that he hates spending when it’s done by other members of Congress. Scalise just loves increasing big government spending himself.