By Ken Newton 

Congressman Sam Graves believes the U.S. House wrote the wrong prescription for a sick economy.Representatives voted Thursday night to pass a $3 trillion budget plan that a Democratic leader called “vastly superior and realistic” to a Republican substitute. It passed 212-207, largely along party lines.

But Mr. Graves, the Republican who represents Northwest Missouri, called the package fiscally irresponsible.

“Increasing taxes on Missourians is simply the wrong thing to do for an ailing economy,” the lawmaker said Thursday night.

The economy gets revitalized, he added, by letting citizens spend their own money.

Mr. Graves, in his fourth House term, cited the budget as including the largest tax increase in American history. He said it raised non-emergency discretionary spending by 8.8 percent, or roughly $82 billion.

“Missourians are already overtaxed,” the Republican said. “We shouldn’t be balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class.”

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