September 15, 2009 – Following today's vote by the House of Representatives on a resolution to officially condemn South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson for shouting "You lie!" during President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress, Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) released the following statement:

"Put simply, today's vote shows clearly that Democrats simply do not realize how serious Congress' job really is, nor do they fully grasp the extent of the problems our nation is currently experiencing. We are facing a prolonged economic recession, an astonishing unemployment level of nearly 10%, wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and multiple rogue nations rapidly pursuing nuclear weapons, and our Congress is wasting their time attempting to score political points with legislation that does absolutely nothing to address the problems that average Americans face every single day.

"This month, several hundred thousand more Americans will be told that they no longer have a job. And when they ask Members of Congress what we're working on to ease the burden, we will have to tell them, 'We have been voting on legislation disapproving of what Joe Wilson said.' Today was a shameful spectacle.

"Furthermore, I find it strange that, despite Congressman Wilson's apology and President Obama's acceptance (on multiple occasions) of that apology, this issue is still deemed serious enough that we should be spending taxpayers' dollars to talk about it and vote on it. I would suggest that Democrats need not look beyond their own party to find Representatives who really do need to be reprimanded; Congressman Charlie Rangel's many largely ignored, outrageous ethics violations; Speaker Pelosi's accusations of the CIA of lying, Congressman Murtha and Congressman Visclosky's inappropriate use of government funds and ties to a lobbying firm that has been raided twice by the FBI, and Congressman Conyers' use of Congressional resources for campaign purposes, all come immediately to mind.

"These are just a few of the examples I could cite. And within the last week, it has been demonstrated that ACORN, a favorite pet-project of many Democrats, is yet again flouting the law, as evidenced by recent videos in which employees at multiple ACORN offices participate in the promotion and cover-up of prostitution. Naturally, this was not deemed a serious enough violation to warrant a vote in the House of Representatives. But heaven forbid a Member of Congress dare to question the claims being made President Obama-- which in this case, were in fact false.