Party of Fiscal Responsibility, My Ass
by Jason at 6:00 am on November 25th, 2003 in Bush Man Date“Tax and spend Democrats”
That old chestnut has been uttered more times than anyone has patience to count. But if you look at the spending bills that have travelled through the Republican-controlled Congress, you would see that the Dems are not the only party guilty of Elton John-esque binge spending. Examples: $400 billion for a flawed Medicare bill that doesn’t even promise to reduce drug costs. $33 billion for an energy bill that contains $23.5 billion in tax breaks for energy providers, nearly triple what the President originally proposed. Expanded military benefits will run $22 billion. Expanding 14 expiring tax cuts (which run out in 2004) will cost $7 billion. And, of course, there’s the $87.5 billion allotment for the Iraq war.
All this on top of three consecutive tax cuts totalling more than $1.7 trillion over the next decade. Now, I understand that certain expenses are necessary (expanded military benefits are long overdue, for instance), but the Republicans are acting like a college kid with a first credit card, NOT the sober guardians of America’s fiscal responsibility.
So let’s get this straight. We’re spending a ton of money, while at the same time reducing the amount of money the government takes in. We ignore the deficit (projected to be at/above $500 billion for the current fiscal year, which started on October 1), and rely on “maybes” and “hopefullys” that an improved economy will make everything all right. This is conservatism? This is fiscal responsibility?
No, it isn’t. This is a runaway train. I’m no financial genius, but it seems like common sense to realize that expanded programs will require money (ie: taxes) to pay for them. Realistically you need to choose one or the other.
“The only thing I can tell you is evidently the word ‘tomorrow’ no longer exists in the vocabulary of otherwise responsible members of Congress,”
–Warren Rudman, former New Hampshire Republican senator
“I’m very troubled by the possibility that the party of Ronald Reagan, the party that came to Washington to change the welfare state, could fall into that 75-year parade of entitlement makers,”
–Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana
“The U.S. budget is out of control,”
–from a recent Goldman Sachs (Wall Street Investment Firm) newsletter
One last bit of fiscal responsibility: The energy bill contains, among other things, $2 million to help build a mall in Shreveport, Louisiana. Oh happy days!