Kevin at Lakeshore Laments beat me to the punch on the
absolute lunacy of the claim by Rep. Steve Kagen that the House budget resolution is, “fiscally responsible...while cutting our deficit over the long-term.”
Yesterday morning, I heard Speaker Pelosi saying much the same thing, they must be working from the same script. Here she is from
her blog:
As we go forward, we must take the country in a new direction and in doing so, reduce the deficit. We are not here to heap mountains of debt on our children and our grandchildren. That is what was done in the last years in the Bush Administration. This budget calls a halt to that and says ‘no.’ It says no more debt; we’re going in the opposite direction. We’re reducing the deficit as we create good paying jobs in our economy, as we cut taxes for the middle class in our country.
So, just as Kevin did, I give you the CBO chart of the projected deficit:
SOURCE: CBO, White House Office of Management and Budget | The Washington Post - March 21, 2009
The President's budget, which was only slightly revised by the Congress:
- Does heap mountains of debt on our children
- It only cuts the deficit relative to the massive deficits incurred as a way to get out of the current financial crisis
- I don't see any way that it could be characterized as saying "no more debt"
The Speaker is not entitled to her own facts any more than the Bush administration was. In this case, her assertions so wildly inaccurate that I don't see how anyone could take them seriously.
5 comments:
Kagen doesn't make sense and that's why I am a candidate for the 8th-WI seat in 2010. Check out SavardforCongress.com
Sorry, but you have to think bigger than "deficit spending" "debt of the future" and the other meaningless monotary cliches in times like these.
Money has taken a different meaning than numbers and has become an idea.
I think President Obama is following an idea that is legitimate in trying to get us out of the Bush-Reagan quandary of "praise the lord and pass the ammunition and we'll all stand free" (I know you're too young to know that tune but it was very popular at one time and encapsulates
what a lot of otherwise well-meaning people believe.
Steve...is that Kagen?
Amber,
No, that isn't Steve Kagen, but that was funny!!
Steve,
Even if I agreed with the program of spending, I don't think it is OK to incur a debt and then flatly deny that that is exactly what you are doing.
It would be one thing for Pelosi & others to claim the debts were necessary for future growth, but to say that their budget doesn't represent massive debt is beyond belief.
Post a Comment