Dems Return House to Fiscal Discipline

Sunday, January 07, 2007  -  reddit

It's a platform that Republicans love to campaign on and constantly tout as being one of their 'core' issues, but when it comes time to step up and do the hard thing and cut spending or raise taxes to achieve their goal, they always back out. The truth is in the math that Repubs just don't understand. If you cut taxes, you have to cut spending, otherwise you will cause an imbalance in the budget. Real simple.

It sounded real impressive when President Bush promised in the 2003 runup to cut the budget deficit in half by 2008, but not when you consider that he never exercised his veto power on a single spending bill that crossed his desk in four years, making him equally responsible with the Congress in causing the single largest deficit ever in the history of our nation. Repubs controlled the House, Senate, and White House, and nearly spent our country into bankruptcy. How can you trust them not to do it all over again in 2008?

The answer isn't simple: you can't. But I will say that you can place your trust in Democrats because they've done something Republicans refused to do even when they had total control over the government: pay-as-you-go spending.

The Democrats also approved the so-called "pay-as-you-go" rule as part of the House rules package. The rule says that when taxes are cut, lawmakers must offset any revenue loss with either new or higher taxes elsewhere, or reductions in spending.

Republicans loved the idea when they were in power, but they didn't have the will to make it happen in 12 years of near complete control. Democrats did it on their first day. We're not weak willed Paris Hilton cut-and-spend theocrats, and we're going to show conservatives what fiscal discipline really means.

tags: Democrats, Republicans, Congress, Fiscal Discipline