Deficit Hawks Singing Swan Song (Paletta/WaPo)
By Damian Paletta
The Washington Post
Sunday, October 08, 2017
Washington — The Republican Party has largely abandoned its platform of fiscal restraint, pivoting sharply in a way that could add trillions of dollars in federal debt over the next decade.
Cutting spending to balance the budget was almost religion to the Republican Party for much of the past eight years. But all year long, despite their control of the White House and Congress, Republicans have not taken steps to balance the budget, to overhaul entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, or to arrest the growth of the country’s $20 trillion in debt.
With the House passing a critical budget resolution last week, GOP lawmakers are charging forward this week with plans to cut taxes in a way that could add more than $1.5 trillion to the government’s debt over 10 years, with the goal of legislation by early next month. That is on top of an effort to significantly increase military spending. White House officials say their focus is on growing the economy now and dealing with the debt later.
***
“I felt there was a period, two or three years ago, when there was a real seriousness about trying to solve our fiscal issues,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a longtime deficit hawk who is part of a scarce group of Republicans consistently preaching restraint. “When the election result turned out what it was (in November), any thought of fiscal responsibility has gone out the window.”
He added, “It’s very disheartening to me that when the other side of the aisle was in charge we cared about fiscal issues, and now that we’re in charge we don’t care about fiscal issues. It’s very disheartening.”
***
more: http://www.vnews.com/A-swan-song-for-de%EF%AC%81cit-hawks-12982667
Reagan campaigned against deficit spending. He pushed through tax cuts (followed later by several tax increases) and the Repugs embraced deficit spending with a vengeance. When Clinton succeeded Bush the Better, Repugs were suddenly bitterly opposed to deficit spending again. With Bush the Worse and a Repug Congress, suddenly deficit spending was cool again. Then Obama ... deficits out. 45 ... deficits in. How long does this phony, selective fiscal "restraint" (misnamed also because it's focused on one, and only one, aspect of the budget) have to go on before the voters stop believing that the Repugs are opposed to deficits at all -- which they obviously are not, as long as they benefit from deficits ?
PS: Sounds like there may be more than one reason Corker is not running again. Sounds like he's disappointed in the whole GOP, not just Anus Orange.
= new reply since forum marked as read
