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Republican Bloggers Suddenly Concerned About Fiscal Responsibility |
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I mentioned this in the weekend link roundup, but the hypocrisy of conservative bloggers is worth calling out. Right on cue, top conservative bloggers are coming out against the stimulus, arguing that we can’t afford it because of the federal deficit.
But bipartisan bonhomie notwithstanding, there’s no more reason to embrace Barack Obama’s stimulus plan today than there was a week ago. It is still a tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars, will do nothing to help the economy, and will blow an even bigger hole in a deficit that has risen from $162 billion to $1.2 trillion annually since Democrats took control of Congress.
The Congressional Budget Office projected today that the federal budget deficit for FY 2009 will be $1.2 trillion, over 8 percent of anticipated GDP. And this is before Congress enacts Barack Obama’s “stimulus” package, which would add hundreds of billions of dollars more to the deficit.
A DEFICIT SPENDING “BLOWOUT:” The looming red ink is unlike anything in U.S. peacetime history. Stimulus, or looting the treasury?
These people supported the Iraq war and consistently opposed withdrawal, which is going to cost us three trillion dollars. That they’re suddenly concerned about deficit spending after six years of neglect is disappointing, but predictable.
This is a pretty standard tactic from the conservative playbook. When they’re in power, they rack up debt by cutting revenue and giving handouts to their cronies. When political power shifts hands, this allows them to argue that we can’t afford to spend on social programs.
…speaking of conservative bloggers, I can’t wait to join the Red State STRIKE FORCE!!!!!111111
All deficit spending is bad. There are plenty of us who have been saying this all along, since LONG before the Iraq “war”.
You shouldn’t be proud of yourself for thinking otherwise.
Generally it should be avoided, but I wouldn’t agree with that as a blanket statement. Look at state governments, which are required to have balanced budgets. When states most desperately need to be spending is also when revenue is down — their hands are tied when they need to spend the most.
And you, who WAS concerned about Fiscal Spending throughout the last 8 years, suddenly aren’t? If so then you are just as hypocritical.
If you are also for concerned about Fiscal Spending now, then be happy that you are in agreement for once.
the problem is that if you have the money, everybody is happy and nobody cares about where the money went. if you dont witch is what we have now… you got to follow the herd, nobody wants to be the one to get the blame. in time of crises we and specially politicians get very territorial and greedy, there is ‘no way that is our fault’ it’s got to be the other guy. a new meaning for me is developing for the word politicians - liars… but we already know that
Fiscal Conservatism is good. I’m all for it for the most part. That being said, I think that there are certain times where it’s ok to run a deficit. The problem with the conservatives, is that they used deficit spending to fund a war, with no plan for reconstruction. Now, we invaded the country, so we can’t just quite pack up and leave, much as I wish that were possible. So you have to use deficit spending. Now, let me be clear, I don’t think the war should have happened in the first place, but it’s too late for that.
Obama is is asking for MORE deficit spending, because that’s the only way that we’re going to be able to put enough steam into the economy to get things rolling again. And as far as I’m concerned, this is the only time that they should allow deficit spending. To take care of your own population.
Again though, you can’t just pick one side or the other and argue blindly. Lets look at why we got into this position in the first place. We have been borrowing excessively for the better part of 25 years now. Congress (both Repubs, and Dems) have been spending money like it’s going out of style. There is so much creative accounting going on not only in the private sector, but also within the government itself. I’d love to get into that more, but there just isn’t enough time in the world to get into the minutia of all that’s wrong with govt in general. (i.e. Congress gave itself a $5,000 a year raise a couple of months ago. When are they going to give that same raise to everyone else in the country who is dealing with the same rising costs of living?)
The main thing I see from Congress, and have for the last decade, can be summed up thusly. Party in power (PIP): Pushes legislation that would actually help the country, or their constituents, but it would get SOMETHING done… Minority party: Attack the legislation of the PIP as useless, and careless. Argue about how nothing will work, promote some crazy second idea that you’re going to back instead because heaven forbid you actually agree with the other party until negotiations have taken place. End result: You end up with deadlock and final legislation that doesn’t do what it was originally supposed to do, and if possible adds more government jobs to an already inefficient system.
We need to fix the fundamentals of how congress “works” and how the parties interact. We need to figure out where we’re wasting all the money we collect, and trim out programs. We also need to take care of our own population before we go around pushing our noses into other countries business. Sorry for the long post, feel free to flame me.