Republicans raise debt limit
Congress raised the debt limit by $ .8 trillion today. Though the bill passed because the government was about to shut down, the vote nearly followed party lines, with Republicans calling to cut spending and Democrats arguing against allowing the government to shut down. Investor's Business Daily gives us some of the debate (edited a bit):
But Republicans opposed the measure, arguing it should have been accompanied by new rules that would require future tax cuts and new spending to be offset and rendered budget-neutral.
Amen! Let's hear it for a balanced budget!
"The most irresponsible thing to do is to borrow the money knowing that you will never pay it back and that the interest cost will fall on your children and not you," said Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, the senior Republican on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said as the House debated the measure Thursday.
And on the other side of the aisle:
"We can demagogue it. We can keep putting on all sorts of messages to feel good or draw political lines. ... But the reality is, we keep screwing around with this thing, we're going to shut the government down," said Rep. Thomas Reynolds, D-N.Y.
STOP. Hold on. This sounds like typical party warfare, right? Except there is a twist in this battle that I covered over. I changed all the party affiliations in the quotes. It was the Democrats arguing for fiscal responsibility and the Republicans saying "we have to do this."
I know, most of the Democrats don't really believe in fiscal responsibility, at least not enough to remember the concept when it's time to fund the latest vote-buying pork project. But Republicans, traditionally the champions of small government, appear to be no better.
But Republicans opposed the measure, arguing it should have been accompanied by new rules that would require future tax cuts and new spending to be offset and rendered budget-neutral.
Amen! Let's hear it for a balanced budget!
"The most irresponsible thing to do is to borrow the money knowing that you will never pay it back and that the interest cost will fall on your children and not you," said Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, the senior Republican on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said as the House debated the measure Thursday.
And on the other side of the aisle:
"We can demagogue it. We can keep putting on all sorts of messages to feel good or draw political lines. ... But the reality is, we keep screwing around with this thing, we're going to shut the government down," said Rep. Thomas Reynolds, D-N.Y.
STOP. Hold on. This sounds like typical party warfare, right? Except there is a twist in this battle that I covered over. I changed all the party affiliations in the quotes. It was the Democrats arguing for fiscal responsibility and the Republicans saying "we have to do this."
I know, most of the Democrats don't really believe in fiscal responsibility, at least not enough to remember the concept when it's time to fund the latest vote-buying pork project. But Republicans, traditionally the champions of small government, appear to be no better.
posted by Derby at 20:19
1 Comments:
I'm willing to believe that it depends on the individual Republican. Unfortunately, there are few enough willing to put principles above retention of power.
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