Paygo: Fiscal Discipline or Political Cover?
Cindy has an interesting post about Jim Matheson voting to raise the debt ceiling by a whopping $1,900,000,000,000. Theoretically, Rep. Matheson is a Blue Dog, though there isn’t much proof of that recently. According to Cindy, Matheson wouldn’t have voted for the bill without this provision included in the bill:
The rule, known as “pay-as-you-go” or “Paygo,” was in place during the 1990s, the last time there was a federal budget surplus, and Democrats hope that it will spur a return in that direction.
“The passage of statutory Paygo today will help usher out an era of irresponsibility and begin putting the country back on a fiscally sustainable path,” President Barack Obama said, in a statement.
When Speaker Pelosi took over as Speaker, one of the first things they passed as a House rule was Paygo:
The House has voted to reinstate budget rules designed to curb the budget deficit.
The vote was 280-to-154 to reinstate the so-called “pay as you go” rule. It requires that any increase in entitlement spending or tax cut be somehow offset so as to not to increase the deficit. Budget hawks say the move is a good first step toward restoring fiscal discipline.
Here’s the date on that AP article:
updated 2:18 p.m. CT, Fri., Jan. 5, 2007
My question is simple: Is the Democratic leadership committed to Paygo? If they are, why do they need to keep passing Paygo? Currently, the House can suspend the rules so they can ignore Paygo. Simply put, this isn’t about fiscal discipline. It’s about providing the Jim Mathesons of the world political cover.
It’s another attempt by the Democrats’ leadership to con the American people. They’re pretending that We The People aren’t smart enough to see through their facade. They’re hoping that We The People will have forgotten their maneuvering when we enter the voting booths this November.
Let’s send the Democratic leadership a message this November. In fact, let’s change the Democrats’ leadership this November, streamlining it by eliminating from their leadership the titles of Speaker, Majority Leader and Majority Whip, replacing them with the titles of Minority Leader and Minority Whip.
That’s change I can believe in!!!
Technorati Tags: Paygo, Debt Ceiling, Jim Matheson, Speaker Pelosi, Deficits, Political Cover, Con Game, Democrats, Fiscal Discipline, Conservatism, Election 2010
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
February 6th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
And since the late 1990s, I’m just real sure there hasn’t been one Republican who has “porked up” any bill he/she could, too.
Come on, Gary, the reason for the Tea Parties is that the Republicans are just as guilty as the jackasses for driving our economy to the edge of collapse, but it’s easier to blame the donks than to look in the mirror and see the spitting image of our president in full blame mode. Anger doesn’t even begin to express what the partiers feel, toward Democrats AND Republicans.
And unless someone gets a clue, donkey or elephant, “bloodbath” won’t describe what will happen in November, either.