Blogger Conference Call Notes
Yesterday, I participated in another blogger conference call with people from the House Republican Conference. This week’s participants were Rep. Steve King, (R-IA), Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rogers and Rep. Thaddeus McCotter.
Rep. King opened by thanking the bloggers, saying that “We don’t always get the objective truth coming out of the mainstream media” that he “looks to the bloggers as a key component of getting the facts out to the American people.” Rep. King further stated that the “mainstream media would continue to atrophy” if they didn’t do a better job at getting important information out.
President Obama’s budgets proposes deficits totalling $5.6 trillion (presumably over the next 5 years). According to CBO, it increases the deficit as a percentage of GDP to WWII levels. Rep. King said that, when President Obama visited their conference, he told them that the New Deal had worked and that the thing that went wrong was that FDR “had lost his nerve and got too worried about a balanced budget”, which led to a recession within the depression.
Rep. King then said that he’s got to consider ask the question of whether President Obama has decided to “be like Cortez by burning all his ships” and “ramming every hardcore lefty program they’ve ever conceived of…” (Editor’s note: I think that’s the most likely explanation for President Obama’s radical agenda.)
Next up was Rep. McMorris-Rogers’ statement. “No one in the history of the world has borrowed this much money” this fast, citing the fact that we’re adding $1,000,000 of debt PER MINUTE under President Obama’s budget and that President Obama’s budget would “double the debt in five years and triple it in ten years.” Rep. McMorris-Rogers noted that this was “four times the size of the biggest deficit during President Bush’s administration.
Rep. McMorris-Rogers said that such debt accumulation will have profound ramifications on being able to sell off our debt. She also said that that’s the biggest reason why this type of debt load isn’t sustainable.
First question was from Steve Maloney asking whether they would be scheduling blogger conference calls weekly. Rep. McMorris-Rogers said they have been doing these calls regularly because they realize that they can “set the tone of the debate” instead of being on the defensive with Democrats setting the tone. Rep. McMorris-Rogers said that these calls were having a “multiplier effect.”
I had the next question, asking if they could supply me with the numbers in terms of deficit to percentage of the budget. Rep. King said that he’d like to send us the numbers comparing President Obama’s first budget with the FY2008 budget, which was the smallest deficit of President Bush’s administration. According to my calculations, Bush’s smallest deficit was a little more than 5 percent of the budget whereas this budget will produce a deficit north of 30 percent of his budget.
Rep. King said that there are several demarcation points: the last Republican budget (for FY2007), the first Pelosi budget (my words, not Rep. King’s) to President Obama’s first budget. “All these things changed the parameters on how we define this.” The minute I get Rep. King’s information, I’ll post it immediately. According to Rep. King’s reports, the Obama deficit is approximately 23 percent of GDP.
Technorati Tags: Bloggers, Budget, Cathy McMorris Rogers, Steve King, Thad McCotter, House Republican Conference, President Obama, Debt, Deficit, Democrats
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog