So much for fiscal responsibility

March 15, 2006

At the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, would-be presidents were cautious about criticizing the president (or the Republican Congress) directly, but they practically tripped over one another to emphasize one problem: fiscal irresponsibility has run rampant.

Yesterday, some of these same Senate Republicans had a chance to do something about it, by voting to restore “paygo” rules. “For those who say they are fiscally responsible, here is your chance,” said Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota, senior Democrat on the Budget Committee. “You are going to be able to prove with one vote whether you are serious about doing something about these runaway debts and runaway deficits or whether it is all talk.”

Take a wild guess which way the GOP went.

Senate Republicans on Tuesday narrowly defeated an effort to impose budget rules that would make it harder to increase spending or cut taxes, a move that critics said that showed Republicans were posturing in their calls for greater fiscal restraint.

In the first of several politically charged budget and spending issues confronting Congress this week, the Senate rejected on a 50-to-50 tie a proposal to restore what are known as “pay-go” rules, a requirement that tax cuts and some new spending be approved by 60 votes or offset by budget savings or revenue increases.

Democrats and a handful of Republican allies said that the added discipline was essential to getting a handle on the mounting federal debt and that the rules had been instrumental in reducing red ink before they were allowed to lapse in 2002.

How did Republicans justify their opposition? The NYT noted that Republicans said the push to add the rules to the budget was “a back-door effort to make it harder to extend President Bush’s tax cuts.”

Really? Senate Republicans believe forcing lawmakers to budget responsibly could make it harder to extend already-ridiculous tax cuts? You don’t say.

It’s actually a surprisingly candid admission. Most of the Senate GOP caucus effectively announced yesterday that they’d rather cut taxes than restore fiscal sanity. It’s good to know.

This is only going to get worse the closer to elections we get.

  • These people are nothing but “Hot Check Republicans”

    They’re writing checks to their friends that aren’t backed up with anything except your kid’s bank account.

  • This is a message that Dems need to pound over and over this election season “Repugs can’t control spending”.

    Any idea how the vote broke down??

  • Wow. I guess the GOP has now officially abandoned the Fiscal Responsibility Act in their Contract with America and therefore the party’s “fiscal conservative” label.

    POUND THEM WITH THIS!

  • What Gridlock said.

    Conservatives are not conserving anything in this country. Not our rights, not the truth, not the economy, not the budget, not our environment, not our children.

    And as Claude Allen proves, certainly not our values.

    Why do that get that word as their name again?

  • Five Republicans joined 45 Democrats (44 + Jeffords). Here’s the full breakdown:

    Wow. All the Dems actually stood together. Wow. Snowe, Chafee, McCain, Collins, Voinivich. Only Voinivich and McCain are expected to vie for the GOP nomination in 2008 right?

    Interesting that Frist and Brownback went the wrong way on this.

  • Voinovich could have been a strong 2008 contender if only he showed some more backbone and opposed the Sadministration and Congressional GOP more often. Hell, he won every county in his state.

    Also, where the heck was Cheney to jump in and break the tie in favor of fiscal responsibility–guess the Sadministration really does not back up its claims that it wants to reign in Congress on spending. This calls the Sadministration on its bluff as well.

  • We’re getting ever-closer to the moment of decision I’ve been awaiting for years now: a direct, zero-sum choice between Grover Norquist’s starve-the-beast/comfort-the-comfortable tax cuts, and mortal blows to programs that directly benefit millions of Americans.

    Already, we’ve got Republicans like Specter harshly attacking Bush’s proposed budget cuts for key programs in DHHS, Education and Labor. In an election year, they won’t cut the spending; they also obviously won’t raise taxes.

    We need to keep beating that PayGo drum. Eventually it’ll pass–perhaps as soon as next year, if we can just elect a few more Democrats. Then we get to the heart of the matter: does our government exist to “de-distribute” the wealth of the country to the already-rich, or to try and level the playing field of opportunity? For a change, that’s a debate we should win with ease.

  • Specter is a bullshitter; doesn’t mean a thing he says. The Republicans haven’t been fiscally responsible once in the last five years of complete control. We’re upping the debt allowance to 9 trillion dollars. Bush has outspent/indebted more than all previous presidencies combined, has yet to veto a single piece of pork legislation (or any other legislation). They’re all bullshitters. The only way to change things is to take back the House, and even then I don’t know if those who suck so long and hard on the federal tit can bring themselves to act responsibly.

  • 50-50 vote – I can’t help but notice that Dick Cheney didn’t feel compelled to break the tie, particularly since he believes so strongly in the importance of fiscal responsibility.

  • Dick Cheney believes in the importance of Dick Cheney.

    As for the rest, that’s all tactics.

  • This isn’t a surprise. Republicans aren’t conservative. They are borrow-and-spend liberals.

    As long as their buddies get the largesse of the spending.

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