Here is a speech by our Representative Tom McClintock concerning the budget that has just passed:
April 2, 2009 6:47 PM
House Chamber, Washington, D.C. April 2, 2009 Mme. Chairman: I feel one of those rare bi-partisan moments coming on. Throughout these budget debates, my friends on the Left keep saying that our problems are rooted in the fiscal mismanagement of the Bush Administration. The Gentleman from Virginia just presented a chart titled, “Record Deterioration of the Budget Under the Republican Administration.”
I agree. There’s no denying it. George W. Bush increased spending twice as fast as Bill Clinton. He turned a budget surplus into a chronic deficit.
But if we all agree that Bush spent too much and borrowed too much, then why in the world would we want to pursue the same folly on a far greater scale?
Why would we take the Bush Administration’s unsustainable rate of spending growth and send it even higher?
Why would we take that budget deficit and triple it?
If budgets that spend too much and borrow too much are the road to economic prosperity, then why aren’t we enjoying a period of unprecedented economic expansion?
The fact is, these policies don’t work, and it doesn’t matter whether the President is a Democrat or a Republican.
They don’t work because government cannot inject a single dollar into the economy that it has not first taken out of the economy.
They don’t work for the same reason that you can’t spend yourself rich or borrow your way out of debt or tax your way to prosperity.
If you want to know where these policies lead – just look to my home state of California.
Three governors – Republican and Democrat – did exactly what my friends on the left assure us is the road to recovery.
They increased spending at unsustainable rates, they ran up unprecedented debts and they imposed crushing new taxes.
And the result is that today, California has been transformed from the nation’s Golden State to a state of collapse.
A record level of government spending has not produced prosperity. It has produced one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.
Interest costs driven by years of borrowing are now eating its budget alive.
Its tax burden is producing a population exodus unknown since the days of the dust bowl.
In fact, the state has spent so much that it has just imposed the biggest tax increase by any state in American history.
The state has borrowed so much that it is now in very real danger of defaulting on its obligations before the end of the summer.
The President and the Democrats in Congress are making exactly the same mistake that the Bush Administration made and that three California governors made, only on a much greater scale.
Perhaps at a moment like this, it is time that we recognized the first law of holes: when you’re in one, stop digging.
1 comment:
Ron Paul is a redneck agitator who is so ineffective in congress that he spend his time nitpicking like an old woman. Here is his record in congress:
Number of sponsored bills: 14
Number of sponsored bills passed: 0
Number of co-sponsored bills 59
Number of co-sponsored bills passed: 0
Nada, zip, nothing!
But you have fallen for his line and revealed your limited knowledge of the economic problems resulting from the Bush administration's policies.
Bush wasted more than $1 trillion on wars that benefited no one, and now you are sniping at the attempt to bring America back from the brink.
Do you recall that Bush,in a meeting with banks and lenders, urged the financial community to "be inovative" in approving home loans because he wanted to boast of increased home ownership under his administration? They were inovative all right, and the collapse began.
Bush saw the collapse of ENRON but made no effort to enforce existing laws to detect and/or prevent illegal financial dealings. The former CEO of AIG openly announced that the company was heading for disaster in April of 2008, but the Bush administration, recipient of millions of dollars in campaign donations from AIG, made no effort to investigate the problems.The company crashed 5 months later.
Are you familiar with the results of bankrupcy and why it is imperative that large corporations be assisted to recover?
Say that GM files for bankruptcy. About 70,000 employees will lose their jobs, but companies that supply GM with tires, batteries,wiring harness,electical components, etc, will not get paid and they too will fall into bankruptcy. These suppliers have millions of dollars in inventory, which they have paid for and ready to ship to GM, but that inventory may now become scrap. It is estimated that as many as 500,000 jobs could be lost if GM files for bankruptcy.
Add the other automobile manufacturers and those figures increase dramaticaly.
Remember, the bailout is not a gift, the recipients are obligated to return the funds and importantly, cease providing huge bonuses to the officers of those companies. Note that $38 million in bonuses paid by one of those companies could have been used to help keep the company solvent. Many of these companies have substantial real estate holdings which will be confiscated and sold to recover unpaid loans.
America and the entire world are depending on our president to move the economy forward and your negative attitude in a time of crisis is akin to sabotage.
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