Eden Hill Journal

Ramblings and memories of an amateur wordsmith and philosopher

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Location: Maine, United States

Friday, May 19, 2006

Truth Republican Style

"...First of all, I have heard some arguments on the other side of the aisle saying, well, you know, if you earn $40,000 a year, you would not get a very big tax cut.
Well, folks, if you earn $40,000 a year, a family of two children, you do not pay any taxes. So you probably, if you do not pay any taxes, you are not going to get a very big tax cut."
That is a quote from the Congressional Record May 17, 2006, page H2749 (rightmost column), spoken by Republican Representative J. Dennis Hastert, 14th District of Illinois.
I'm wondering what family Representative Hastert had in mind when he made this statement.
I found it interesting what Democrat Representative John Spratt had to say just before Representative Hastert made this claim. Spratt was talking about how this budget will raise the debt ceiling yet again, the 5th time since June 2002 when the Bush administration assured Congress no such increase would be needed before 2008. Yet Spratt claims the increases will keep right on coming:
"Mr. Chairman, with all the jargon and all the numbers and all the rhetoric, it is hard to find your way around this budget maze, so let me start with just the basics, so basic that let’s do something revolutionary, read the resolution before you.
"Read this resolution and you will see that right here, page 1, the public debt of the United States will be $11.3 trillion in the year 2011, 5 years from now. At the end of 2001, 5 years ago, the day President Bush took office, the public debt was $5.7 trillion. That means that between 2002 and 2011, under the policies of this administration and this budget resolution, the public debt of the United States is going to double. In a 10-year period of time, we are going to double the debt from $5.7 trillion to $11.3 trillion. It is right here in your own resolution."
...
"June 2002, those of you on the Budget Committee will recall that the Bush administration came to us selling their budget. They told us, look, pass this budget with $1.7 to $1.8 trillion in tax cuts, and we still will not be back until 2008 to ask for an increase in the debt ceiling. That is how much spare capacity we have got.
"They missed it by a mile. A year later they were back, hat in hand, and they said, we need an increase in the debt ceiling of $450 billion. That was 1 year.
"The next year they came back with a phenomenal increase. May 24, 2004, the increase was $984 billion. That lasted 15 months. Following the 15-month period there was another increase, $800 billion. Just 2 months ago, in March, there was a $781 billion increase. And now tonight, if you vote for this resolution, you can add $653- to that. Those will be the 5 increases over 5 years in the debt ceiling of the United States in order to accommodate the budgets that this Congress has passed during that period of time, all together $3.7 trillion in 5 years."
To say that Republicans are out of touch trivializes the situation. They have an agenda and the truth be damned. The end justifies the means.

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