How is it possible that anyone with functioning grey matter could be taking Nancy Pelosi seriously. San Fran Nan gave a speech on the House Floor that has to have Democrat members of Congress secretly muttering under their collective, (pun intended,) breaths.
O.K. then, let’s start with this. The woman who failed for two entire years, 104 total weeks, to pass any type of a budget, when her party had overwhelming control of both houses of congress and the White House, is griping that the Republicans are still passing short term measures after 11 weeks in charge of the House only. Let’s not forget that not only is John Boehner to a large extent spending an inordinate amount of time dealing with the mess left behind by the opposition party, but also does not enjoy the cooperation of the Executive Branch, nor the other Congressional Chamber.
Next, Nancy started harping on fiscal responsibility. I am literally speechless. I realize that there are two distinct ideas on how to close a deficit. The Democrats answer is to spend what they wish and then tax to make up the revenue. They view tax cuts as something which must be paid for, and not a cessation of government sponsored thievery. Republicans believe that spending should be limited to match the revenues received, and that if it does not, spending should be cut. Nancy Pelosi, who saw an increase in discretionary spending under her watch, average 18% per year for 4 years should not be lecturing anyone on fiscal responsibility. Nancy made great fanfare with her Paygo legislation. It is a shame that she promptly ignored it during her entire reign of terror as House Speaker. For perspective, under Bush 43 and with a Republican controlled congress, the deficit was $150 Billion per year. Under Bush 43 and with a Democrat controlled congress, the deficit was $450 Billion per year. Under Obama and with a Democrat controlled congress the deficit was $1600 Billion per year. At the very least, the Republicans are proposing actual spending cuts for the first time in Washington’s history. Sure, those cuts only come to $61 Billion, but they are being labeled as, “draconian,” by the Democrats in the Senate. While I agree with a lot of folks that they go no where near far enough, I will at least give them credit for a first step. For San Fran Nan to be calling them fiscally irresponsible though is an irony of epic proportion.
Nancy makes the statement that she does not wish to discuss history, and then rewrites it a little. That is just a liberal’s way of saying, don’t check on my facts. I keep hearing about, and then refute this dishonest concept of the Clinton Surplus. So, one more time, here it is:
1. Bill Clinton sold 20 and 30 year debt. This had the effect of moving deficit off of the 10 year budget proposal, and hence invisible as far as a deficit accounting was concerned.
2. During the last 6 years of his Presidency, Bill Clinton was forced to reconcile himself with an opposition Congress in both the House and Senate. Much of that cessation in runaway spending was beyond Clinton’s control, but he took credit for it anyhow.
3. Tech stocks boomed in the last 5 years of the 90’s. There were no underlying financial justifications for this boom, hence it was actually a bubble. During that time, Clinton benefited from outrageous capital gains revenues, which were figured into the budget as though they would last forever.
4. Bush retired the 20 and 30 year paper, which was the more responsible thing to do, but also had the reverse effect on budget calculations.
5. Bush had a major attack on U.S. soil which saw a war open on two fronts, and cost us monies which were not included in Clinton’s fantasy budget calculations.
6. The dot com bubble burst, and those fictitious capital gains were actually capital losses. Mathematically speaking, this had double the effect towards the negative on Bush’s deficit.
Jobs talk again? First off, government does not create jobs. In 2006, Nancy Pelosi made this statement, “judge this congress by our record on jobs.” By any reasonable measure, employment numbers took a big dive from 2006 until now. Government spending on pet projects at best will not destroy more jobs than it creates. As money is stolen from one sector and redistributed to another more politically favorable sector, there are jobs lost in the sector which was taxed out of existence. How many times must we live out this failed broken window experiment before the liberals give up on it. At the same time, empirical evidence has shown that cutting taxes and regulation has always spurred economic growth. In order to sway public opinion her way, and coincidentally from anything with a prayer of success, Nancy relies on the old tried and true trick of class warfare. You and I should hate those perceived as, “rich.” While I did not think that Bush’s domestic policy of compassionate conservatism, (cutting taxes while continuing to spend on every one of the Democrat’s pet social welfare programs at any level they requested,) his tax policy did produce an economic recovery from a recession and the 9/11 attacks. I just believe that he didn’t go far enough. He spent too much political capital on personal rates where he should have lowered corporate rates and eased capital gains and qualified dividends restrictions.
What do we do with the saved or created metric? Almost nobody uses this asinine term any more. When the real unemployment rate skyrocketed to 17%, after Obama and Timmy Geitner claimed that passage of the pork laden stimulus package would save us from unemployment going above the 8% mark, they had to come up with something. That desperation to deflect public opinion from the obvious failure led to the saved jobs category. It is the claim that things would have been much worse. So, for your viewing pleasure, brought back from just a couple of days ago, the compilation graph showing employment graphed against time from the start of every post WWII recession. You will notice the Obama years standing out.
In 4 minutes and 10 seconds, Nancy Pelosi manages to overwhelm with her dishonesty. I give her 4 Pinocchios for this floor speech.
Crossposted at Musings of a Mad Conservative.
For those in the Los Angeles area
(or within distance to get there):
The LA Community invites you to a Community Memorial Service for the victims of the massacre in Itamar.
Join in a community-wide memorial service for the five members of the Fogel family z”l who were brutally murdered this past Shabbat while asleep in their home.
WE MUST NOT BE SILENT!
Tags: Fiscal Budget
