The Republicans regularly claim that the deficits and the national debt are the handiwork of the Democrats and Democratic policies. However, the Republicans have been and still are the architects behind our fiscal situation. They’re also a major barrier to resolving the country’s current fiscal situation. It’s amazing that Republicans can keep up this fiction. Via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire:
Federal Budget Reality Check
New York Times: “The parties share blame for the current fiscal situation, but federal budget statistics show that Republican policies over the last decade, and the cost of the two wars, added far more to the deficit than initiatives approved by the Democratic Congress since 2006, giving voters reason to be skeptical of campaign promises.”
“Calculations by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and other independent fiscal experts show that the $1.1 trillion cost over the next 10 years of the Medicare prescription drug program, which the Republican-controlled Congress adopted in 2003, by itself would add more to the deficit than the combined costs of the bailout, the stimulus and the health care law.”
What about the bank bailout? It earned “an 8.2 percent return over two years.” Via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire:
Bank Bailout Earned 8.2% Profit
The federal government’s bailout of financial firms “provided taxpayers with higher returns than they could have made buying 30-year Treasury bonds — enough money to fund the Securities and Exchange Commission for the next two decades,” Bloomberg reports.
“The government has earned $25.2 billion on its investment of $309 billion in banks and insurance companies, an 8.2 percent return over two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That beat U.S. Treasuries, high-yield savings accounts, money-market funds and certificates of deposit. Investing in the stock market or gold would have paid off better.”
Also, Republicans who were opposed to the $787 billion stimulus bill requested funds from it. Via CBS News:
A rallying cry for many Republican candidates this fall is their fierce opposition to the $787 billion stimulus bill.
Texas Rep. Pete Sessions has been ripping the spending package, using such campaign lines as “no to budget-busting stimulus bills.”
Then there is this boast served up by Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann in an advertisement: “I fought against the Bush Wall Street bailout, the failed Pelosi trillion dollar stimulus.”
But it turns out no sooner was the ink dry on the stimulus bill than these lawmakers – and dozens of others from both parties – were reaching out behind the scenes for money to fund millions of dollars in local projects.
“When it came time to get a piece of the pie afterwards, people were writing letters by the dozens,” said John Solomon of the Center for Public Integrity.
That group says it collected nearly 2,000 letters from “scores” of Republicans and conservative Democrats requesting funds from a bill they originally opposed and many still criticize.
But that didn’t stop Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown from asking for $45.4 million in funds or stop Sessions from requesting $81 million in stimulus money for a Texas rail project, a grant he did not win.
CBS News video:
Stimulus Hypocrisy – The Center for Public Integrity says that many Republican and Democratic politicians who were outspoken in their opposition against last year’s stimulus package actually requested funds from that very same project. Armen Keteyian reports.
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