Democrats’ Demagoguery On Effort To Control Debt, Spending Shows How Far Left Tester Has Gone
As a candidate for the Senate in 2006, Jon Tester (D-MT) frequently preached the importance of fiscal responsibility and touted his support for a federal balanced budget. How times have changed.
Since coming to the Senate, Tester has voted in lockstep with the liberal wing of his party, supporting the failed $787 billion stimulus and the massive health care spending bill, driving the national debt past $14 trillion. Tester even reversed himself and voted last month to oppose a bipartisan resolution in support of a balanced budget amendment, proving once again that he is not serious about fiscal responsibility in Washington.
Meanwhile, today brings yet another clear example of who Jon Tester stands with in Washington. As House Republican Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) introduces a budget to put our country back on the path to prosperity and which New York Times columnist David Brooks called the “most courageous budget reform proposal any of us have seen in our lifetimes,” Tester and his fellow liberal Democrats are trying to demagogue the issue and score cheap political points.
As PBS, for example, reports:
• Watch carefully Tuesday how the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will immediately hammer away at Republicans pressuring them to embrace or reject Rep. Ryan’s plan. And unless President Obama declares that kind of politicizing out of bounds, it’ll likely continue from now through November 2012.
“A simple, but important, question before Montana voters next year is – what happened to Jon Tester since he got to Washington?” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Chris Bond said today. “Instead of standing on the side of fiscal responsibility, Senator Tester has consistently stood on the side of more spending, more taxes, and more government.
“Candidate Jon Tester might have been someone who would have supported a proposal to reduce spending and control the debt, but now he and the liberal party operatives running his campaign want to demagogue it. It’s unfortunate, but whether it’s ObamaCare, the failed stimulus or the Democrats’ budget proposal to keep driving up the debt, Senator Jon Tester has consistently stood with his liberal party leaders in Washington, and not with Montana,” Bond concluded.
BACKGROUND:
When Campaigning In 2006, Tester Supported A Federal Balanced Budget And A Reduced Debt Level. TESTER: “My folks did not teach me to not have a fiscal balanced budget. It’s absolutely critical. . . . You cannot make the claim that you are not a borrower and spender, because you are. And I think that’s very sad. Because I am of the belief that you take care of your own self and you don’t pass your debts on to your kids. We’re passing an incredible debt on to our kids. . . . In my opening statement I talked about the kind of abilities and gifts we give our children to be successful, we’re saddling them with a debt of what is it . . . 45, 50 thousand dollars? That’s not right. Let’s be fiscally responsible. Let’s have a fiscally balanced budget, just like we do in the state of Montana. We don’t deficit spend here, we don’t have to at the federal level.” (Montana Senate Debate, Whitefish, MT, www.c-spanvideo.org, 6/25/06)
• Video Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95XYdyJ-ybQ
TODAY’S REPUBLICAN PLAN
Reduce Spending. . .
• “Government spending would plummet by nearly $6 trillion over the coming decade under a Republican plan due to be unveiled on Tuesday, in a sharp contrast to President Barack Obama’s fiscal plan.” (Andy Sullivan, “Republican Budget Plan Envisions Sharp Cuts,” Reuters, 4/5/11)
• “His plan would slash $6.2 trillion in spending over the next 10 years from president’s budget. That’s $2 trillion more than the plan proposed by the president’s debt commission. It also reduces deficits by $4.4 trillion and, as Ryan writes in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed this morning, ‘puts the nation on a path to actually pay off our national debt.’” (Michael Falcone And Amy Walter, “Paul Ryan’s GOP Budget Proposal: Go Big Or Go Home,” ABC News’ “The Note” Blog, 4/5/11)
Reduces The National Debt By $4.4 Trillion By 2021 . . .
• “The budget — with the exception of interest payments on the debt — would be brought into balance by 2015. The debt would be cut by $4.4 trillion over the next 10 years and the federal government would have a surplus by 2040, according to calculations from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.” (Dana Bash, Alan Silverleib, and Deirdre Walsh, “GOP Budget Chief Calls For $6.2 Trillion Spending Cut,” CNN, 4/5/11)
VERSUS
THE OBAMA BUDGET
More Spending . . .
• Obama Has Proposed A $3.71 Trillion Budget, Which Will Result In $46 Trillion In Spending Over Ten Years. (“Preliminary Analysis of the President’s Budget for 2012,”Congressional Budget Office, 3/18/11)
Increases The National Debt To $26.3 Trillion By 2021 . . .
• “Mr. Obama’s Budget Projects That 2011 Will See The Biggest One-Year Debt Jump In History, Or Nearly $2 Trillion, To Reach $15.476 Trillion By Sept. 30, The End Of The Fiscal Year. That Would Be 102.6 Percent Of GDP — The First Time Since World War II That Dubious Figure Has Been Reached.” (Stephen Dinan, “Debt Now Equals Total U.S. Economy,” The Washington Times,2/14/11)
• “Just as President Obama signed and sent his annual Economic Report to Congress, the Treasury Department posted numbers that show the national debt has increased $3.5 trillion so far on Mr. Obama’s watch.” (Mark Knoller, “Debt Has Grown $3.5 Trillion On Obama’s Watch,” CBS News, 2/23/11)
• In 2021, Gross Debt Will Total $26.3 Trillion, Equaling 107 Percent Of GDP. (Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Of The U.S. Government” Office Of Management And Budget, 2/14/11)
