BCT Editorial – 4/5/06

This page was last updated on April 6, 2006.

Bankrupt; Editorial; Beaver County Times; April 5, 2006.

Though there are individual exceptions, there’s no question elected Republicans as a group are really “Democrat lite” when it comes to fiscal responsibility. Don’t be fooled, though, into believing the Times really cares about fiscal responsibility. It’s just another chance to bash Republicans. Though it’s correct to bash Republicans for fiscal irresponsibility, the bashing is not because the Times itself believes in fiscal responsibility. After all, how many editorials have we read that imply Pennsylvanians aren’t taxed enough?

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“It’s official. The Republican Party is now morally bankrupt when it comes to fiscal responsibility.

“Washington Post columnist David Broder reported the House Budget Committee recently voted against a Democratic proposal to re-impose the budget rule know [sic] as ‘pay-go,’ which simply means that any spending increase or tax cut is to be offset by a comparable saving to avoid increasing the deficit. The rule was in effect from 1991 to 2002, and it helped cut into deficits.”

[RWC] You won’t be surprised to learn the editorial omitted some information. First, pay-go didn’t apply to all spending.

Second, pay-go was only a concession to help President Bush #41 to break his “read my lips, no new taxes” promise. Therefore, pay-go’s first result was increased taxes, during a small recession no less.

Third, the pay-go rules were suspended in 1999. The rule’s time 10-year time limit ran out in 2002.

Fourth, pay-go had nothing to do with deficit reduction during the late 1990s. The deficit reduction was a result of increased tax revenue from the growing economy.

“The Democrats tried to do the same thing in the Senate, but their measure failed on a 50 to 50 tie vote.

“In their road to power, Republicans slammed their opponents as tax-and-spend Democrats. But at least the Democrats were on higher moral ground. They recognized that current users of government services should pay some of the costs, while the GOP is dumping its debt on future generations of Americans.”

[RWC] “The Democrats were on higher moral ground?” Democrats controlled Congress almost non-stop from 1933 to 1994 and we ran budget deficits for 53 of those 61 years.

“They recognized that current users of government services should pay some of the costs?” Where’s the evidence to support this? Nearly 42 million people filing federal income forms pay no taxes! The bottom 50% of income tax filers pay only about 3% of taxes paid!