Throughout the 1990s the success of pay-go rules in the United States Congress helped reign in deficit spending that flourished under President George H. Bush. Pay-go rules put in place under Democrats turned those deficits into record surpluses under President Bill Clinton.
Pay-go rules were later abandoned by Republicans under President George W. Bush and the resulting borrowing and deficit spending produced the nation’s largest deficit in United States history, plunging the nation into a deep, long-lasting recession.
Pay-go rules require any new spending by the United States Congress to be paid for by a reduction in spending or tax increases. Under pay-go rules, the Republican policy of borrowing and deficit spending give way to the kind of fiscal responsibility working families are used to. If you don’t have the money in the bank, you don’t spend it or go looking for the credit card.
Yesterday, Democrats, including Rep. Bart Gordon, put these pay-go rules back into effect, but not a single Republican from our state voted for it. The person who has now come to represent opposition to this proven fiscally policy is none other than Tennessee Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn.
Watch this video and listen as Rep. Blackburn makes the Republican case for saving more money by letting Americans die in future national emergencies like “Katrina” and “tsunamis.” Rep. Blackburn’s proposal was met with such national outrage that her spokesperson had to issue a pathetic apology that said Rep. Blackburn’s mouth gets ahead of her brain sometimes.
We totally agree, but an apology for her vote against fiscal responsible pay-go rules would have sufficed.
