Not content with the stupidest, cruelest war since the advent of British imperialism, compounded with a fiscal policy set on bankrupting this nation, departing lame-duck Republicans managed a major legislative disaster this week.
As described by one of their own, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-NH:
You just have to ask yourself how we, as a party, got to this point, where we have a leadership which is going to ram down the throats of our party the biggest budget buster in the history of the Congress under Republican leadership.
Gregg was referring to, as:AP reported
In its last hours of GOP control, Congress passed a raft of bills big and small, most significantly a sweeping bill reviving expired tax breaks, extending trade benefits for developing countries and protecting doctors from a big cut in Medicare payments...
...The failure to pass budget bills for domestic agencies, said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., amounted to "a blatant admission of abject failure by the most useless Congress in modern times."
...Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H., gave extraordinary floor speeches lambasting his party for losing its way on fiscal discipline and its leadership for jamming the bill past rank-and-file Republicans opposing the massive measure.
The Republican plan was simple:
- Financially reward friends with government money or tax breaks.
- Leave the already deficit ridden budget in worse shape for the Democrats.
- Require the Democrats to raise taxes in 2007 and use that to launch a campaign to retake the government in 2008.
It is clear that Democrats have to launch a campaign now to expose the Republicans and repeat this message. If there is any money left in the 2006 campaign coffers, it can be wisely used reminding the American people who poisoned the water and fouled the land.