All we heard about for the last eight years were the budget deficits that Obama inherited and how President Obama was “ruining our country” by “exploding the national debt by $10 trillion”, thanks largely to the deficits left by Bush. Now, before Trump is even sworn in, the GOP will vote today in the House, with full Freedom Caucus support, to increase the national debt by another $10 trillion! The hypocrisy is so glaring, House Republicans are simply avoiding the subject and voting, quickly:
The U.S. House of Representatives moved toward a Friday vote to begin dismantling Obamacare despite anxiety among some Republicans they were rushing into a major step without knowing the budget consequences or having a firm idea of how they would replace the healthcare law.
The Republican-led Congress, under pressure from President-elect Donald Trump to act quickly, made the first move toward scrapping Obamacare on Thursday as the Senate voted to instruct key committees to draft legislation to repeal it.
The House plans to vote on the measure on Friday, Speaker Paul Ryan said. Some Republican lawmakers said on Thursday they were not sure how they would vote.
"I don't want to vote for this and say it’s the first step (toward repeal), and find out that there are some long-term budget consequences," said Republican Representative Mark Amodei.
Obviously Representative Amodei has not read the bill. The $10 trillion increase starts on page five, where the public debt jumps from about $19 trillion this year to over $29 trillion in 10 years by 2026:
(5) PUBLIC DEBT.—Pursuant to section
301(a)(5) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974
(2 U.S.C. 632(a)(5)), the appropriate levels of the
public debt are as follows:
Fiscal year 2017: $20,034,788,000,000.
Fiscal year 2018: $20,784,183,000,000.
Fiscal year 2019: $21,625,729,000,000.
Fiscal year 2020: $22,504,763,000,000.
Fiscal year 2021: $23,440,271,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022: $24,509,421,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023: $25,605,527,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024: $26,701,273,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025: $27,869,175,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026: $29,126,158,000,000.
I’m just gonna quote Rand Paul on this one as the only Republicans not actively ignoring the subject:
“$10 trillion more in debt on the American people’s backs through a budget that never balances is not the way to get there. It is the exact opposite of the change Republicans promised, and I cannot support it, even as a placeholder.”
“Kentucky sent me to the Senate to put an end to the out-of-control spending. Unfortunately, this new Congress has chosen to continue the status quo. Not only are we not cutting spending, but we are also proposing an increase at an exponential pace. There is no reason we cannot repeal Obamacare and pass a balanced budget at the same time.”
By an otherwise party-line 51-48 vote early Thursday, the GOP-run Senate approved a budget that eases the way for action on subsequent repeal legislation as soon as next month, the Associated Press reported.
The Republican-controlled House planned to complete the budget on Friday.
$10 trillion in new debt is fine, as long as it all goes to tax cuts for billionaires, not public spending.
Here are the links to the sources used to create the chart:
www.whitehouse.gov/...
www.treasury.gov/...
www.budget.senate.gov/...