In a speech to the National Religious Broadcasters Association in Nashville this weekend, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said that reducing the national debt is a "moral responsibility," but failed to propose changes to the tax system that taxes capital gains at a much lower rate than income.
Yes, this debt is a mortal threat to our country. It is also a moral threat. It is immoral to bind our children to as leeching and destructive a force as debt.
Boehner failed to mention that under the Bush Administration with a Republican-controlled Congress, the debt skyrocketed by over $4 trillion.
Boehner's claim that Americans want the federal government to "spend less" doesn't match up with the fact that most Americans want more spending on education and veterans benefits. Boehner also failed to mention that the House vote to repeal Obamacare would add over $200 billion to the deficit. Instead, Boehner said Republicans will focus on cutting a program that is paid for and isn't increasing the debt: Social Security.
Our budget, under the leadership of our Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, will specifically deal with entitlement reform.
Boehner ignored the decision by Republicans and President Bush to go into a $1 trillion war in Iraq, funding the war almost entirely through deficit spending and emergency war funding bills. He neglected to mention that he voted for a bank bailout that gave $700 billion as a blank check to the Treasury, which the Treasury loaned to failing banks. And he neglected to mention that at a time of 9% unemployment, spending cuts would be likely to shrink the economy and hurt the long-term recovery.
Boehner also ignored the $900 billion tax cut package passed in December, which added $900 billion to the deficit including $120 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of Americans and a continuation of the failed capital gains tax cuts that drastically cut revenue during a time of war. He neglected to mention that the Republicans held hostage a plan that would have cut taxes for all Americans making less than $1 million a year, deciding instead to bow to their wealthy overlords and give wasteful tax cuts at a time when they were politically unpopular and economically unnecessary.
Boehner also weighed in on the Justice Department decision to stop enforcing the provisions of DOMA that were deemed unconstitutional by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals:
Boehner described the Obama administration’s announcement last week that it will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act as “pandering” and “raw politics.”
“It strikes me as something that’s just as raw politics as anything I’ve seen,” he said, “knowing that a lot of people who believe in DOMA are probably not likely to vote for him and pandering to the other side on this issue.”
Boehner apparently failed to see the irony of criticizing pandering while he pandered to the audience in Nashville, saying he will work to eliminate Net Neutrality regulations by the FCC and make every effort to oppose the Fairness Doctrine, an unpopular policy with religious broadcasters who don't feel it is necessary to listen to different perspectives or points of view.
And Boehner ignored the proposed changes from the Obama Administration to address a tax system with loopholes exploited by big corporations to avoid paying taxes on corporate income, even as these corporations receive federal dollars for contracts that "shrink the size of federal government" by outsourcing government functions to private corporations.