There's been a lot of discussion over Sue Kelly's over-the-top self-righteous indignation over her possible implication in the Mark Foley Page gate scandal.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
In another video of the same editorial board debate
http://www.recordonline.com/...
click on "Video: Sparks fly at Congressional debate"
Sue outright lies about never voting to raise the debt ceiling after John Hall remarks (truthfully) that she'd voted 5 times since 2001 to do so.
Evidence summarized after the jump:
So I did some digging over at Thomas to find the exact votes and, yes (surprise), Sue did vote
5 times to increase the debt limit.
The debt ceiling was $5.95 trillion when Bush took office, and had last been raised in 1997. Clearly, with the surplus at that time, there was no need to think about raising the limit. But Bush turned things around so fast that by the summer of 2002, the limit needed to be raised. Here are the votes:
6/27/02 (HR 462) raises limit to 6.4 trillion, Sue voted Yea
4/11/03 (HJ Res 51) raises limit to 7.384 trillion, Sue voted Yea
11/18/04 (HR 856) raises limit to 8.2 trillion conveniently after the election, Sue voted Yea
3/16/06 (HJ Res 47) raises limit to 8.8 trillion, Sue voted Yea
5/18/06 (H Con Res 376), check this one out. This is the budget bill for FY2007 and it has, buried in it, increasing debt ceiling for the NEXT 5 YEARS
2007 to 9.182 trillion
2008 to 9.744 trillion
2009 to 10.275 trillion
2010 to 10.781 trillion
2001 to 11.307 trillion
And, you guessed it, Sue Kelly voted Yea.
This is an obscene amount of debt and somebody needs to ask Sue and all Republicans how much debt is too much debt for this country to hold? It's too much already. And she also needs to be asked what the limit should be on "off-budget" items. Go ahead, Sue, crow about the "low" deficit, and then explain why our debt is growing so much faster.