AndrewR - You have beautifully proved the point (though obviously you had no clue you were doing it) that it is foolish to vote Republicans into control of both the Legislative and Executive branches. By your own admission, no politician can be trusted to keep any of his or her promises. No tax cuts, no vouchers, nada.
And you have shown that even if no Democrat voted at all, the vote count proves that Republicans alone would have passed the increases in spending.
And you have shown yourself to be as good at double-speak as Clinton. On the one hand you tout the virtues of voting Republican, and on the other, when it suits your purpose, you indicate that no politician can be trusted to vote along party lines. After all, they're all independent thinkers, right?
Your reversals are beginning to overlap on each other.
And chew on this as well. At the start of the budget process on these bills, Clinton submitted $642 billion, Trent Lott & Co (the Republican leadership) submitted their own budget for $625 billion. After the process was done, Congress sent bills for the President's signature totalling $655 billion.
In between, the spending bills went through committees completely controlled by Republican chair people. Since the chair sets the agenda, any of the spending additions could have been shot down by the chair. Then each bill went through a committee vote with a Republican majority. Each addition could have been voted down at the committee level, but they were not. Finally, each fully bulked up bill was sent to the floor for a full vote. As you have well shown, even if not a single Democrat had voted in favor, Republicans would have passed these bills all by themselves.
And, if your point is that each party's Congress person and Senator should lean to his or her party's dogma but still think independently, then Republicans are even less trustworthy. First, making such an assertion is absurd. But, second, if simple math probabilities are applied, then one would assume that there would be a 50/50 split in the way each party's law maker makes each vote. On simple numbers alone, Republican dogma should have prevailed, but it did not.
Therefore, I submit that if Republicans can't be trusted to resist spending, why should I care to put any more of them into office? Where will the money for my tax cut come from? Deficit spending? Now that's a good answer.
It is obvious by their own actions that Republicans can not be trusted to deliver their tax cut. And if they do, it is obvious that they intend to keep on pushing up spending too. If I were inclined to want that tax cut, I would want some assurance that the people I put in office would exercise the fiscal restraint needed to pay for it. The increases in spending prove that Republicans either have no intent of delivering real tax cuts, or that they intend to deliver them and don't care how they will pay for them. Either choice certainly appeals to me!
Facebook
Twitter