Fire Up The Printing Presses: Spending On Turbo-Charge
House Democrats today continued their unprecedented spending by voting to increase spending by 12% next year. The increase comes after two years of record-breaking spending and brings the total increase since Democrats took control to nearly 50%. When considering only non-defense spending, funding for domestic and international programs has nearly doubled - growing to 85%.
Congressman Jack Kingston, who opposed the spending increase, supported a Republican alternative which would have brought spending in line with more reasonable levels - reflecting the need for fiscal restraint without ignoring necessary funding for national defense, veterans and homeland security.
"One of the reasons Republicans were voted out of the majority was over spending," Congressman Kingston said. "While we can all agree spending got out of control under our watch, House Democrats and the Obama Administration have us on turbo-charge right now. At some point we've got to face reality and get things under control. Democrats have got to give up the same, old talking point of blaming everything on Bush and take responsibility. Without a little sanity in the process, we'll leave our children and grandchildren with unmanageable debt."
The alternative supported by Congressman Kingston would have held non-defense, discretionary spending at the rate of inflation - a 2% increase over last year. Spending for defense, military construction and veterans would garner a 6% increase and homeland security programs would be held to 4%. All said, the savings would result in $44.1 billion less than President Obama's request and $35.2 billion less than the proposal offered by House Democrats.
The savings were voted down by a party line vote but Congressman Kingston remains undeterred.
"If spending worked, we'd be in great shape," said Congressman Kingston. "Last year, we spent $29 billion for a stimulus package, $200 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, $195 billion for AIG and $700 billion for Wall Street. Not to be out done, President Obama has already spent $790 billion on a stimulus' package promising immediate jobs and economic improvement. Unemployment, however, has continued climbing and instead of saving jobs, 1.5 million more have been lost since the stimulus' was passed!"