Since the Republicans lost control of Congress and the White House, they have conveniently decided it’s time to rein in spending after helping President Bush bequeath the current administration with a more than $1 trillion deficit.
Part of that campaign has been to target the once sacrosanct emergency war funding. Republicans made a fuss last year because the war funding bill contained money for the IMF. Last month, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said war funding needs to be paid for. Today on ABC’s Top Line, Sen. John Thune (R-ND) indicated that most Republicans are starting tohold this view:
THUNE: Republicans are increasingly, I think, dug in on the issue of making sure that new spending is offset. … Frankly, I think that there is even a growing consensus among Republicans that we need to start budgeting for this, we need to start figuring out how to pay for it. And I think that’s kind of the majority view among Republicans now.
The Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim has noted the obvious hypocrisy here:
The indecision on the vote from Coburn’s colleagues is a stark contrast from the wars’ early years, when President Bush’s war supplementals flew through GOP-controlled Congresses and any opposition was portrayed as unpatriotic. Cries of “Support The Troops!†met any lawmaker who questioned the direction or the purpose of either the Iraq or Afghanistan war.
Indeed, during the spend-with-no-consequence Bush administration days, Thune praised Congress whenever it passed non-offset emergency war funding. “This critical supplemental funding gives our troops and diplomats the important tools they need to spread freedom abroad and strengthen our security at home,†Thune said in 2005. Thune even cheered an emergency supplemental with unrelated funding for drought assistance in 2007.
On Top Line, Thune seemed to recognize the contradiction and justified the previous GOP support for emergency war funding. “Republicans in the past have viewed Iraq and Afghanistan and the war effort as something that truly is an emergency,†he said, adding, “although it’s hard to say now that we don’t know what these costs are gonna be.â€
All this does is highlight the fact that both parties will blame the other for being partisan, as well as show us that they are the same. Crying little babies afraid that their donors will hold back the candy and rattles. I would really like to see a 3rd party come in strong to perhaps get the career politicians to realize that while they squabble over petty things the nation is being run into the ground by their self indulgence.
“I would really like to see a 3rd party come in strong”
I agree, I have often thought the Indies should become their own ‘real’ party.
Thune and Joe Barton, not a bit a of difference between either of them. Hypocrites.
So, it was cool to demand that war funding was paid for under Bush/Cheney back when we had 30 of 32 quarters of economic growth, yet not today under Obama where we’ve had 6 quarters of decline and MORE money printed and borrowed for just social programs than during all 8 years of Bush/Cheney.
Total debt is going to exceed GDP for the first time in history. Try that on a personal level…ie go into your bank on Monday and ask for a cash loan for more than your annual wages/salary, they will give you the same reaction the Chinese are about to give us. What happens to the value of something you want to sell and no one is willing to buy it?
I know your hatred of BP/Big Oil makes you feel all important, but they employ more people in the US than they do anywhere else. You bitch about low wages, well here’s some folks that pay 75K a year to start to turn wrenches. They’re also are widely held by pension funds worldwide..ie retired workers from every industry. The company has lost half it’s value in 6 weeks. They fucked up and have pledged to make it right, some of the shit that was said to the CEO was out of line (like he should take the Samari route and kill himself) to where he DESERVED an apology. The only people who are benefitting from BP’s downfall are the Saudis.
The Organizer in Chief experiment has been a miserable failure. His assault on Capitalism is what’s truly unsustainable and needs to be turned back yesterday.
George Bush, Thune, none of them ever asked or demanded that the war funding be paid for. Never. When anyone questioned all the money being spent, all the contracts being given to Halliburton and Blackwater they were accused of being unAmerican.
And now it appears that to Sy, Barton, Bachmann, the Republican Study Committee of 116, Armey, the list goes on, we can’t be disgusted with BP and all oil companies. It was OK we were paying up to 5 bucks a gallon while they were making billions of dollars every quarter but too cheap to install any saftey measures on their oil wells. Good to know.
“assault on Capitalism is what’s truly unsustainable and needs to be turned back yesterday.”
Huh? Obama nixed the public option in healthcare reform and will fine people who don’t get ‘private’ insurance. Sounds pretty PRO-CAPITALIST to me. Bluecross turns around and raises their fees 18% in reaction. GW proved to be a socialist by funding these wars that were unneeded. If Obama wants to be a true socialist he needs to pass a public option, and I will applaud him for it, just like the American people applauded Social Security, Public education, VA administration, Medicare-Medicade, Public highways, National parks, etc, etc. We are already a socialist nation – figure it out.
The only people who are benefitting from BP’s downfall are the Saudis. – Sy
I’d say the Chinese will benefit as well when their state-run oil company buys BP for peanuts.
If anyone thinks BP’s environmental record sucks, check out the Chinese.
GW proved to be a socialist by funding these wars that were unneeded. – l3wis
Nah. That just makes him a tool of the military-industrial complex. Pretty much every elected republican is.
We are already a socialist nation – figure it out.
We’re a mixed economy. The only purely socialist nations around any more are Cuba and North Korea. And Cuba has a thriving black market.