Democrats Still Don’t Get it: Americans Want the Spending to Stop

April 19, 2011

FYI, a similar version of this release below went out to the following districts: Jason Altmire (PA-04), John Barrow (GA-12), Sanford Bishop (GA-02), Tim Bishop (NY-01), Dan Boren (OK-02), Leonard Boswell (IA-03), Bruce Braley (IA-01), Dennis Cardoza (CA-18), Russ Carnahan (MO-03), Ben Chandler (KY-06), Gerry Connolly (VA-11), Jim Cooper (TN-05), Jim Costa (CA-20), Mark Critz (PA-12), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Peter DeFazio (OR-04), Joe Donnelly (IN-02), Raul Grijalva (AZ-07), Martin Heinrich (NM-01), Brian Higgins (NY-27), Jim Himes (CT-04), Maurice Hinchey (NY-22), Ruben Hinojosa (TX-15), Tim Holden (PA-17), Rush Holt (NJ-12), Jay Inslee (WA-01), Steve Israel (NY-02), Bill Keating (MA-10), Dale Kildee (MI-05), Ron Kind (WI-03), Larry Kissell (NC-08), Rick Larsen (WA-02), David Loebsack (IA-02), Jim Matheson (UT-02), Carolyn McCarthy (NY-04), Mike McIntyre (NC-07), Jerry McNerney (CA-11), Michael Michaud (ME-02), Brad Miller (NC-13), Bill Owens (NY-23), Frank Pallone (NJ-06), Ed Perlmutter (CO-07), Gary Peters (MI-09), Collin Peterson (MN-07), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), David Price (NC-04), Nick Rahall (WV-03), Mike Ross (AR-04), Loretta Sanchez (CA-47), Kurt Schrader (OR-05), Heath Shuler (NC-11), Adam Smith (WA-09), Betty Sutton (OH-13), John Tierney (MA-06), Niki Tsongas (MA-05), Pete Visclosky (IN-01), Tim Walz (MN-01), Anthony Weiner (NY-09), David Wu (OR-01), John Yarmuth (KY-03)
 
DeFazio Still Doesn’t Get It: Americans Want the Spending to Stop
Oregon Democrat Votes Against Serious Deficit Reduction Plans Despite Impending Fiscal Disaster

Washington — Standard and Poor’s recently announced in an unprecedented move that they were downgrading the United States’ credit rating outlook from “stable” to “negative,” underscoring the importance of tackling our nation’s exploding debt. Despite this, Peter DeFazio continues to double down on his party’s big-spending policies, like when he recently voted against the only serious proposal that truly addresses the scope of our obvious fiscal problems. The question remains, when will enough be enough for DeFazio to get serious about tackling our nation’s growing debt?

“Peter DeFazio and his Democrat allies continue to act as if we can keep spending money borrowed from countries like China and incur no consequences whatsoever,” said NRCC Communications Director Paul Lindsay. “The warning signs are clear that a debt crisis awaits that would severely cripple the American economy, and yet DeFazio and his Democrat colleagues continue to vote against serious and effective solutions to get our finances back on track. Instead, DeFazio continues to pile more government debt on families and future generations to continue fueling the Democrats’ spending spree.”

DeFazio last week voted against what has been described as the only “credible” proposal to truly deal with our rapidly rising national debt (Roll Call Vote #277, 4/15/11):

“[T]he Wisconsin Republican’s proposal is the first plan in Congress big enough to do something serious about the nation’s runaway deficits and debt.”

“Attacking the Republican plan might reap short-term political rewards, but the lack of presidential leadership is distressing. Without a credible proposal of their own, it’s hard to believe the Democrats understand the danger posed by the rapidly escalating national debt.” (Editorial, “Dems bash GOP budget, but where’s theirs?” USA Today, 4/5/11)
 

And on Monday, new warnings came from financial analysts that downgraded the U.S. credit outlook from “stable” to “negative.” Failing to act would make borrowing money even more expensive for the federal government:

“‘Because the U.S. has, relative to its AAA peers, what we consider to be very large budget deficits and rising government indebtedness, and the path to addressing these is not clear to us, we have revised our outlook on the long-term rating to negative from stable,’ S&P said.” (Steven C. Johnson, “S&P threatens to cut U.S. credit rating on deficit,” Reuters, 4/18/11)
 

House Democrats in Washington incredibly responded by doubling down on their same old policies of spending and borrowing without conceding the need for fiscal reform, in direct contradiction to the report’s prescriptions:

“House Democrats seized on the S&P report to argue that the GOP should allow a ‘clean’ vote on a measure to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling free from any other budget proposals.” (Erik Wasson and Bernie Becker, “Stocks plunge after S&P shifts rating on US debt to negative,” The Hill‘s On The Money Blog, 4/18/11)
 

The warning signs strike a stark contrast with the actions of Peter DeFazio and his fellow out of touch Washington Democrats who have made it clear they want to spend and borrow from countries like China instead of have the government live within its means. As government debt continues to pile on every working family in Oregon, will DeFazio finally realize enough is enough?

Democrats still don’t get it as financial experts sound the alarms on excessive spending and borrowing http://ow.ly/4Dtrs #MadeinWDC

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