Dems ‘Won’t Quit’ Campaigning, Rather Than Fix Debt Crisis They Created

July 26, 2011

FYI, a similar version of this release below went out to the following districts: Jason Altmire (PA-04), Sanford Bishop (GA-02), Tim Bishop (NY-01), Leonard Boswell (IA-03), Bruce Braley (IA-01), Dennis Cardoza (CA-18), Lois Capps (CA-23), Russ Carnahan (MO-03), Kathy Castor (FL-11), Ben Chandler (KY-06), David Cicilline (RI-01), Gerry Connolly (VA-11), Jim Cooper (TN-05), Jim Costa (CA-20), Jerry Costello (IL-12), Mark Critz (PA-12), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Peter DeFazio (OR-04), Raul Grijalva (AZ-07), Brian Higgins (NY-27), Jim Himes (CT-04), Ruben Hinojosa (TX-15), Kathy Hochul (NY-26), Tim Holden (PA-17), Rush Holt (NJ-12), Steve Israel (NY-02), Bill Keating (MA-10), 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), 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), John Yarmuth (KY-03)

Matheson ‘Won’t Quit’ Campaigning, Rather Than Fix Debt Crisis He Created
Democrats More Focused on Reelection Than Making Necessary Choices to End Their Spending Spree

Washington — As the need to implement a serious debt reduction plan continues to become more urgent, Jim Matheson is demonstrating they ‘don’t quit’ campaigning and avoiding the tough decisions needed to get their own spending in Washington under control. The plan most popular among Matheson’s fellow Congressional Democrats is nothing more than the same old combination of smoke and mirrors, designed to hide their spending addiction until after the next election cycle is over, while ignoring the skyrocketing debt that continues to get worse.

“Jim Matheson’s fellow Congressional Democrats are pushing for a plan that does little except raise the spending limit on their credit cards without any promises that they will end their spending addiction or make the hard choices required to truly solve the debt crisis they helped create,” said NRCC Communications Director Paul Lindsay. “If Matheson joins his fellow Democrats in supporting their overhyped budget scheme, he would simply be endorsing his same big-government policies which would add even more to the skyrocketing debt and threaten the economy further.”

The Democrats’ latest attempt to appear committed to reversing their own spending spree is predictably fraught with budgeting gimmicks rather than real savings:

“But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is devising a sham that will never pass muster in the House. A Capitol Hill source with knowledge of the plan tells me: ‘It includes $1.2 trillion in OCO [Overseas Contingency Operations] savings . . . which was assumed anyway, $1.2 trillion (over $1.1 trillion less than [Majority Leader Eric] Cantor identified in the Biden talks) and $300 billion in interest savings.’ A Senate aide says dryly that Reid ‘has about a trillion in ‘savings’ from ending the war in Iraq that’s already going to end.’ And a disgusted House adviser bluntly tells me that Reid’s plan ‘isn’t real.'” (Jennifer Rubin, “Obama kills bipartisan deal, then Reid resorts to smoke and mirrors,” The Washington Post‘s Right Turn Blog, 7/25/11)

Unwilling to cut back their spending spree, Democrats also know their calls to hike job-destroying taxes are incredibly unpopular, which is why their newest budget plan avoids both before the 2012 elections. This is consistent with their party leaders’ admissions that they are unwilling to make the tough choices necessary with their own reelections in mind:

“Chris, let me tell you what we’re trying to do, what the president is trying do, is, first and most important, we have to lift this credit default from the economy for — you know, for the next 18 months. We have to take that threat off the table through the election.” (Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Fox News’ “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace“, 7/24/11)

Jim Matheson’s Democrat leaders are pushing for another set of smoke and mirrors so that they can continue spending and borrowing while avoiding accountability in next year’s elections. Matheson has demonstrated that he is unwilling to significantly cut back his spending spree, and realizes his calls to raise taxes instead are indefensible to Utah’s middle-class families struggling under a bad economy. If Matheson supports his Democrat colleagues’ efforts to play politics, he will clearly be putting his reelection prospects ahead of tackling the debt crisis he helped create.

Dems ‘Won’t Quit’ Campaigning, Rather Than Fix Debt Crisis They Created http://ow.ly/5NBBH #madeinwdc

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