Residual Forces

Amidst the fanaticism over the US House’s vote for defeat in the war on terror, many missed that the US Senate is proposing to spend nearly $3 TRILLION dollars.

The Senate yesterday approved a $2.9 trillion budget blueprint that calls for raising the federal cigarette tax to pay for a massive expansion of the nation’s health insurance program for children. It also authorizes big boosts in spending next year for public education and veterans’ services.

The Democratic spending plan would extend some of President Bush’s signature tax breaks for middle-class families past their 2010 expiration date, a modification pushed by moderate Democrats. It also promises to erase the federal deficit within five years, though Democratic leaders acknowledge that difficult decisions about tax policy still stand in the way of that goal.

Rest assured, the Democrats had help in passing their bloated waste of taxpayer dollars.

The two Maine Republicans, Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins, broke ranks to join Democrats and independent Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) in supporting the plan, which passed 52 to 47. A similar spending proposal is to be debated in the House next week.

So help me gOD, if the NRSC blows a wad on either of those two worthless wastes of perfectly good pantsuits…..

A spokesman for Snowe said her support was motivated in part by the restoration of pay-as-you-go budget rules that prohibit new taxes and new spending from increasing the deficit, which stood at $248 billion last year. Those rules were allowed to expire at the beginning of the Bush administration, clearing the way for Republicans to push through more than $1 trillion in tax cuts that were not offset by spending cuts or tax increases.

Those were the tax cuts that got us out of the recession, helped create 6 million plus new jobs, and has led to increased revenue for the Federal Treasury due to the booming economic growth since. But Collins and Snowe don’t get that. They are tax and spenders at heart.

All told, the Senate plan would increase spending on domestic programs by $18 billion, or 4 percent, over the president’s request, and nearly 3 percent above current levels.

You see you don’t need ‘pay-as-you-go rules’ to have a balanced budget. You need fiscally conservative people who understand the concept of limited Government in control of Congress. All the ‘Pay-Go Rules’ are is an excuse for tax increases in order to spend themselves drunk with our money.