Rod Jetton: Hypocrisy Abounds, But Jobs Can’t Be Found

Being out of politics is such a peaceful life.  Reading the press reports about the debt ceiling debate, special election campaigns and overall fight between the President and Republicans in Congress makes me chuckle. 

Watching the Republicans and the Democrats tear each other apart would be a lot more funny if their decisions did not have such serious consequences on us poor average citizens.  What is so infuriatingly funny is the hypocrisy. 

Let’s start by looking at the debt ceiling debate. 

Normally, raising the debt limit or borrowing money is a no-brainer for elected officials. Politicians are heroes when they spend money.  They are given awards, trips and plaques, for just spending your money.  Sometimes they even get buildings and bridges named after them, even before they die all because they spent someone else’s money.  I still have a few of my old plaques hanging on the wall. 

It doesn’t take long for even a stupid politician to learn that spending money, not cutting budgets, is the path to admiration, love and that most important priority of all, winning re-election. 

There are two ways to get the money everyone wants them to spend.  They can raise taxes (not a very popular option), or borrow the money.  As you can imagine, borrowing the money is very popular because most citizens don’t care or understand borrowing or deficits, and the majority of elected officials are more worried about the next election than the future re-payment plan. 

Usually, raising the debt limit happens quietly with little fanfare or press attention.  With the exception of a few “hardcore fiscal conservatives,” the President’s party always supports raising the limit, and the other party opposes it.  Apart from a few campaign mailers sent out in freshmen legislators re-election campaigns, it is never even used as a campaign attack. (It’s hard to attack an opponent for voting the same way you have voted)   

But this year was different.  With deficit spending exploding faster than anyone thought possible, along with Republicans throwing out the Democrats in November, the stage was set for a showdown.  Normally, the President could have cut a deal to increase military spending or throw a few key projects in big highway bill, and they would have increased the debt limit; but because these pesky tea party “crazies” have the general population stoked up over deficit spending, the Republicans were forced to play hardball. 

Us average citizens had to listen to President Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi tell us how deficit spending was no big deal, while Speaker Boehner and company lectured everyone on the virtues of paying our bills and living within our budget. 

What makes this so sad is, just a few months ago before Obama was president and the Democrats took over congress we had to listen to Pelosi, Reid and Obama tell us how dangerous deficit spending was and how terrible President Bush and the republicans were for overspending.  Here are a few of their best quotes.

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. Over the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion. That is “trillion” with a “T.” That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers. And over the next 5 years, between now and 2011, the President’s budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion.  Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here’. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”                                           –

Senator Barack Obama, Senate Floor Speech on Public Debt, March 16, 2006

“After years of historic deficits, this new 110^th Congress will commit itself to a higher standard: pay as you go, no new deficit spending. Our new America will provide unlimited opportunity for future generations, not burden them with mountains of debt.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, January 2007

“Why is it right to increase our nation’s dependence on foreign creditors? Democrats won’t be making an argument to support this legalization, which will weaken our country.”                                                                                                                              

Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid, March 16, 2006

“I shouldn’t have done that. I’m kinda embarrassed I did. It was a political maneuver by we Democrats. The Republicans were in power – there were more of them. “The president voted when he was in the Senate the same way. I heard him apologize for it. The one time I tried to make a political issue of it, I wish I hadn’t.”                                                                         

Senator Reid, April 14^th 2011 on ABC’s “Top Line”

Of course the hypocrisy is a bipartisan issue. 

The same Republicans who voted for federal programs that have led too much of the deficit spending, are now anti-spending disciples.  They seem to forget their support for massive highway bills, prescription drugs, no child left behind, Medicaid, TARP bailouts, and every liberals favorite reason to for the deficit, war funding. 

And before we leave this subject let’s not forget that all of these “leaders” have voted for and against raising the deficit- most more than once.  These comments and these votes have been documented by others but each side seems to sweep it  under the rug. 

Fast forward to today where we have the great presidential pied piper and his blind mice followers in Congress haplessly wandering down a path of higher deficits, and bigger budgets with no explanation on how the increased spending will improve our economy.  So far, all we have is a bigger deficits, higher unemployment and increasing prices with no believable or reasoned explanation of where they want to lead us normal folks.  They keep telling us it’s all Bush’s fault, and that if we would only raise taxes on the rich (after 2012) and spend just a few billion more, all our economic woes would disappear.  (Never mind that the proposed future tax increases on the rich don’t bring in enough revenue to even cut the annual deficit in half.)    

Not to be outdone, Bro. Boehner and his fiscal deacons in the house have gotten that old time fiscal religion by attending the Tea Party tent revivals.  But after giving their testimony and extorting the faithful at the rallies, they gather back in their Capitol offices and quietly pledge their support to the voters back home about protecting social security, prescription drug programs, Medicare, local military bases, post offices, or any other “good” program their voters want.  They rail on the president for cutting NASA, farm subsidies, road projects, post offices or any other pork they can bring home.  Then at their first invitation, they show back up to the Tea Party rallies and profess their hatred of earmarks.

Here is the sad part.  The democrats spent eight years bashing Bush and hoping the economy would tank while he was in office so they could regain power and fix America.  Unfortunately for them, they got their wish.  Now, the Republicans are bashing Obama and praying the economy doesn’t recover before next year’s election so they can take back control.  They both seem to be more concerned with who is in power and who can prove that their policies and economic hypotheses are right.

From what I can tell, both sides seem confused.  The democrats gained total control, advanced their fixes, spent trillions, and it hasn’t worked.  They have no idea what to do next.  The Republicans also seem clueless and are just hoping that if they get control back, the economy will start improving.  Many of my friends in politics are now saying the economy just has cycles and the best you can hope for as an elected official, is to be in office when the cycle is improving. 

No one in either party seems to know what to do.  Republicans say, “If we would just cut taxes, along with regulations and get out of the way, the American people will improve the economy.”  Democrats argue, “We need to raise taxes on the super rich and spend just a little more money to prime the pump and it will all improve.”  Seems to me we have tried both of these approaches. 

Democrats say the first one led to the “great recession” and begged us to let them fix it.  We did, and they spent trillions to “fix” things, but average guys like me feel things are getting worse.

Is it any wonder why no one trusts politicians?  We all feel like their main concern is getting reelected and staying in power.  Their words and actions convey that message and their hypocrisy is sickening.  As a conservative, I don’t share my liberal friends’ views of how to improve our economy, but I also get tired of watching both parties play the blame game and musical chairs while so many of us hardworking citizens are suffering.

My next post will stick with this hypocrisy theme by taking a look at President Obama and his policies.  I think my conservative friends may be suprised with my opinion of his first few years, while my liberal friends won’t like how Obama compares to Bush. 

I said in my first post that no politician is as good or bad as you think, and when we take a look at both Bush and Obama, my partisan colleges may be surprised by the virtues of both.