March 7, 2010

Reconciliation

Great chart on its use since 1980. Take a look at the uses and the times that the use has added to the deficit and who was in charge. Very interesting.

9 comments:

leighton said...

Republican Congressional majorities increase the deficit? That's unpossible!

Streak said...

Not only that, but then they lie about how they used reconciliation to add to the deficit, and play on ignorant American assumption that as Republicans they are fiscally responsible. The simplicity of their lying is impressive, I will grant you. Calling liberals "tax and spenders" and simply ignoring that they spend just as bad, but refuse to pay for it.

steves said...

Republican Congressional majorities increase the deficit?

Except in 2005 and 1996.

The Reagan years looked fiscally responsible, but Bush does not. From what I have seen, most Bush supporters won't call him a fiscal conservative.

Streak said...

I would say that the Reagan years may look responsible, but I would suggest he actually started this process of insisting on cutting taxes in the face of economic reality. I agree that some of those taxes needed cutting, mind you, but not to the level that he wanted in 1980, and I certainly don't buy the trickle down theory.

Our government entered the dysfunctional when one of the major parties decided that raising taxes was impossible. You can't govern that way.

steves said...

Our government entered the dysfunctional when one of the major parties decided that raising taxes was impossible. You can't govern that way.

You can, but you just can't raise spending, which is what seems to happen.

Streak said...

Not to be too stubborn, but at some point you will have a war or disaster. I don't think you can provide good governance and say that taxes are evil.

steves said...

I agree and I think it is unrealistic to say that taxes should never be raised for any reason. My problem is that there seems to be a tendency to err on the side of too much spending.

leighton said...

There's definitely too much spending, but what's funny is that Republicans seem to complain about "excessive" spending on social safety net programs when we spend as much on our military as the rest of the world put together. We have to count pennies when it comes to boosting unemployment benefits, but there's always money for more smart missiles.

steves said...

The Democrats, for the most part, do seem more honest about spending. Republicans are comfortable with certain kinds of spending and not others. This is fine, but don't hide behind a mantle of fiscal conservatism.

I think if we were willing to scale back our military and be more cautious as to where we sent troops, we could pay for serious health care reform with that money.