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Over the next couple of days, we are going to hear a lot from House Republicans about how they are FINALLY being fiscally responsible by giving the president a line-item veto. While this may be a good idea, House Republicans are kidding themselves if they believe this will reverse the fiscal collapse they've presided over the last five years.
If House Republicans were really interested in restoring fiscal discipline here in Washington they would have adopted a 2007 budget that ACTUALLY BALANCED the budget in the coming years. Instead, the House Republican budget actually makes the deficit worse, offers no plan to bring the budget back in balance and adds to the growing burden of the national debt. Thanks to these Republican budgets, the five largest deficits in history will have occurred in five consecutive years.
Giving President Bush a line-item veto will not change course. Instead, we need to go in a new direction. House Democrats offered an alternative that balanced the federal budget by 2012. Our proposal also restored pay-as-you-go rules that were so successful in turning deficits into surpluses in the 1990's. Democrats offered a fiscally-sound plan, but Republicans rejected it.
So much for Republican fiscal discipline. |