The Truth About the Budget
By: U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis
Published: April 1, 2007
The Tennessean

There are many untruths emanating from Washington about the recently passed House budget. It almost seems like there is an attempt to rewrite history.

First, the Republicans in Washington have zero credibility when it comes to the budget. Last year, when they were in complete control, they couldn't pass a budget resolution or the appropriations process. The wheels completely fell off. They gave us the rainforest in Iowa, the Bridge to Nowhere, and, when handed a budget surplus in the hundreds of billions of dollars in 2000, it only took six years to squander it and saddle us with historic deficits and a ballooning debt.

The record needs to be set straight. The newly passed budget ends the "borrow-and-spend" era of the last several years with the reimplementation of pay-as-you-go rules. As a result of the reckless "borrow-and-spend" mentality, taxpayers now spend $254.6 billion in interest payments to finance our debt. During this time, federal spending increased more than it has at any other time since the Johnson administration. So much for small government.

Furthermore, since 2001, foreign ownership of our Treasury securities more than doubled to $2.2 trillion (with Communist China being a major buyer of our debt). This is not rhetoric but fact. Figures don't lie.

The Democratic budget achieves balance by 2012 and blocks the trend of "borrow and spend."

Additionally, there is language in the budget stating support for the extension of the state sales tax deduction. The GOP budget has no such provision. You can be certain that my Tennessee colleagues and I, Democrats and Republicans, will be working hard to make sure the state sales tax deduction not only is extended but made permanent.

If the Republican Party was serious about long-term tax cuts for the middle class, they would have made the state sales tax deduction permanent when it was first passed instead of setting expiration dates.

The proof is in the facts. Like most farmers, Tennesseans won't be sold a blue-eyed mule again by the GOP.