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March 15, 2006
A License to Spend Money
Conservatives have been extremely unhappy with the president and the Republican Congress on the issue of spending. Frankly, they are just simply wasting taxpayer money too often. Two of the worst offenders are my representatives in Congress, Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. They regularly brag about their prowess in bringing federal money to Maine, while at the same time playing at being deficit hawks:
WASHINGTON — Maine's two senators broke with their Republican colleagues Tuesday, joining Democrats in a losing vote to support a requirement that any new federal spending be offset by tax increases or spending cuts. The position supported by Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins failed on a 50-50 tie. The action preceded today's scheduled vote on a proposal to raise the debt ceiling on government borrowing.Okay, the provision on spending cuts I can support wholeheartedly. But tax increases? How many of us, when we go over budget, can just create more money? When someone has a problem with spending, the answer is not to give them more - the answer is to wean them off the habit. Republicans have that problem, and Snowe and Collins are part of it.Snowe and Collins characterized the offset provision as a way to rein in the federal deficit. But Republicans said the provision would amount to a demand for a tax increase.
Their efforts to reign in spending would have a lot more credibility, however, were they to hold to the same principles they expect others to live by. Still, I appreciate that they and the Democrats mentioned cutting spending as a possibility, no matter how cynical the attempt seems to me.
Posted by slublog at March 15, 2006 08:00 AM
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