Columnist Robert Novak applauded Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and a few other lawmakers for bucking the GOP efforts to push through more pork spending while they still held the majority. But Novak isn’t optimistic that the new Democratic majority will do any better about controlling spending. He wrote: “It is highly unlikely that Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a legendary king of pork returning as Appropriations Committee chairman, will reverse the habits of a lifetime and listen to ordinary voters’ revulsion over excessive federal spending.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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10 Comments
This is a baloney. When are you going to tire of finding more and more ways of saddling 21st century Democrats with the hoary myths of 40 years ago? Which president last balanced the budget? Which presidents (if you need help, Reagan and Bush II) have added almost all of the current federal deficit?
Give Sen. Byrd and Democrats a chance to prove themselves to be good administrators of government.
Robert Byrd has long recognized that his state, like Kansas, is a colonial satellite, whose land and people resources are exploited to generate riches for others. So he gets some table scraps for his constituents, just like Trent Lott, Mississippi’s Republican senator does. This provides jobs, and decent livings for Americans living in their jurisdictions.
History can be interrupted in lots of ways. In 1995 the Republicans were accused of shutting down the government because they tried to hold the Democrats feet to the fire and pass a Balanced Budget Amendment. They bowed to pressure and backed off. Clinton with the help of massive defense cuts was able balance the budget for one year but then incurred over $140 billion in new debt which would have been blocked if the BBA had been passed. I will be the first to say the Republicans have been spending like drunken sailors and this has to stop. I hope this will happen but history tells us that social spending will increase at the expense of military spending under the democrats. I’ll keep a wait and see attitude.
Balanced Budget Amendment!
Oh man, you gotta be kidding me.
All the Republicans had to do to pass a balanced budget is balance the budget.
There’s no need to change the constitution to do what can easily be done–as Clinton proved–without an amendment.
Also, the big spending is in Iraq. 1.6 billion a week, with at least 40 percent of it going to American contractors with Bush-Cheney connections.
Nofacts Novak should really stick to outing CIA agents and leave the pontificating to people with at least half a brain.
And why would I listen to anything Bob Novak says? The man has proven himself to be what he is in in the CIA outing of Valerie Plame – didn’t he?
Novak has no credibility but of course the Republicans still love him because he is their mouthpiece.
Are we talking about Novak, the neo-con advocate of an illegal war and occupation in Iraq, Novak? The same Novak who sold out a CIA’s identity, committed treason, and helped set back American intelligence that was used to combat WMD, Novak?
Good job Eagle, perhaps next you’ll find some other right-wing, anti-American nut to glean some opinions from. I think there’s some crazy guy on Broadway who had a shouting match with himself, perhaps you could get his opinion on the Democrats.
As reported in Newsweek, August 2006 they “reported that Armitage was the “primary” source for Robert Novak’s piece outing Plame;” For those who don’t know Richard Armitage was Colin Powell’s assistant and certainly no friend of Rove, Rumsfield or President Bush. Armitage knew from the beginning that he was the leak but chose to let the hearings go forward for over two years. He thought he could get Rove indicted but had to settle for Scooter Libby for not remembering something he said two years earlier in a casual conversation. This fit his game plan of influencing the mid term elections. Try getting your facts straight. It’s enlightening. Plame sent her own husband to Niger, he was a declared enemy of President Bush. You have enough facts now to research. Try it.
So a spokesman for the Republican Party questions whether the Democrats will sufficiently clean up the mess his Party left? Hardly a credible source. The record shows that we had infinitely more fiscal responsibility with Clinton than we have had with Bush. Yes, the GOP Congress helped some; however they showed their true spendthrift natue over the past 6 years.
I would say the spend money like a drunken sailor but I don’t want to insult drunks or sailors.
If our government was run as it should be, with compromise, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
If they want to enact some laws that will be helful, perhaps they should start with banning pork and follow it up with a tight limit on lobbying. They should then follow those up by enforcing the laws already on the books.
Hey ksgrm if it’s all Armitage, why is the Administration so worried that they tried to get the lawsuit dismissed on the grounds that Cheney couldn’t be sued for actions taken as an Admin.leader? And, if Valerie outed herself, how can they possibly get scooter, or win a lawsuit?