Posted on 04/07/2011 7:05:48 AM PDT by newzjunkey
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an “ongoing victory,” and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.
Mr. DeLay was defending Republicans’ choice to borrow money and add to this year’s expected $331 billion deficit to pay for Hurricane Katrina relief. Some Republicans have said Congress should make cuts in other areas, but Mr. DeLay said that doesn’t seem possible...
Asked if that meant the government was running at peak efficiency, Mr. DeLay said, “Yes, after 11 years of Republican majority we’ve pared it down pretty good.”...
Republican leaders have been under pressure from conservative members and outside watchdog groups to find ways to pay for the Katrina relief. Some Republicans wanted to offer an amendment, including cuts, to pay for hurricane spending but were denied the chance under procedural rules.
“This is hardly a well-oiled machine,” said Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican. “There’s a lot of fat to trim. … I wonder if we’ve been serving in the same Congress.”
American Conservative Union Chairman David A. Keene said federal spending already was “spiraling out of control” before Katrina, and conservatives are “increasingly losing faith in the president and the Republican leadership in Congress.”
“Excluding military and homeland security, American taxpayers have witnessed the largest spending increase under any preceding president and Congress since the Great Depression,” he said...
Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), said if Mr. DeLay wants to know where to cut, “there are plenty of places to reduce.”
His group soon will release a list of $2 trillion in suggested spending cuts over the next five years...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Disgraced Republican leader DeLay (TX) not only declared a fat-free budget but refused to allow additional cuts or off-sets to come to a vote.
The Tea Party and conservatives need to put boots on the necks of these fools in leadership at all levels.
A $331 billion deficit is chump change by comparison. $62 billion of that was hurricane relief so the actual federal operating deficit was just $269 billion for the year in 2005. We blew through that much just LAST MONTH!
Here, in 2011, we're staring down a $1,645 billion single year deficit and quibbling over a few tens of billions in "cuts."
The Senate and House are $7Billion from making a deal. The House wants $40 Billion in cuts and the Senate wants $33Billion. The difference $7Billion equals 10 days of interest payments that the government is now making. The government spends $4Billion per day. Even if the House wins that only equals 10 days of government spending cuts. Measly!
Good post. Delay was a hero around here.
‘victory’ in war on budget fat?
“All who have served the Revolution have plowed the sea.”
When the members of a representative government begin, in effect, voting themselves varying (offered) portions of the treasury, that government, and that nation, is doomed.
On the upside, Jeff Flake is running for Senate in 2012 and this piece showed he was on the side of fiscal sanity even then.
Good point about Flake.
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