Thursday, October 05, 2006
Hey, big spender
Harold Ford, Jr., aka Junior, has spent the better part of a year trying to convince Tennessee's electorate that he is a fiscal conservative. To buttress this claim, Junior declares in a recent campaign ad that he's "never voted for a budget that wasn't balanced." While Junior may be correct in stating that he's always voted for balanced budgets, examining his record in detail reveals that he's anything but a fiscal conservative.
As a member of the minority party for most of his congressional career, Junior has been able to vote against the GOP's unbalanced budgets as a matter of principle. These principled votes, however, represent but a paltry few of the hundreds of votes Junior's cast over the years. When we take a comprehensive look at Junior's overall fiscal record, this is what we discover:
During the 1st session of the 109th Congress, Junior voted to boost the federal budget by $60.6 billion. That is, the cost of all of the bills which Junior supported in the time period in question totaled $60 billion. During the 108th Congress, Junior voted for $155.5 billion in new federal spending; and during the 107th Congress, Junior's tally was $64.5 billion. Thus, for the past four and a half years, Junior voted for over a quarter of a trillion dollars in new spending by the federal government. By contrast, he voted for a paltry $217 million in spending cuts. (Source: National Taxpayers Union)
As with most of Junior's campaign proclamations, his contention that he's a fiscal conservative falls apart upon closer inspection. If'n all of Junior's proposed spending during the past few years had been approved, the federal budget would've grown by 25 percent.
Junior the Fiscal Conservative? Puh-leez.
As a member of the minority party for most of his congressional career, Junior has been able to vote against the GOP's unbalanced budgets as a matter of principle. These principled votes, however, represent but a paltry few of the hundreds of votes Junior's cast over the years. When we take a comprehensive look at Junior's overall fiscal record, this is what we discover:
During the 1st session of the 109th Congress, Junior voted to boost the federal budget by $60.6 billion. That is, the cost of all of the bills which Junior supported in the time period in question totaled $60 billion. During the 108th Congress, Junior voted for $155.5 billion in new federal spending; and during the 107th Congress, Junior's tally was $64.5 billion. Thus, for the past four and a half years, Junior voted for over a quarter of a trillion dollars in new spending by the federal government. By contrast, he voted for a paltry $217 million in spending cuts. (Source: National Taxpayers Union)
As with most of Junior's campaign proclamations, his contention that he's a fiscal conservative falls apart upon closer inspection. If'n all of Junior's proposed spending during the past few years had been approved, the federal budget would've grown by 25 percent.
Junior the Fiscal Conservative? Puh-leez.
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Thursday, October 05, 2006 
