A couple hours after publishing our previous post, “GOP senators highjack road funds bailout,” we learned the Republican senators blocking an $8 billion infusion of funds into the federal highway trust fund relented, allowing the bill to pass on a voice vote.
However, at least one of the senators who had obstructed the bill is still grousing.
Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who previously had opposed moving on the legislation without an opportunity for amendments, said it would not be right for those involved in projects to “be blindsided by the fiscal irresponsibility of the Congress.” But he said he still felt that transferring money from the general Treasury “does even more egregious harm to the future of this country by significantly extending the deficit.”
Question: Where was deficit hawk Gregg when the Bush administration was saddling taxpayers with $10 billion in upfront costs to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and where the hell has he been as Bush & Co. has squandered $750 billion on its Iraq quagmire?
If you answered “marching in lockstep,” you get a gold star by your name for today.
I too have never understood how these thrifty Republicans keep pinching pennies when it comes to any project that actually benefits the American people; but when it comes to massive spying projects, the war on drugs, invading and occupying other countries — they seem to have this secret money tree that keeps sprouting trillions of dollars.
I have some sympathy for your point, Tom, but we can’t justify more spending by pointing to worse spending elsewhere.
RSF wrote “. . . we can’t justify more spending by pointing to worse spending elsewhere.”
In the matter this post was about, more spending wasn’t the issue. The bill doesn’t authorize spending more. It authorizes spending the already authorized amount. The issue here was which revenue source the spending would come from.
Fair enough, S.W. I responding to the tone of Tom Harper’s comment.