Trump, GOP at new crossroads on deficit

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Is that the same crossroads where bluesman Robert Johnson is said to have sold his soul to the devil?

Congressional Republicans who for years breathed fire about fiscal restraint have opened the floodgates to spending, prompting criticism from GOP budget hawks and incredulity from outside groups worried about the nation’s spiraling level of debt.

Congress sent President Trump a $1.5 trillion tax-cut bill in December, and on Friday approved a massive budget measure that would boost spending over the next decade by $300 billion, giving Republican leaders another legislative victory.

The legislation eliminates budget ceilings put into place by a 2011 budget law agreed to by President Obama and former Speaker John Boehner, and allows federal funds to flow more freely to the Pentagon and a host of nondefense programs.

Trump, GOP leaders in both chambers and a majority of Republicans in the House and Senate back the bill, but it has been fiercely criticized by its opponents within the party as a betrayal.

“Republicans have lost every single bit of credibility on the idea that they care at all about debts and deficits,” former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Friday on Fox Business’s “Mornings with Maria” show.

“They can talk all they want, but when they had the chance to do it, they caved and they spent so much money it's stunning,” added Chaffetz, referring to the GOP’s control of the White House and Congress.

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/373277-trump-gop-at-new-crossroads-on-deficit?userid=229233

[BeyondGeography]

1. They never had any fucking credibility on this issue

Not since 1981 at least.

[John Fante]

3. +1

Most of the debt under Obama can traced back to GOP policies. Most of the debt under the next Democratic POTUS will come from the policies of these Republican idiots.

[Va Lefty]

2. This is a plan laid out years ago "Two Santa Clauses Theory"

"... Republican strategist Jude Wanniski’s 1974 “Two Santa Clauses Theory” has been the main reason why the GOP has succeeded in producing our last two Republican presidents, Bush and Trump (despite losing the popular vote both times). It’s also why Reagan’s economy seemed to be “good.”

"Here’s how it works, laid it out in simple summary: "

"First, when Republicans control the federal government, and particularly the White House, spend money like a drunken sailor and run up the US debt as far and as fast as possible. This produces three results – it stimulates the economy thus making people think that the GOP can produce a good economy, it raises the debt dramatically, and it makes people think that Republicans are the “tax-cut Santa Claus.”

"Second, when a Democrat is in the White House, scream about the national debt as loudly and frantically as possible, freaking out about how “our children will have to pay for it!” and “we have to cut spending to solve the crisis!” This will force the Democrats in power to cut their own social safety net programs, thus shooting their welfare-of-the-American-people Santa Claus."

https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/two-santa-clauses-or-how-gop-conned-america-nearly-40-years