The U.S. House and Senate voted to end the GOP's debt ceiling charade with the democratic party supplying the majority yea votes in both chambers of Congress. The total democratic yea votes was 210, (165 in the House and 45 in the senate.) The total GOP yea votes total was 166. (149 in the house and 17 in the senate.) The legislation suspends the debt ceiling for two years and will not be a factor in the next Presidential election as a hostage issue. The GOP's weakness in their votes was an indication of their charade all along. The legislation also ended the GOP's legislation passed earlier in the House that called for major cuts in federal spending and President Biden's priorities.
Those who are familiar with the federal budget know that the GOP's debt ceiling charade and their rhetoric are incapable of "walking the talk." THIS generation of the GOP has it's roots in the Reagan-Gingrich era that began when Reagan was elected in 1980. Since then, Reagan, Bush 41, Bush 43 and Trump during the 40 year period they served, never "walked the talk" of fiscal responsibility or large cuts in federal spending as demanding the democrats do in the House bill they passed a few weeks ago.
As a reminder how those 4 GOP administrations brought fiscal disaster to the federal budget lets recall what Vice President Dick Chaney said when he said, federal deficits don't matter. Evidently President Bush agreed with his V.P. because federal spending increased 61% during Bush's 8 fiscal years, never balanced one budget, the national debt increased 105% and Bush's last fiscal year saw a record one year deficit that hit $1.4 trillion. Trump broke that record with a $3.1 trillion deficit in his 3rd fiscal year and than a $2.7 trillion deficit in his last fiscal year.
The Trump generation of the GOP have no record of being fiscal conservative and join Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 in that regard. That is why they loss the debt ceiling charade before it even started. The facts escaped the media because they are ignorant when it comes to the budget numbers and therefore are enablers of the GOP talking points concerning the budget.
The CBO reported the debt ceiling agreement would reduce deficits $1.5 trillion in the next decade, a goal of the GOP. Well President Biden's administration reduced deficit spending $1.4 trillion in his very first fiscal year budget. The deficit came in at $1.3 trillion compared to Trump and the GOP's last fiscal year deficit of $2.7 trillion, a reduction of almost 50% in just one short year. So the GOP is happy to reduce deficit spending close to President Biden's number but they want to take 10 years which is what a decade is.
Opinion writers who are ignorant concerning the federal budget numbers and the two parties performance, never picked up on the facts and reported that democratic administrations have already cut federal spending long before the GOP's debt ceiling charade. In fact year to year federal spending was down on the watch of 3 democratic Presidents that took place 7 times. Year to year spending under President Truman was down 3 times, in fiscal years 1946,1947 and 1948. It was down 3 years on Obama's watch in fiscal years 2010, 2012 and 2013. It was down in fiscal 2022 8% on President Biden's watch. It was down only one time in the last 68 years on President Eisenhower watch in 1955. For the record federal spending in Trump and the GOP's last fiscal year budget was $6.8 trillion. It was $6.2 trillion in Biden's first fiscal year budget.
THIS generation of the Trump/GOP has no record of "walking the talk" of fiscal responsibility and that is why their debt ceiling talk has been a charade. The President, the democratic party, the country and its people have won the debt ceiling debate and continue to be the only sane voice for America to move forward and leave the toxic rhetoric behind.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
