Hoyer Reads GOP The Riot Act For Creating Enormous U.S. Debt

[IDemo]

Source: talkingpointsmemo

Brian Beutler
May 23, 2011, 2:07PM

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) offered an unusually blunt assessment of the sources of U.S. debt in a Monday speech before an audience of Republican and Democratic elder-statesmen -- calling Republicans on the carpet for creating systemic deficits, then holding U.S. creditworthiness as hostage to a highly contentious right-wing ideological agenda.

In a Monday speech at the Bipartisan Policy Center, Hoyer said both parties are responsible for addressing the country's unsustainable fiscal trajectory. But he insisted on reminding Republicans that they did far more than Democrats to create the debt, and in so doing, he prompted one famous audience member to attempt to rebut the claims extemporaneously.

"It is not tenable for us to hold ransom the creditworthiness of the United States," Hoyer said, adding that the GOP's negotiating posture "ignores that some of their own policies helped get us where we are today."

From there he recited the three decade history of the current debt most of which is the result of GOP policies.

Read more: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/hoyer-reads-gop-the-riot-act-for-creating-enormous-us-debt.php?ref=fpb

[Luciferous]

1. Good for him. Dems should keep reminding everyone who got us

into this mess.

[RKP5637]

2. This is the type of messaging the D's need to do, holding the R's accountable. IMO Americans

have short memories and the R's will take every minute chance to paint the D's as responsible. Too often IMO the D's are too quiet, and Fox and like take the lead in painting the picture.

[dotymed]

21. I agree, however JOBS are the really urgent matter at hand.

Yes, we need to fix the debt, but first, we must produce living wage jobs. Not McJobs. We have lost over 3,000,000 jobs in the last few years. If we raise taxes on the wealthy, and create jobs (by tariffs on certain imported goods, incentives to create manufacturing jobs in America, pull out of "free trade agreements and create "fair trade agreements, caps on CEO-vs- worker pay, etc...) for the un/under employed, then the debt will take care of itself.

[RKP5637]

23. Yep, agree with you one zillion percent!!! n/t

[601Liberal]

28. "caps on CEO-vs- worker pay"

While I think you mean well, I can't agree to this. I think the government would be overstepping their boundaries in telling private business what they should pay their workers other than the minimum wage though.

[Lorien]

31. Other first world Nations do it to REMAIN first world Nations

if this continues we won't be among them. We'll just be another Mexico.

It sounds like your username should read "601Libertarian".

[Enthusiast]

39. Just another infiltrator. nt

[ljm2002]

35. It doesn't have to be a direct cap...

...just set the income tax to be >95% on anything over a reasonable ratio of CEO to worker salary. That would have the same effect without calling it a cap. :-)

[Lorien]

29. Everyone should have been calling it the "Bush Deficit" from day one

but Dems like being the underdog and hate being asked to be "on message" (except when they choose to parrot GOP talking points).

[SomeGuyInEagan]

32. +1000! "Bush Recession" and "Bushvilles" as well.

Sadly, the Dems just don't do that - by design or incompetence, I guess.

The Republicans may lie, but they do so in unison, loudly and repeatedly. And it works. Which is a big reason why we are so fucked.

[Beartracks]

36. Yes!! And it stands in stark contrast with the Clinton Surplus.

Republicans, of course, attribute Clinton's surplus with Reagan's policies -- TWO PRESIDENTS PREVIOUS! :eyes: But if THAT trickle-down-through-the-ages concept was true, then Bush Jr. himself still holds the bag for the deficit that Obama inherited.

--------------------------------

[bluethruandthru]

33. Yep! Shout this from the rooftops.

We need to remind the country over and over and over that all these tax cuts for the rich and unfunded wars of choice have driven this country into debt...not social security and medicare.

[dkf]

3. The Bush tax cuts were responsible for this. They need to be rescinded....all of them.

[Avant Guardian]

5. +111

[philpotts99]

13. Nice try, Steny

Both Hoyer and Obama pressured Democrats to extend the Bush tax cuts! That was only last December-- that's how they spent the final moments of their majority.

And you don't have to ask whether Hoyer voted against any of Bush's war spending. He didn't, and neither did Obama during his brief time in the Senate.

Hoyer, along with many other Democrats, colluded in every lousy thing Bush did. His protests are as hollow as the Republican pretense of fiscal responsibility.

[dkf]

14. Well he had the double mandate of trying to preserve jobs also.

The weakness in the economy made it a semi reasonable move at the time. But the two year extension should be long enough to get rid of the whole thing.

[philpotts99]

17. That's the standard GOP talking point

...because tax cuts for the rich create jobs??? Well, they never did under Bush, or at any other time. Our leading Democrats vote for this crap because they themselves are rich and want to stay that way, not because they really believe it will benefit the rest of us.

[eyepaddle]

22. Actually the job-preservation part was the unemployment extension, and

IIRC tax breaks for lower income folks. The upper bracket tax breaks were the ransom that had to be paid to get the unemployment extension. The logic being that cash strapped people spend the money quickly and thus stimulate the economy. I think that is a pretty sound argument.

I think extending the Bush tax cuts as-is was to high a price--or at least a higher price than was necessary, but I was happy about the UI part.

I guess I'd say that I pretty much followed what Krugman had to say at the time.

[IndyPragmatist]

46. That wasn't the reason why....

The reason why they were extended is because it would have caused a fairly large selloff on Wall St on Dec 31st. The wealthy would want to keep their gains completely in 2010, and under the tax cuts. The original cuts should have had a phase out period. They should have slowly eliminated the cuts over a few years to avoid a stock selloff.

I give credit to Mitch Daniels on this one...his original plan called for the cuts to be slowly phased out, and also to be voted on every two years for extension. But Bush and the neocons didn't like this and instead went with the hard cuts that they knew would be difficult to remove.

I think we were forced to extend the rates, but we shouldn't have let them be extended at the full amount. We should have cut them in half for 2011, cut in half again for 2012, and then eliminated in 2013. That would have been a compromise that wouldn't hurt the people as much as the current rates.

[HERVEPA]

25. Total Bull!

[AlbertCat]

20. Both Hoyer and Obama pressured Democrats to extend the Bush tax cuts!

When doing nothing at all would have fixed that problem in the 1st place.... according to the way the Repugs themselves wrote the cuts.

And what great thing did "we" get in return for the Bush Tax Cuts extension? I can't remember. Anyone?

[JTFrog]

47. We got unemployment extended.

The republicans basically blackmailed the people.

:shrug:

[sendero]

44. Nice try dumbass..

... picking one event out of tens or hundreds since 1980. The Republicans absolutely have wrecked the economy, and your selective memory won't do jack shit to fix that FACT.

[JTFrog]

48. He's Ron Paul troll.

Don't know why they haven't ts'd his ass already.

:shrug:

[Uncle Joe]

24. But they won't, the people are still getting screwed.

The Republicans take two steps forward toward bankrupting the nation with their asinine policies and the Democrats will take one step backward, that seems to be standard operating procedure.

In the long run the elderly, vulnerable ahd average American will take a hit on Medicare and Social Security, and those Bush tax cuts will still be there.

[Romulox]

30. The present tax cuts were signed by Obama. In 2010. "Obama tax cuts". nt

[trotsky]

4. Start a new war, and most Congresscritters will fall all over themselves to approve.

No funding questions asked. Billions? Trillions? The checkbook's open.

But request a couple of million to fund schools and watch the fireworks.

[Somawas]

6. Good for him. Time for some re4al hardball.

[Enrique]

19. it's not hardball, it's a speech by a politician n/t

[elocs]

7. Yes, I read about that here at DU last night:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1161422

[PADemD]

8. Video link here

http://www.bipartisanpolicy.org/events

[Maineman]

9. Speak the truth often enough and maybe people will begin to believe it

[tibbiit]

10. thats the key

speak the truth often enough,,,, How come this hasnt been said over and over by all dems since 2008 when it crashed? Why just now. This is great he said this but we on a few left leaning websites are the only ones who will know of it.
He and others need to say this non stop.
tib

[Enthusiast]

40. I find it just a tad curious

that the national dialog has been, "Obama has spent us into this deficit." If Bush kept the costs of the wars 'off the books', why did Obama say we must include the war costs in deficit discussions? It seems to me this was an intentional move to deflect criticism away from the Bush Administration and onto Democrats. I see this as just another unexplained Obama mystery.

[pangaia]

12. Sadly, I doubt it..

[txlibdem]

11. Step 1, make a speech. Step 2, bend over and do whatever the GOP wants

We've seen this game for over 4 years now since the Dems first got control of one or more houses of congress. Don't be surprised when taxes on corporations and the rich DO NOT get raised but your Social Security and Medicare get privatized and hacked to bits.

One party rule sucks!

[OHdem10]

15. Until there are Democrats on the Hill who are willing to go on

Television nationally --all three Braodcast Networks-- and
spell out in detail how the Republicans drove us over the
cliff, it really does not matter.

How many reporters are going to prsent Hoyers speech on
Television???

When we see it. he is singing to the choir. Likewise
a small C-Span Audience might see it. Until it is seen
by rank and file voters, Democrats, Republicans,and Teabaggers,
it does not have that much impact.

[Plucketeer]

27. We'll get hours of tragedy

about twister-tormented towns, but NOTHING about a GOP-tormented nation. Reaganomics ruination is just how things are. :banghead:

[Enthusiast]

41. A GOP-tormented nation

is what we are.

[on point]

16. Time to declare supply side economics a failure based on the evidence

[Lindsey]

18. Yes. Let's review who got us here. Hopefully this will be one of the

many issues that will be brought up in the election.

[Enthusiast]

42. Gee, ya think?

Welcome to DU.

[divvy]

26. About damn time ! We are facing a Republican Debt Bomb -- evidence here

President Obama inherited an enormous Bush administration debt that was financed with short term treasury notes. These notes matured during the worst recession on record, and 8 years of republican debt had to be refinanced.

Did you know that the average maturity for ALL outstanding Treasury debt when Obama took office was about 5 years?

Proof here on page 7: http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-cent...

For those interested (and I hope there are a few reporters who are) the parent directory is here:

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-cent...

Click on the month (November for example) and not on "chart data"

Remember that it is the treasury who decides how much debt to issue to which maturity. An example is here:

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/fin-mkts/Documents/financing-tables-q4.pdf

[pacalo]

34. It was during the "you're either with us or against us" hype frenzy that GW & his

rubber-stamping Republican-led congress squandered Clinton's $230 billion surplus & ran up a $1.3 trillion deficit by the time GW was done raiding the Treasury. Pete Domenici should have been reminded of that when he stood up to try to spin the truth.

[Enthusiast]

43. But the Bush frenzy had a noble purpose.

That noble purpose being 'starve the beast'.

[Firebrand Gary]

37. Finally

These fuckers are responsible for the vast majority of this debt, yet they are holding us hostage.

[Enthusiast]

38. Steny Hoyer shouldn't be the only

Democrat saying this. Every day we hear Republicans say that Obama is spending us into oblivion. It is a ridiculous lie that is repeated constantly. What in the fuck has happened to this country?

[sendero]

45. Exactly.

... this economic mess should be hung like a burning tire around the necks of the Republicans, who are 80=90% responsible for it all.

But it's not going to happen because the Dems are just as bought off.