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The Deceptive Budget Deal

Dec 18, 2013 — by: Dennis Linthicum
Categories: Culture, Economy

Last week, your current US House member sent out a puff piece attempting to justify his recent votes. These kinds of word games are exactly what’s wrong with Washington — in an age when more and more people are demanding honesty from their elected officials, why are we accepting these kinds of false claims? Rep. Walden asserts that this deal is a series of “common-sense cuts and reforms in the plan” that will “reduce wasteful government spending by $23 billion more and when passed will avert another government shutdown.”

An analysis by Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee (SBC) details where, the proposal identifies two specific years “(2022 and 2023) to reduce deficits by $28 billion.” Do you think that’s going to happen? Do you believe that politicians will keep these promises, when right now they are misleading us about the nature of the bill itself?

Only in Washington can a legislator put the phrase “reduce wasteful government spending” and omit the gutting of the sequester law. Also, Rep. Walden purposefully hides the $63 billion in spending hikes over two years. Where did those “common-sense cuts” go again? This budget increases spending by $64B over 2 years and proposes to reduce spending $23B over 10 years. Only from an out-of-touch political class can this be labeled as a common-sense “step in the right direction.”

After these spending hikes, the deal proposes $85B in savings, but only on paper. $34B of this isn’t even “savings” because they are “fee increases”, yet another clever way to make conservatives feel represented. They are fees, not taxes… right?

It’s time for honesty and true common-sense in Washington. It’s time to tell these elites that we’re not fooled by their word-games. Taxes are going up and so is spending, under this budget – are you happy with that outcome?