And:
Here’s Blunt on Fox on Sunday trying to make the case that Democrats are being fincally irresponsible. He sounds like a fool.
Wallace: During the Trump presidency, even before the pandemic, the national debt increased by more than $3 trillion and in 2017, every Republican in the Senate, including you, voted for the big Trump tax cuts which cut revenue by almost one and a half trillion dollars. So I guess the question is, when I hear for instance Mitch McConnell talking about debt and deficits, hasn’t the Republican Party—haven’t you lost your credibility on those issues?
Blunt: “Well, I don’t think anybody has a very good record for the last decade on this. I think the deficit under the Obama years and the Trump years are very similar.”
Well, there is one huge difference. Obama was confronted with the massive financial crisis upon taking office. Trump inherited an economy in smart recovery and the Republicans decided that instead of doing what they always say the Democrats should do and pay down the deficit, they went on a spending spree to give their rich friends huge tax cuts.
That’s what they did after Clinton left a surplus as well, when Bush came in. It’s how they roll. Democrats seem to have learned that they’ve been played for suckers on this issue for decades. And the press appears to be willing to point out the GOP’s lack of credibility, at least for now.
This is not to say the GOP won’t argue that the infrastructure bill and the rest are just “tax ‘n spend” projects (to benefit the wrong people, if you know what I mean.) But the deficit argument is dead for the moment. Thank goodness.
Money cheap right now and it’s a perfect time to do some major government infrastructure investment for the future. Here’s hoping they don’t end up with President Manchin throwing a monkey wrench in the whole thing.