Schumer: GOP didn't object to deficit spending when Bush did it David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Published: Sunday February 15, 2009





Print This Email This Congressional Republicans have attacked the Obama administration's stimulus program on the grounds that it involves spending money we don't have, but Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) struck back sharply against that argument in an appearance Sunday on ABC's This Week.



"On the floor of the Senate, I heard over and over again, 'This is a trillion dollars that we're not paying for,'" Schumer began.



Schumer was referring to statements like those made by House Minority Leader, John Boehner, who is quoted on his official website as saying, Republicans agree action is needed to help our economy create jobs and get back on the path to recovery, but borrowing billions from our children and grandchildren and spending it on slow-moving government programs isnt the answer."



"I never heard that mentioned when it came to the Iraq War," continued Schumer, "which is a trillion dollars which we're not paying for. I never heard it mentioned when George Bush changed a surplus of $300 billion into a deficit of over 800."



In 2006, when the Republicans still controlled Congress, they actively beat back any attempts to control deficit spending. The New York Times reported on March 14 of that year, "Senate Republicans on Tuesday narrowly defeated an effort to impose budget rules that would make it harder to increase spending or cut taxes, a move that critics said that showed Republicans were posturing in their calls for greater fiscal restraint. ... Republicans said the push to add the rules to the budget was a back-door effort to make it harder to extend President Bush's tax cuts. 'The practical effect of this is to raise taxes,' said Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire and chairman of the Budget Committee."



"So all of a sudden, the reason to be against this is deficit spending," Schumer concluded. "But when it was Iraq War or tax cuts for the highest-income people, we never heard it."





This video is from ABC's This Week, broadcast Feb. 15, 2009.









Download video via RawReplay.com











