Hot Air posted the following quote from Harry Reid yesterday:
"[It's] time we return to the type of fiscal discipline that democrats brought to Washington in the 90′s when democrats in the Congress and White House balanced the budget and used the surplus to do what Mr. President? To pay down the debt."
You can even follow the link above to hear him say it in person. Maybe some Americans will believe that what he is saying is true, but I hope the voting public has a better memory than that.
This graph below is from Heritage.org (the Heritage Foundation--a conservative website that does research on current issues). There are a few things that need to be pointed out in reference to Senator Reid's statement about the fiscal responsibility of the Democrats. The first thing to remember is that any budget bills are supposed to originate in the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives controls the spending.
In October of 2010, the Washington Examiner observed:
"There is no doubt the 1994 revolution changed congress and passed important legislation such as welfare reform and the first balanced budget in over a generation..."
The article goes on to explain the mistakes the Republicans made in 1994, but again the Republican congress controlled the spending and cut the deficit. In 2006, the Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. After the election of Barack Obama in 2008, the Democrats held a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. (So why didn't they pass a budget?????)
The graph shows the years spending went down and the years it went up. Our spending has increased dramatically since the Democrats took over Congress in 2007. There have been two very expensive stimulus programs that have substantially increased our debt. If that is the definition of fiscal discipline, we will never balance the budget! In the 1990's the Democrats did not have the power to impact the budget.
Senator Reid either has a very bad memory or a very tenuous relationship with the truth.
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