Posted by
Always To The Right on Friday, October 24, 2008 8:17:04 PM
Just in case the message hasn’t quite gotten through to voters, Barney Frank reminded Republicans
what one-party government would look like in 2009. Democrats want to
escalate government spending in what looks more like a new New Deal
while we face the consequences of entitlement explosion that the first
one created. And if the GOP doesn’t play ball now, they’ll lose any
chance of limiting the spending later
John McCain has apparently decided to make the divided-government
argument in the final ten days. This could be Exhibit A. Without a
check on a Democratic Congress in the White House, Frank and his allies
will run wild on spending, creating massive new entitlements and
government works programs, pulling capital out of the markets to fund
it. Instead of having a chance at reforming Social Security and
especially Medicare, they’ll busily create an even bigger economic
disaster.
Republicans need to defiantly answer Frank’s extortion by running
this threat in ads for the next 10 days in every close Congressional
race. They need to ask voters whether they want to put government in
the hands of people who want to take even more of their money to make
government even bigger than it is now. If nothing else, it prepares
the ground for 2010 and the next midterms.
Update: How will they pay for it all? Frank suggests a 25% reduction in defense spending — while we’re at war.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Democrats
will push for a stimulus package after the November election, and
called for a package reducing defense spending by 25 percent while
saying Congress will "eventually" raise taxes.
Frank told the editorial board of the SouthCoast Standard-Times that he wanted to reduce defense spending by a quarter, meaning the United States would have to withdraw from Iraq sooner.
If Republicans continue to resist, said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Democrats are likely to rejoin the issue in January, when they expect party standard bearer Barack Obama to take the oath of office as president.
"There's no question the House will pass ... a much bigger (stimulus plan) than we passed before," Frank said of a postelection lame duck session. "If enough Republicans in the Senate decide to filibuster it ... then we'll just wait until January."