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Hoyer: Republican Budget Bill Not Fiscally Responsible, But a Continuation of GOP’s History of Irresponsibility

WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today regarding the passage of the Republican budget bill in the Senate yesterday:

“President Bush and Congressional Republicans are being dishonest with the American people as they head home for the holidays touting their budget spending bill as a testament to fiscal responsibility.  When Congress returns, Republicans will try to push through Congress a tax package that will negate any savings contained in the bill passed by the Senate yesterday and result in a net increase in the deficit. 

“These two Republican spending and tax budget bills may be voted on separately but they are part of the same budget and the same mismanagement – try as Republicans will, they cannot be separated and they cannot honestly be described as responsible. 

“The truth is, the Republican 2006 budget is the culmination of five years of fiscal mismanagement under President Bush and Congressional Republicans that has turned a $5 trillion ten-year surplus into a $4 trillion ten-year deficit.  Republicans have given the wealthy few billions in tax breaks, while increasing domestic, non-defense related spending by 35 percent over the levels under President Clinton.

“This budget bill continues Republicans’ indisputable history of fiscal irresponsibility.  Republicans have controlled the White House for 17 of the past 25 years, and have run a deficit in every one of those years, for a total of $4.1 trillion in deficits.  Under 8 years of Democratic management, our nation accumulated a $62 billion surplus.

“Democrats urge a return to the fiscally responsible, bipartisan ‘pay-as-you-go’ policies that lead to the surpluses in the 1990s.”

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