Standard Practice Not To Pay For Things

Finally, one of the Republicans accidentally blurted out the truth about something.

We know the Republicans are against anything that might add a cent to the federal deficit, even though the Democrats insist that their programs are paid for. And whether they are entirely or not, at least someone appears to be giving some thought to it and trying to make sure it's all covered.


How different from the Republican years, when they didn't care a thing about the deficit, and ran it up, leaving nothing behind but red ink. Here's the accidental honesty of one of the Republicans, Orrin Hatch:

Six years ago, "it was standard practice not to pay for things," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "We were concerned about it, because it certainly added to the deficit, no question." His 2003 vote has been vindicated, Hatch said, because the prescription drug benefit "has done a lot of good."

So his 2003 vote has been vindicated because it "has done a lot of good." I'm sure universal health care would do a lot of good as well. So why were the Republicans against it? Because they were afraid it might run up the deficit is one of their flimsy reasons. Of course we know they have a completely partisan reason for opposing it. Because they're actually afraid it will do people a lot of good and they, the Republicans, won't get any credit for it. They're banking on failure. If the country fails, then the Republicans will be happy.

I actually remember one point in the Bush presidency, conservatives were arguing that deficits didn't matter, as long as they were a relatively small percentage of the GDP. That was their argument then.