RNC chairman blames debt on 9/11
Posted November 1st, 2007 at 1:30 pm
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Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan was on CNN yesterday, explaining how confident he is that the GOP is going to do really well in next year’s election cycle. “I’ve been in 27 states so far, and I’m seeing a great enthusiasm,” Duncan said. “And after last night, my phone rang off the hook today with calls about the Democrat {sic} debate.” (Yes, the RNC is always on-message, even when it comes to bad grammar.)
Wolf Blitzer noted that Republicans are now emphasizing fiscal restraint as a party priority, and brought up some recent history to put this to the test. (via Tim Grieve)
BLITZER: Let’s talk about what some Republicans say happened during the first six, 6 1/2 years of the Bush administration, the six years when there was a Republican in the White House and the Republicans had the majority in the House and Senate.
And I’ll put some numbers up. The national debt when the president took office was $5.8 trillion, but now it’s gone up. It’s almost doubled, at least to $9 trillion. And this is money that our children and grandchildren are going to be owing to the Chinese, the Saudis, all the wealthy states out there who are taking these loans from the United States.
What happened to the fiscal conservatives that were so important to the Republican base?
DUNCAN: Wolf, I could get into a long explanation about the percentages and why we actually are bringing down the debt and over the next five years what’s going to happen, but the bottom line is what other president has faced a calamity like 9/11?
First, no one, not even the most hackish loyal Bushie in the West Wing, claims that the debt is going to come down “over the next five years.” These guys claim Bush can bring down the deficit by 2012, but until then, the enormous debt will just keep getting bigger. The chairman of the Republican National Committee apparently doesn’t know what the “debt” is. Actually, that tells us a lot about the modern GOP.
Second, 9/11? Really? Terrorist attacks six years ago added nearly $4 trillion to the national debt? That’s the RNC’s argument?
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