“Here it is”? No, there it wasn’t.
How much would the Republicans spend? No one can say. The 19-page Republican “alternative” budget contained:
• No spending numbers
• No tax revenue numbers
• No deficit/surplus levels
• No spending levels for any government agencies
• No specific budget cuts mentioned
{modulepos inner_text_ad}
The only charts in the “budget” are the ones that correctly highlight President Obama’s fiscal irresponsibility.
How the Republican leadership can call a document with neither revenues nor spending levels a “budget” is impossible to say. But it does explain quite clearly why the Republican Party is the minority party in American politics.
When reporters pressed Boehner for details on the budget, he informed them that the GOP would be releasing them later in the week. So much for "here it is."
Long on fuzzy rhetoric and completely lacking in budget details, the “budget” does lay out two Republican policy goals on the issues of healthcare and taxes. On healthcare, the Republicans state: “Republicans seek to provide universal access to affordable health care and to address Medicare and Medicaid’s trillion dollar unfunded liabilities with common-sense reforms that ensure our children and grandchildren can secure benefits in the future.”
Take out the “Republican” from that quote, and the line would have fit any socialist leader, such as Hillary Clinton in her remarks during the 2008 presidential campaign.
The Republicans also called for significant income tax cuts limiting the “marginal tax rate for income up to $100,000 of 10 percent and 25 percent for any income thereafter, with a generous standard deduction and personal exemption.”
A tax cut sounds good, but unless it’s paired with spending cuts, it’s not a tax cut at all. A tax cut without corresponding spending cuts would only result in alternative taxation through inflation and deficit spending. It would only accelerate Obama’s credit-card socialism.
A person with no substance or principles is known as an “empty suit.” The “Empty Party,” the Republican Party, has just put forth its “empty budget.”
Photo of Rep. John Boehner: AP Images
