The Assoc Press Points Out Republican Hypocrisy

The A.P. has an article out talking about how the same Republicans who passed the Medicare prescription benefit over Democratic objections to the debt-busting bill are the same Republicans who fought against the lower-costing Democrat-sponsored healthcare overhaul, which actually (according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office) will pay for itself with higher taxes and spending cuts.

"As far as I am concerned, any Republican who voted for the Medicare drug benefit has no right to criticize anything the Democrats have done in terms of adding to the national debt," said Bruce Bartlett, an official in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He made his comments in a Forbes article titled "Republican Deficit Hypocrisy."

Bartlett said the 2003 Medicare expansion was "a pure giveaway" that cost more than this year's Senate or House health bills will cost. More important, he said, "the drug benefit had no dedicated financing, no offsets and no revenue-raisers. One hundred percent of the cost simply added to the federal budget deficit."

The pending health care bills in Congress, he noted, are projected to add nothing to the deficit over 10 years.

Pretty damning stuff. It's good to finally see a little push-back against the false reality that has been in place these last 10 months or so... that a certain party in Congress is the "budget balancing" party, while the other is not.