Via RS’s sister site Human Events, it turns out that Speaker Pelosi’s office is working hard to react to yesterday’s strong, principled, and unanimous opposition to the Obama/Pelosi/Reid debt bill. The only problem is, knowledge of political history seems pretty limited in Pelosi’s circles, which is pretty bad since she was in office when the relevant events happened!
In other words, she’s wrong, and she’s not even predicting the kind of events that I think she wants to predict here.
Quoting the leaked Pelosi memo that Human Events uncovered:
This is not the first time the Republicans in the House have unanimously voted against a needed economic package. The last time, in 1993, when Democrats voted for tough action to clean up after Republican economic mess, not a single Republican voted for the legislation that produced record surpluses and a balanced budget.
Where to begin, where to begin? First of all, in the period from 1993 to 1997, government spending growth was held below 2%, and in fact went down in 1993, according to figures from the Heritage Foundation. That, combined with 4-7% growth in tax receipts annually, is what balanced the budget. The debt bill rejected by Republicans yesterday increases spending by unimaginable amounts, figures beyond any ordinary American’s reckoning.
Secondly, the deficit dropped by 22% and 21% in 1994 and 1995, the two years of spending controlled by Democrats in the Congress and President Clinton. Deficit reduction only accelerated when Republicans took over. The deficit went down by 36% and 80% in 1996 and 1997, and then finally we endured a surplus of taxation in 1998. Republicans got the job done, not Democrats. The difference? We cut some taxes and we truly held the line on spending. No midnight basketball. No multi-billion dollar giveaways.
Thirdly, what happened after President Clinton’s tax hike that we opposed? Did the American people side with us, or with Democrats? If Speaker Pelosi wants a re-run of 1994, I’m all for it. So let’s keep up the fight, House Republicans!