If it's Sunday, it's another episode of Dancin' David Gregory inviting Republicans to come on his show and rattle off their talking points without fear of contradiction. Karl Rove's dance partner allowed House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy to attribute a very famous statement by Dick Cheney's (that "deficits don't matter") to President Obama! He also said that Democrats are the ones responsible for racking up the majority of the debt we've been dealing with ever since President Obama took the oath of office.
We've been through this here so many times I've lost count, but for anyone who hasn't already seen these charts, President Obama is not the one responsible for the policies that added to most of the deficit during his first term in office.
And pardon me if I'm sick to death of the party that brought us two wars left off the books and the theft of God knows how many of our tax dollars with those debacles, a prescription drug plan that wasn't paid for, the Bush tax cuts, the bailout of the Wall Street gamblers that took down our economy, having the damn nerve to complain about our debt and deficit.
Gregory couldn't be bothered to point out that not only is our deficit shrinking considerably under President Obama, but it's also shrinking at the fastest pace in modern American history.
Transcript below the fold.
DAVID GREGORY: And this is the point, right? His argument is, "Don't get us in the middle of austerity over the next ten years. You're going to hurt economic recovery rather than solve the problem you really want to solve."
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY: No. The president said deficits don't matter? Well, all these deficits add up. We're at $16.6 trillion, more than 100% of our GDP. The problem is-- I disagree with what the Democrats are doing. It's the old Washington fiscal game of Jenga. You try to build as much debt as you can take, as much tax as you can take, until you topple the entire economy. This is the challenge that this week we'll have. This week, Republicans will have a budget that balances in ten years; the Democrats' budget never balances. No household can run that way.
DAVID GREGORY: Let me challenge you on this point, though, because here is Paul Ryan this week, and he laid out very clearly what he thought the job was. Let me play that.
(Videotape)
REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI): We think we owe the country a balanced budget. We think we owe the country solutions to the big problems that are plaguing our nation, a debt crisis on the horizon, a slow-growing economy, people trapped in poverty. We're showing our answers.
(End videotape)
DAVID GREGORY: But the answers rely on $700 billion in savings from interest; most of the deficit reduction comes from repealing the president's health care reform, which nobody thinks is going to happen. So how seriously should this be viewed as a road map for a balanced budget?
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY: Should be very serious because budgets are--
(OVERTALK)
DAVID GREGORY: You're not going to repeal Obamacare.
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY: Budgets are blueprints and priorities. We lay out we think Obamacare should be repealed. The majority of Americans agree with us. But we also think tax reform should happen so you can grow the economy. If you allow these debts to continue to grow, they'd crowd out the private sector. They'd crowd out the opportunity for small businesses to grow. That's why the economy to continues to linger. If we are able to balance the budget, which ours does in ten years, you will unshackle this growth in America.
