Republicans talk about fiscal responsibility and Congressional oversight often these days.When they were the majority the national debt soared to 9 trillion and oversight was nonexistent.How do they reconcile the apparent contradiction?

Republicans talk about fiscal responsibility and Congressional oversight often these days.When they were the majority the national debt soared to 9 trillion and oversight was nonexistent.How do they reconcile the apparent contradiction?
Asked by: srd from Arlington, VA

Asked of All Republican Senators on Dec 19th, 2007

Categories: Economy · Money & Politics. Tags: budget · constitution · fiscal responsibility · oversight · tax cuts · taxes.

Answer from: U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX)

Honesty is the best policy. I think we did spend too much. By cutting taxes we were raising revenue to the federal treasury and bringing down the deficit. In the last year, we did have a big budget showdown over increasing taxes and spending. Through the power of the veto out of the White House we were able to sustain these vetoes, and we were able to stop these enormous tax increases and spending. That was a victory. We had a bit of a wakeup call last election. We understood what our republican voters want from us. They want more fiscal discipline. They want us to stop the pork spending. Earmark reform is a big debate on the hill right now. We’ve taken the stand against tax increases and I think that’s an important fight to have.

Answered on Feb 20th, 2008

Answer from: U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX)

Government should be efficient, should be effective and accountable to the people. The debt is the largest that we’ve ever had in our history, its over nine trillion dollars. We need rules like pay-go, pay as you go.

Answered on Feb 20th, 2008

Answer from: U.S. Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA)

When I left Congress in 2001, we had a balanced budget. We were able to get it done. Let me be partisan on this. For a democrat to attack republicans on this. In the 1990s, every one of the democratic budgets spending more than the republicans were proposing and they were voting against the Republican bills because they weren’t spending enough.….Remember we had a shutdown with president Clinton…M:I think president Clinton would say he was on the other side of that. …Remember the government was shut down for his refusal to agree to balancing the budget …there was this thing called 9/11 so I’m not going to throw stones.. But we are under war and even those of us who are budget hawks say that the balanced budget amendment is waived during time of war.

Answered on Feb 20th, 2008