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Hypocrite of the Year: Congressman Blunt
or Immediate Release: December 16, 2009 Contact: Ryan Hobart (573) 636-5241 Ext. 125 Hypocrite of the Year: Congressman Blunt After Voting to Increase the Debt Limit By Over 3.2 TRILLION dollars (when Republicans want it Raised), Blunt Pretends to be a Fiscal Conservative Jefferson City, Mo – On the same day that TIME Magazine unveiled its “Person of the Year” for 2009, Congressman Roy Blunt continued his seemingly furious campaign to take home the Hypocrite of the Year award. After 12 years of reckless spending and repeatedly voting to increase the debt limit by over 3.2 trillion dollars, he is attempting to reinvent himself as a fiscal conservative. “Only a Washington insider could claim to be a fiscal conservative after repeatedly voting to increase the debt,” said Missouri Democratic Party Communications Director Ryan Hobart. “The hypocrisy is unparalleled. After giving the Bush administration a blank check to enact the reckless economic policies that created the massive deficits and recession we currently endure, it is laughable for him to act like a fiscal conservative. He is clearly positioning himself as the favorite to take home the hypocrite of the year award for 2009.” During the Bush administration Congressman Blunt voted to raise the debt ceiling multiple times: Blunt Supported Budget That Raised Debt Limit By $653 Billion. In 2006, Blunt voted in favor of the $2.8 trillion budget for FY 2007 that included a provision to increase the debt limit by $653 billion to $9.6 trillion. The bill passed 218-210. [HCR376, Vote 158,5/18/06, House Budget Committee] Voted to Increase Debt Limit By $690 Billion: In 2004, Blunt voted in favor of a Republican budget that proposed spending the entire $1.0 trillion Social Security surplus from 2005 to 2009 and increasing the public debt limit by $690 billion. The measure passed 216-213. [CQ House Action Reports, The Budget Agreement, 5/19/04; USA Today, May 20, 2004; SCR95, Vote 198,5/19/04; HCR 393, Vote 92, 3/20/04] Blunt Voted To Increase The National Debt Limit By $800 Billion. In 2004, Blunt voted for a bill that would raise the federal debt limit by $800 billion to $8.18 trillion. By passing such a huge increase in the debt limit, with no strings attached, Congress has effectively given the Bush administration a blank check to continue running large deficits, said Stephen S. Roach, chief economist at Morgan Stanley. An open-ended license for this kind of fiscal irresponsibility is a recipe for disaster, he said. The bill was adopted 208-204. [S 2986, Vote #536, 11/18/2004; Washington Post, 11/19/04] Blunt Voted To Increase The National Debt Limit By $700 Billion. In 2004, Blunt voted for a procedural motion included a roughly $700 billion debt limit increase. The provision inserted into a popular Defense spending bill allowed supporters to sidestep a direct vote on boosting the legal limit on government borrowing, now at $7.4 trillion. Congress approved a $984 billion debt ceiling boost in May 2003, the largest ever, and a $450 billion increase in June 2002. Before that, the cap was not increased since 1997, thanks to the four-year string of annual budget surpluses under the Clinton Administration. The measure passed, 221-197. [HR 4613, Vote #280, 6/22/2004; CQ Today, 6/23/04; Associated Press, 6/22/04] Blunt Voted to Raise the Debt Limit to $6.4 Trillion. In 2002, Blunt helped pass a bill that would raise the legal limit on the federal debt by $450 billion, to $6.4 trillion. The Treasury Department had been juggling its accounts to avoid going over the $5.95 trillion debt ceiling, raising the possibility that coming Social Security benefit payments would be disrupted. After running surpluses for four years, the government is again running a deficit -- in the range of $150 billion in 2002 -- requiring it to borrow to pay for all its operations. Opponents argued the $1.35 trillion, 10-year tax cut passed in 2001 was primarily responsible for returning the budget to deficits after four years of surpluses. The measure passed, 215-214. [S 2578, Vote #279, 6/27/2002; CQ Monitor News, 6/27/02; Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/28/02; New York Times, 6/28/02] --30--
