GOP Tax Proposal Lacks Fiscal Responsibility. Isn't That One Of Their Trademarks?

Here is an excerpt from an article by Lori Montgomery of The Washington Post:

Even as they hammer Democrats for running up record budget deficits, Senate Republicans are rolling out a plan to permanently extend an array of expiring tax breaks that would deprive the Treasury of more than $4 trillion over the next decade, nearly doubling projected deficits over that period unless dramatic spending cuts are made.

The measure, introduced by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) this week, would permanently extend the George W. Bush-era income tax cuts that benefit virtually every U.S. taxpayer, rein in the alternative minimum tax and limit the estate tax to estates worth more than $5 million for individuals or $10 million for couples.

Aides to McConnell said they have yet to receive a cost estimate for the measure. But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently forecast that a similar, slightly more expensive package that includes a full repeal of the estate tax would force the nation to borrow an additional $3.9 trillion over the next decade and increase interest payments on the national debt by $950 billion. That's more than four times the projected deficit impact of President Obama's health-care overhaul and stimulus package combined.

"We have a spending problem. We spend too much. We don't have a taxing problem. We don't tax too little," McConnell told reporters Tuesday. "And if we want to begin to get ourselves out of this economic trough that we're in, the only way to do that is to grow the private sector."

The Republicans sound a bit delusional - they have a problem with spending, but instead of first correcting spending to allow for budget surpluses they aim to just contribute more to the projected deficit and add to the national debt.  This is exactly why I had voted for President Obama in 2008 - while I disagreed with some of what the Democrats proposed, what they seemed to offer appeared to be less damaging to the government then what the Republicans wished to do, which was nothing.  Now it appears the GOP have no interest in fixing the economy - their plan hopes to change the economic situation we are in by freeing up cash for the private sector to increase investments, but if you ask me, they are asking more from the American people then Obama did during the 2008 election. 

They are banking on a lot of hope to change things - hope the wealthy will trickle down some of that cash; hope corporations and small businesses start hiring full-time employees; hope companies start offering health care and benefits to workers; hope people will spend more by having a little more in their pocket each week.  The only problem with the Republican's "hope and change" proposal is that we've seen it before and it didn't work.