Our congressman Joe Pitts can't seem to decide if he's for or against big government, if he thinks government should live within its means or over spend, if government should be involved in health care or allow the marketplace to set priorities.
Arguably one of the most conservative congressman in Washington, Representative Pitts could be seen all week holding the party line on not giving the United States Treasury the money needed to pay the country's already incurred bills, pushing the country recklessly close to defaulting on its debt.
Ironically, given his insistence that government live within its means, Pitts posted a press release Wednesday announcing legislation he co-sponsored, authorizing the government to spend up to $330M to train pediatricians, monies President Obama had cut from the budget, had passed two congressional committees.
Even more ironic, he shamelessly used the opinion and experiences of a 10 year old girl to justify the spending.
Joe, we love the cause. We love the fact some of that money will find its way to Philadelphis's own Childrens Hospital. We appreciate you looking out for the health and well being of our nation's children.
But an additional $300M in government health care spending in a week when you and the Republican Party spent every waking hour reminding us we had to live within our means.
What gives?
Read the entire press release on Pitts' home page here
7 comments:
Hi Ken and thanks for calling out those whose spending actions of the first 8 years of this century have created the bills we now need to pay. I sent an email to Rep. Pitts asking him to lift the debt ceiling AND spread the pain of paying our obligations. No reply so far!
Your welcome Judi and thanks for leaving a note here joining my efforts to ask Representative Pitts to consistently and responsibly manage our country's challenges and opportunities. Championing a $300M spending bill is not the responsible nor consistent thing to do during the same week when Congressman Pitts and his fellow conservatives are pushing the nation and our economy over the edge.
Raising the debt ceiling is like applying for another credit card when you've maxed out your primary card. Unless you raise your income level (taxes) or make smart budget decisions (cuts) moving forward you will never ever catch up on your debt. Never. Action needs to be taken. You can only pass the buck so long until drastic action (or a threat of drastic action) causes you to evaluate if you are spending your money wisely.
Not quite. Raising the debt limit is to pay for expenses ALREADY incurred not for new programs. This battle is a completely manufactured crisis so a few politicians can grandstand while the economy burns. Reckless.
I hope Aug 2nd passes without a compromise. Let us all see what that would be like. The talking heads would not know what to say. Our credit rating is bad anyway and no guarantee that raising the debt limit will help that.
That being said, I would not want to see anyone suffer.
Obama better not cave in.
Why does agreeing to cut spending by 2.7 trillion over 10 years make it okay to borrow the same amount for one year? It's like sending 1000 a year to a credit card company as a payment while still spending 10000 a year in new spending. We would still finish the year with 9000 more in additional debt. I would submit that neither party wants to see the level of cuts it would take to actually balance the budget, let alone pay off debt. It would be the equivalent of cutting 4 pentagons out of the budget just this year alone. It's hard to imagine a serious answer without tax increases. It's far to late for us to get there with only cuts.
The purpose of the post was to point out Congressman Pitt's contradictory behavior. On the one hand he is unwilling to raise taxes and is totally against government healthcare. On the other hand, he is willing to spend an additional $300M, money President Obama cut from the budget and we all agree the country can't afford, so government can have some say on how many pediatricians are trained. Using the experience of a 10 year old girl to justify his position is just the cherry on top of the cupcake! All in all, this appears to be very big government behavior on the part of our conservative congressman.
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