The Daily Hatch

Sixty Six who resisted “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal (Part 47)

This post today is a part of a series I am doing on the 66 Republican Tea Party favorites that resisted eating the “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal. Actually that name did not originate from a representative who agrees with the Tea Party, but from a liberal.

Rep. Emanuel Clever (D-Mo.) called the newly agreed-upon bipartisan compromise deal to raise the  debt limit “a sugar-coated satan sandwich.”

“This deal is a sugar-coated satan sandwich. If you lift the bun, you will not like what you see,” Clever tweeted on August 1, 2011.

JONES VOTES AGAINST LARGEST DEBT LIMIT INCREASE IN HISTORY

Washington, Aug 3 –

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week Congressman Walter B. Jones voted against S. 365 – the bill negotiated between President Barack Obama and House and Senate Leadership which would allow the President to raise the debt ceiling by up to $2.4 trillion.  That increase in the debt limit would be the largest in U.S. history.   The bill is expected to pass the Senate and be signed into law by President Obama later today.  Congressman Jones is the only member of Congress to have voted against final passage of every single increase in the debt limit over the last seven years.   

While Congressman Jones was pleased that the Speaker of the House was able to overcome the President’s original request for a blank check to increase deficit spending without cuts, and then his insistence that a debt limit increase be paid for with tax increases and phantom spending reductions, the Congressman had serious concerns with the final deal. 

The bill allows the President to increase the debt limit by $2.4 trillion over the next 6 months, while the promised spending reductions would take place over the next 10 years – assuming no future Congress undoes those cuts.  Further – even if the reductions stay in effect – the Congressional Budget Office projects that federal spending will still go up each and every year of the ten year agreement, with the government adding at least another $4 trillion in deficit spending over those ten years.  

Congressman Jones is also troubled by the unbalanced reductions required by the bill, and the impact they could have on Eastern North Carolina.  While defense spending constitutes roughly 1/6th of current federal spending, the bill would require that half of future cuts come from defense.  That could have serious consequences for America’s ability to defend itself, and for Eastern North Carolina’s military bases.  The bill would also leave veterans funding open to cuts.  And while funding for Eastern North Carolina veterans and military bases would be on the chopping block, the bill protects overseas spending in Iraq and Afghanistan from cuts.  The bill also allows spending on optional “discretionary programs” to rise by over $200 billion dollars, yet subjects Eastern North Carolina hospitals, doctors and seniors to Medicare cuts. 

“Cutting funding for Eastern North Carolina bases and our veterans while expanding funding for overseas wars is an unacceptable proposition,” said Congressman Jones.  “Allowing increases in spending on discretionary programs at the same time you are cutting medical benefits just makes no common sense.  There is no doubt that federal spending must be cut dramatically if this nation hopes to get back on its feet.  But under this legislation total spending and debt continue to rise, and the cuts that actually are made are unbalanced.  This bill unfortunately missed the mark.”