From Kerry: More Grandstanding Dishonesty
November 16, 2004Yesterday I wrote about the Democrats’ lack of credibility as deficit hawks. In the post, I quoted from a Wall Street Journal report as follows:
lame-duck postelection session has two essential tasks: first, raising the limits on government borrowing; and second, enforcing caps on domestic spending for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
Today, NBC’s Daily News Briefing, “First Read,” reports:
Meanwhile, Kerry’s big lame duck session begins — though with (very) little media fanfare. No comment from Kerry as of yet on Powell or Rice. Instead, he’s expected to kick off his return to the Senate with a floor speech on the debt ceiling. A senior adviser says Kerry will “address the absurdity that Republicans will use a special session of Congress not to deal with their record budget deficits, but rather to lift the debt ceiling.” Per the adviser, the speech may get put off until tomorrow, depending on the Senate schedule. So begins Kerry’s proactive return to the Senate.
Wrong. So continues Kerry’s pattern of grandstanding deception.
Raising the debt limits has nothing to do with getting authority for future spending proposals, but for money that has already been allocated, as I understand it. Concerning future spending, Kerry apparently intends to leave out of his demagogic address the other GOP “task,” as reported in the Wall Street Journal (above): “enforcing caps on domestic spending for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.” So they are dealing with the “record budget deficits,” Mr. Kerry, and you know it. Moreover, Old Media NBC’s First Read knows it too, yet as usual, they allow this type of Kerry chicanery to pass without comment. Let’s hope that someone on the Senate calls the junior Massachusetts Senator on his deliberate misrepresentations. As during the campaign, for Kerry this is all about Kerry. I am curious how long even fellow Democrats will allow this paragon of narcissistic self-indulgence to waste the people’s time (and their time) with such self-promoting nonsense.
