Harry Mitchell again voted against passing the Congressional budget, saying that it “fails to assuage his concerns about increased government spending and tax cuts.”
The conference report nevertheless passed 214 – 209 and now moves on to the White House.
Posted by Stacy on May 17th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Filed under: CD5 Harry Mitchell, Uncategorized |
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I’m pretty sure the budget resolution doesn’t go to the White House. It is used as a template of how the Appropriations Bills will go.
As such, it should be awfully difficult for Mitchell to vote in favor of many of the Appropriations bills — that is, if he is going to remain consistent in his argument for voting against the budget. My guess is that he will try to dodge the fact that his rhetoric doesn’t square with his votes and pick out some “important” line item from each approps bill to justify ignoring the principles stated in his budget vote. (i.e. he hates everything about the war supplemental, but has voted for it 3 times because 1% of it is devoted to Veterans funding.)
As is typical with Rep. Mitchell he will have it both ways and no one will call him on it.
Robert Novak writes today in his column 5/21/2007:
“The other 12 were moderates, including six freshmen who defeated Republicans last year. One freshman was Rep. Harry E. Mitchell of Arizona, who upset Rep. J.D. Hayworth in the heavily Republican Tempe district. “I simply cannot support a budget that allows key tax cuts to expire,” said Mitchell, calling for extended capital gains and estate tax cuts. Kent Conrad didn’t fool Harry Mitchell.”
I almost lost my breakfast when I read the last paragraph of Novak’s column. Using Harry Mitchell (D-AZ5) as an example of fiscal discipline among Democrats is just flat out wrong. He raised taxes at will while Mayor of Tempe!
I’d also note that Rep. Mitchell voted against the Republican alternative (and the far left alternatives as well). He has voted for no budget for the United States of America for FY2008. Here’s the campaign rhetoric voters fell for last year:
“I believe that every government, like every family, has a responsibility to balance its budget. That’s why throughout my time as a Mayor and State Senator I have balanced 31 budgets, and I have never voted for a budget that was not balanced.
I’m proud of my record, and I know Washington could learn a thing or two from it.
It’s increasingly important that we restore fiscal responsibility to Washington.
Our national debt is fast approaching a record $9 trillion. That’s a debt burden of nearly $30,000 for every American, and Washington isn’t showing any signs of slowing down its spending. The federal government is borrowing approximately $2 billion every day from countries like China to feed Washington’s perilous spending addiction.
This enormous national debt threatens to slow down our economy, and we have a responsibility not to pass this crushing burden to future generations of Americans. In Congress, I will promote fiscal policy that is both responsible and accountable, just as I did at the local level.”
While his rhetoric sounds good, where was all that “experience” when it came time to produce a balanced budget? Is it “responsible” to have no budget? Voting no on the Democrats budget (and the other alternatives) — big deal! Let’s see how he votes on the Appropriations bills.