Tuesday, January 1, 2013

A Freaky Clip From 1990 Shows How Nothing Ever Changes In Washington Budget Fights

 

From Joe Wiesenthal / Business Insider – the more things change the more things stay the same:

http://www.businessinsider.com/1990-budget-negotiations-perfectly-echo-the-fiscal-cliff-2012-12

“You must watch this clip from 1990, where Senators debate a "balanced" budget package designed to reduce the deficit.

You have Sen. Alan Simpson talking about how there are no real cuts to Medicare, but rather a mere slowing of the growth from 11% to 10%, and that the media was being irresponsible by calling it cuts.

There's Alaska Senator Ted Stevens warning about the danger if Washington hit the "sequester."

You have Senator Pete Domenici talking about how it was a "balanced" approach because only 30% of the deficit reduction came from "revenue" (even than Republicans didn't use the word taxes). Domenici went on to say how reducing the deficit would create jobs. In the beginning you have Sentor Robert Byrd talking about how dangerous it was to leave children with a huge deficit mess if the Senate didn't act.

And meanwhile, the whole time, you have them praising each other and the other courageous centrists who didn't appease the extremes of their parties.

It's actually freaky.”

Link to clip referenced on the site:

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/clip/4249391

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