Why Do Republicans Want to Raise the Deficit?

Commentary from the Huffington Post by Senator Bernie Sanders - Today, I gave the following speech speech on the floor of the United States Senate. "Mr. President" refers to the president of the Senate. Each and every day, it gets harder and harder to listen to my Republican friends who race to the Senate floor telling the American people how "concerned" they are about the $13 trillion national debt and how "we have to get our financial house in order."As you know, under the leadership of George W. Bush, these same Republicans turned a record-breaking federal surplus left by President Clinton into record-breaking deficits. Back then, their rallying cry was "deficits don't matter" articulated by then-Vice President Dick Cheney. This "deficits don't matter" philosophy gave us two wars that were not paid for -- and there are estimates that the Iraq War alone will end up costing some $3 trillion, $700 billion in tax breaks to the richest one percent, a $400 billion unpaid for prescription drug program written by the pharmaceutical industry, and a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street... four years ago, every Republican but two voted to completely eliminate the estate tax -- a tax that has been in existence since 1916 and impacts only the very richest families in the country Read more

Why Do Republicans Want to Raise the Deficit?