by Kerry Thomas
January 20, 2012
One of my pet peeves is political hypocrisy.
Last year, on August 1, the Republican-controlled U.S. House
of Representatives voted (Roll
Call Vote 690) to increase the national debt limit from $14.294 Trillion to
a current $15.194 Trillion. (see Budget Control Act
of 2011) Despite their campaign
pledges to limit the federal government’s borrowing and spending, all five
Wisconsin Republican Members of Congress voted to raise the national debt
limit.
Fast forward to January 18, 2012. 168
Republican Members of Congress who voted last year to raise the debt limit
cast a meaningless symbolic vote (Roll Call Vote 4) in a
“sense of the Congress” resolution expressing their “disapproval of the President’s
exercise of authority to increase the debt limit.” (H J Res 98)
All five Wisconsin Republican Members of Congress (Sean
Duffy, Tom Petri, Reid Ribble, Paul Ryan, Jim Sensenbrenner) who voted to raise
the national debt limit last year voted to express their disapproval for increasing
the national debt limit this year. Freshmen Duffy
and Ribble,
who were elected with Tea Party support, even issued self-aggrandizing
statements about how they disapprove of increasing the national debt limit,
despite having voted to do so in 2011.
When they actually had the chance to limit federal
borrowing, these Republican hypocrites instead voted to increase borrowing,
choosing to spend the money now and have future generations pay the bill later.