Bennet: ‘Nothing to show for’ deficit, but let’s add to it anyway

Last July, Bennet wooed deficit-weary independents with a nod to “pay-go,” the notion that new federal spending should be offset by budget cuts or tax increases. "One of his highest concerns is the deficit and debt, and how we're going to lower it,” Bennet rep Deirdre Murphy told the Denver Post at the time. “He believes that's a huge economic problem for our country.”

Bennet continues to talk like a “deficit hawk” - as Post scribe Michael Riley called him - saying Friday “we need to take very seriously the fact we have a $1.6 trillion deficit, and that we have a $13 trillion debt.” And, he says, for all that borrowed cash Americans “have nothing to show for it, in my judgment.”

In that case, you’d think Bennet would be regretting his vote on last year’s $787 billion “stimulus” package, one of his first major votes as a member of the Senate. Or, that he’d demand cuts to offset today’s new spending. It’s much easier, though, to blame Republicans, even though they wield zero power to advance a tax cut (or any other agenda) without Democratic buy-in.   – More -