Alton Foley and I listened in on an RNC press call Tuesday morning with Del. Barbara Comstock and former Rep. Tom Davis. The topic was the President’s record on the federal debt and deficit which has been rather…checkered.
It was the opening act of a wider RNC push in Virginia that will feature web ads highlighting the President’s empty rhetoric on containing federal spending, and is just one more sign that the Republicans intend to fight, and fight hard, for the state’s 13 electoral votes.
Comstock began her remarks this way:
“Four years ago, Barack Obama said I don’t want to wake up four years from now to find our children’s future mortgaged by another mountain of debt. That here we are after the Greek columns from 2008 have faded, and we are facing Greek-like debt. And the financial crisis we have and the spending that threatens us, the debt and the deficit and the decline that it is causing in the growth of our economy is a real threat and we’ve got to address that. And you have this administration for three years has just neglected to deal with it all together.”
Davis added this:
“The American people really don’t know where anybody stands on these except we will wait until after the election and see what happens. Governor Romney has a unique opportunity to break the gridlock that we have had for a long time. In the meantime most of our spending is on autopilot…
“The overriding issue which sets the mood and the atmospherics for the election is going to be the stewardship of the economy. I don’t think there is any question that is where it is. I think that’s where the voters will be focused in September and October…”
I listened to the presentations, and eventually, I asked the obvious question: even with the sequester looming, and even with Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan, federal spending will still increase markedly over the next decade. I referenced this graph from Cato’s Dan Mitchell:
With that sort of trajectory, why on earth should anyone trust Republicans to be better on spending and deficits than Democrats?
Not missing a beat, Davis said that the GOP had actually put forward a plan to tackle entitlements — the Ryan plan — while the Democrats had done nothing but try to scare folks about cuts to Medicare. He also noted that the Ryan plan had cost Republicans a seat in the House.
It was a good response. The Republicans, to their credit, have proposed something that attempts to address the inevitable entitlement crisis. It may not be the best plan (and it certainly isn’t nearly as bold as Sen. Jim DeMint’s plan) but it’s more than congressional Democrats have managed during the Obama years.
Heck, the Senate can’t even be bothered to pass a budget, let alone take up the matter of entitlement reform.
What of the larger issue, though, of the President’s promise to cut the deficit, scour the budget for cuts, eliminate redundancies, and such and such? According to the RNC’s new web ad…well, see for yourself:
