Sen. Jon Kyl: It's clear that Democrats in Washington did not view this crisis as an opportunity to rein in spending, but rather an opportunity to impose huge tax increases on American families and small businesses

With 72 hours to go before the debt limit deadline, Senator Jon Kyl delivers the Republican Weekly Address.

Comments

[Ricardo's Ghost]

Such outrageous lies.

The Democrats have bent over backwards to compromise. Republicans couldn't care less.

Democrats agreed to massive spending cuts. They did not propose massive tax increases. They did not propose to raise tax rates at all, merely cut out exemptions and loopholes.

Obama has not set in motion European-style big government. Obamacare would be viewed with horror if anyone proposed it in Europe, which isn't surprising - Obamacare is the sort of healthcare package Republicans argued in favour of, until a Democratic President backed it. In any case, the source of the deficit can be laid at the Bush tax cuts, the Bush wars, and the stimulus (although this last bit comes almost entirely from just keeping same old small government spending levels the same whilst the economy and revenues contracts, and was mostly spent on tax cuts and handed over to the States to help them keep going).

If you're going to argue that removing tax exemptions for corporate jets will slow down economic growth, why don't you set out why cutting government spending won't slow down growth? Might it be because you have to answer to that?