For immediate release.
Contact: Valerie Caras
PA GOP Continues “Obama-Casey Miserable Madness”
Second region highlights President Obama and Senator Casey’s failures to reign in massive government spending
HARRISBURG, PA –On Monday, the Republican Party of Pennsylvania announced the launch of “Obama-Casey Miserable Madness,” a March Madness-themed bracket containing 16 of the worst policies promoted by President Obama and Senator Casey and the alternatives as promoted by endorsed Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Welch. The bracket contains four “regions,” each built around four important themes where the Obama-Casey agenda has done the most harm to our economic recovery and intruded the most on our daily lives. On Monday, the PA GOP unveiled the first regional bracket, “Failed on Energy,” containing four policies where the Obama-Casey energy agenda has failed Pennsylvanians.
Today, the PA GOP launched the second regional bracket, highlighting President Obama and Senator Casey’s failure to rein in the massive government spending in Washington, D.C and force government to live within its means. The “Failed on Spending” bracket emphasizes the failure of the stimulus package, record deficits, opposition to a balanced budget amendment and the fact that over 1000 days have elapsed since the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate passed a budget.
Click here to see the bracket.
Failed Stimulus
Three years ago, President Obama, with the support of Senator Bob Casey and a Democrat super-majority in the U.S. House, signed into law an $825 billion “stimulus” package. The massive spending bill was a complete failure on its own terms, and the President himself admitted that “shovel ready jobs” weren’t as shovel-ready as they expected. Despite the President’s promises, unemployment stayed above 8%. 2.6 million more Americans fell into poverty. While President Obama promised a new era of transparency, we can’t forget Solyndra, that company that received $500 million in stimulus funds and is now bankrupt and under investigation.
The story only gets worse when looking at where Pennsylvania stimulus funds were spent. $9.7 million spent on a train station which has been vacant for more than 30 years. $7.1 million for ramps in areas “with no sidewalks that are rarely, if ever, used by pedestrians.” $60,000 in stimulus funds went to signs in Pennsylvania advertising the stimulus package. If this doesn’t equal wasteful spending, we’re not sure what does!
And what does Senator Bob Casey have to say about all this? He called the failed stimulus “a positive step forward.”
The Welch Way: Jobs and Spending, Three Years Later Does Bob Casey Still Believe the Stimulus Package was Good for Pennsylvania, Welch Sends Letter to Casey & Releases New Video
Further Reading:
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Obama’s do-nothing sequel
- Wall Street Journal: Why the Stimulus Failed
- Wall Street Journal: GOP Faults Some Stimulus Projects
- Washington Examiner: Here comes more failed stimulus spending
- Sen. Tom Coburn: 100 Stimulus Projects: A Second Opinion
- You Tube: Bob Casey Calls The “Stimulus” A “Positive Step Forward”
- You Tube: “The Promise That Became A Punch Line”
- Wall Street Journal: Democrats Against Stimulus 2.0: “The goal was never to pass this bit of junior-varsity stimulus…three Democrats used this free vote to go on record against it too…The rebels were Nebraska’s Ben Nelson and Arkansas’s Mark Pryor, as well as Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman who caucuses with the Democrats.”
- New York Times: House Passes Stimulus Plan With No G.O.P. Votes
- Denver Post: We don’t need a second stimulus
- Politics PA: 3 Years After the Stimulus, Is Pa. Better Off?
- PA GOP: Stimulus Fails to Create Jobs
- PA GOP: Chairman Gleason Statement on Anniversary of Obama-Casey Stimulus Bill
Record Deficits
President Obama promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office. The reality is that President Obama has already racked up more debt in three years than President George W. Bush did in eight, and more than any other president in American history.
Thanks to President Obama, and Senator Casey’s rubber-stamped approval for the President’s spending policies, like the failed stimulus and Obamacare, our debt now stands at a staggering $15 trillion. Now, our national debt even surpassed our GDP and our once pristine credit rating was downgraded.
It’s clear we need a President and U.S. Senator who will take tackling our deficits seriously and learn how to live within a budget, just as many Pennsylvanians do every day.
The Welch Way: Jobs and Spending, Obama’s FY 2013 budget: Massive tax increases and billions in new spending, Senator Casey is Addicted to Washington’s Culture of Wasteful Spending
Further Reading:
- Patriot-News: Pa reps. tell Obama: More debt won’t bring back jobs
- The Hill: Obama budget sees increased deficit
- CBS News: S&P downgrades U.S. debt
- Real Clear Politics: President Obama Punts on US Deficit
- The Hill: CBO says Obama’s latest budget would add $3.5 trillion in deficits through 2022
- RNC Chairman Reince Priebus: Obama’s New Debt Record: Why We Can’t Afford a Second Term
- PA GOP: Statement on President Obama’s Budget: Broken Promises and Fiscal Irresponsibility
- PA GOP: Budget: Promises Kept vs. Promises Broken
No Balanced Budget Amendment
President Obama and Senator Casey, unable to curb their addiction to government spending, shot down the “Cut, Cap and Balance” amendment, a measure designed to cap government spending and force Congress to pass a balance budget amendment to the Constitution.
However, this is the same type of amendment that “Campaign Casey” supported during his 2006 U.S. Senate campaign. Senator Casey flip-flopped on the issue to support President Obama, and in the process abandoned fighting for the Pennsylvanians who sent him to Washington.
The Welch Way: Jobs and Spending
Further Reading:
- You Tube: Casey in 2006 supported Balanced Budget: “I Believe In A Balanced Budget. Government Should Live Within Its Means, Like Any Small Business.”
- Weekly Standard: Six Democratic Senators Have Publicly Supported Balanced Budget Amendment: “It’s not easy, Tim, but here are the steps we should take. First of all, when it comes to the budget, what’s missing principally is a lack of fiscal responsibility, you know that…We need some fiscal discipline.” (Pennsylvania Senate Debate, “Meet The Press,” 9/3/06)
- Early Returns: Casey, Toomey differ in CCB vote: “Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., voted against the measure — and thus in support of the Cut, Cap and Balance bill — while Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., voted to kill it.”
- The Hill: Obama officially threatens to veto Republicans’ ‘cut, cap and balance’ bill
- Politico: Senate rejects ‘Cut, Cap, Balance’: “The Democratic-controlled Senate voted Friday to block…a stringent balanced budget amendment and cap spending before increasing the debt ceiling.”
- Heritage Foundation: CNN Poll: Two-Thirds of Americans Support ‘Cut, Cap and Balance’ Plan
- Chairman Gleason: U.S. needs balanced budget amendment
- PA GOP: PA Congressional Republicans Unite to Support “Cut, Cap, and Balance”
1000 Days Without a Budget
On January 24, 2012, President Obama gave his fourth State of the Union address, a rhetoric-filled speech that attempted to hide his failed record. That day also marked the 1000th day since the Democratic-controlled Senate had passed a budget. What’s worse is that Senator Casey, who chairs the Joint Economic Committee, has done little if nothing to urge the Senate to move forward.
The budget process forces Congress to set priorities to protect taxpayer dollars and put it to effective use. House Republicans passed a budget in 2012 and again in 2013.
Instead of following suit, Senator Casey and the Democrat-controlled Senate completely abdicated its responsibility and has passed nothing.
The result? “The deficit has soared, causing a looming tax burden and injecting uncertainty into the economy, leaving jobs and economic growth on the table. It’s no wonder the U.S. economy’s growth is so tepid.” (from the Heritage Foundation’s The Foundry.)
The Welch Way: Jobs and Spending, Welch Releases New Video: 1,000 Days Without A Budget
Further reading:
- Heritage Foundation: 1,000 Days Without a Budget: Facts on the Senate’s Failure
- Weekly Standard: One Thousand Days Without a Budget
- Washington Post: House passes GOP budget plan for 2012
- ABC News: WH Chief of Staff Errs on Senate Budget Rules
- Americans for Tax Reform: Obama’s State of the Union Address to Mark 1,000 Days Without a Democrat Budget
- The Hill: GOP lawmakers mark 1,000 days since last Senate budget
- NRSC: 1,000 DAYS SINCE BOB CASEY HAS PASSED A BUDGET
- You Tube: 1,000 Days
- PA GOP: SOTU: Broken Promises
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