Back in 2003, the Republican Congress passed legislation that expanded the goverment’s role in healthcare by adding the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug benefit. But they did not pay for it. Instead, they just added the cost of the benefit, several hundreds of billions of dollars, to the national debt. When pressed as to why they are now opposing the current healthcare bill even though it is actually paid for and would actually reduce the deficit, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said simply: “Dredging up history is not the way to move forward.” Ha! Well, when your entire political philosophy is based in the past, all you do is dredge up history. Every time you mention returning to the policies of Reagan, you are dredging up history.
Steven Benen put it best on the hypocrisy:
Just so we’re clear, according to the rules, Republicans don’t have to pay for their programs, and Democrats do. Republicans can build up massive debts, and Democrats can’t.
But it goes further than that. When the Democrats propose a bill that is paid for and doesn’t build up a massive debt, it still must be opposed. You wonder why I hate Republicans.