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Blue Dogs vet hopefuls on the deficit |
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By Jonathan E. Kaplan
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Posted: 07/26/07 08:20 PM [ET] |
Rep. Baron Hill (Ind.) and his fellow Blue Dog Democrats are champions of the pay-as-you-go budgetary rules House Democrats reinstated earlier this year, and pine for the era of “Rubinomics,” when balanced budgets and a booming economy fed off each other.
But as the Blue Dogs Wednesday unveiled a Web video highlighting Democratic efforts to restore fiscal discipline and castigating President Bush and the former GOP-majority Congresses for profligate federal spending, Hill admitted that fiscal discipline doesn’t top the Democratic presidential candidates’ agendas.
The lawmakers had trouble explaining why deficit reduction was not a bigger political hit on the campaign trail, and vowed to press the White House hopefuls to make the issue a larger part of their campaigns.
The Blue Dogs will have a chance to do just that as they meet with the contenders in the coming weeks.
The Blue Dogs had been scheduled to sit down with Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), arguably the most liberal presidential candidate, but scheduling conflicts delayed the meeting. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) could meet with the group next week, Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.) said.
“It is a fair question, and I think it is a good question, and it is our responsibility to make sure that that gets into the national dialogue,” Hill said. “I am motivated now to make sure that the presidential candidates that we have on our ticket do put it into the dialogue.”
“The Democratic candidates are going to meet with the Blue Dog group, each of them individually; and when that happens I guarantee you I will be raising that question as well,” Moore added.
The leading contenders for the nomination — Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) — have focused their campaigns on ending the war in Iraq and providing universal health insurance.
On Clinton’s campaign website, balancing “the federal budget so we don’t pass today’s massive debts to the next generation” is a broadly stated policy goal listed under “strengthening the middle class.”
Obama does not call for balancing the budget on his campaign website; Edwards has a detailed plan for tax simplification, but he does not call for balancing budgets. In fact, Edwards indicated in a New York Times profile earlier this year that he would be willing to run short-term deficits of up to about two percent of the federal budget to implement his policies.
Deficit reduction has never been a rallying cry in Democratic presidential primaries (Republican candidates typically promise to slash taxes and spending).
“The things you have to do are not politically popular. Basic options are to raise revenue or cut spending. Most candidates don’t like to address those options,” the executive director of the Concord Coalition, Robert Bixby, said.
In 1992, when the country was coming out of a recession and deficits had persisted for years, then-candidate Bill Clinton adopted deficit reduction as the party’s nominee after Ross Perot, the Texas billionaire, dropped out of the race (he subsequently re-entered).
“Until Perot got on television with his 30minute infomercials saying, ‘Look, we have to lift up the hood,’ many people didn’t focus on it,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said. “They elected Bill Clinton. We addressed it.”
Meanwhile, the other factions in the House Democratic Caucus have asked to meet with candidates.
Clinton met with the New Democrat Coalition last week, said Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), and Obama could meet with the group next week. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Out of Iraq Caucus, asked Edwards to address the group.
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