GOP candidates have no solutions on deficit reduction and wasteful Washington spending
MADISON — As Democratic Commerce Secretary Dick Leinenkugel officially enters the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, he joins a Republican Party field of candidates that spends more time sloganeering about spending and deficits without offering any real solutions.
“Republicans in Congress spent years driving up the deficit by creating earmarks for their special interest projects, rather than looking out for taxpayers,” said Mike Tate, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “The current candidates talk a lot about spending and deficits but they have all failed to put forward any real plans or real solutions to reduce the deficit and reign in spending.”
Under Republican Leadership in Congress, earmarks exploded from 4,000 in 1994 to 15,000 in 2005. Two Bush Administration policies — tax cuts for the most fortunate and unbudgeted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — accounted for over $500 billion of the deficit in 2009 and will account for almost $7 trillion in deficits in 2009 through 2019.
Secretary Leinenkugel, David Westlake, Terrence Wall, and another multimillionaire rumored to be getting into the race, Tea Party activist Ron Johnson, have all failed to put forward any plans to reduce the deficit. In fact, they are all on record in favor of repealing deficit reduction measures like health insurance reform – which will reduce the deficit by more than $143 billion over the next ten years, and by more than $1.2 trillion dollars in the following decade, by ending overpayments to insurance companies, reining in waste, fraud and abuse, and ensuring tax dollars pay for the highest quality of care.
