My opponent Russ Carnahan recently released a statement on fiscal discipline. Here is a quote:
“Without restoring fiscal responsibility, our economy can’t fully recover. The large deficits we inherited as a result of reckless borrow-and-spend policies of the last administration have put pressure on funding for important priorities such as job creation. We are long overdue to reestablish tough common-sense action to restore fiscal responsibility.”
This is strong talk for a congressman who was nominated by Citizens Against Government Waste as “Porker of the Year.” Fiscal discipline is a philosophy, not a catchphrase. People who believe in fiscal discipline pay their bills, balance their checkbooks and don’t go into debt for frivolous expenditures.
I believe in fiscal discipline as a way of life, not as a slogan. While working in Governor Matt Blunt’s administration we opened ourselves up to intense criticism by proposing cuts to wasteful spending. Rent-seeking bureaucrats were vexed by the Missouri Accountability Portal where they must post their expenditures for all the world to see.
What has Russ Carnahan done in the cause of fiscal discipline? Has he ever refused to support a budget bill as too “porky?” Has he ever voted “no” on fat-laden legislation? Russ Carnahan voted with his party to raise the debt ceiling enabling the Federal government to further plunge our nation into hock. How is that fiscal responsibility?
President Obama has spent the last 18 months saying one thing and doing another. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have looked Americans straight in the eye and told us that health care legislation would not raises taxes and ration care despite the plain language of the text. Russ Carnahan has been right there alongside them, voting “yea” to mortgaging Missourian’s future.
This state’s motto is “Show Me” and Russ Carnahan has nothing to show for his newfound belief in “fiscal responsibility.” His voting record makes his recent conversion to the church of fiscal discipline laughable. Congressman Carnahan has rubber-stamped every spending initiative Speaker Nancy Pelosi has asked him to. Russ Carnahan may be contemptuous of our intelligence, but we in the Missouri 3rd are not buying it.
