While I was glad to see another Democrat besides Dick Durbin come out and say that Social Security does not add to the deficit, it's getting really old watching these television anchors like Bob Schieffer allow Republicans to blather on endlessly unchallenged repeating the myth that reducing the deficit is going to create jobs. Paul Ryan's been at this for so long he sounds like a broken record repeating his talking points. Chris Van Hollen should have reminded Ryan that the stimulus package would have produced more jobs than it did had they not caved into conservatives demanding that so much of it went to tax cuts.
I'm also really sick and tired of our terrible trade policies never being addressed by these politicians. You can give companies all the tax cuts in the world, but if you don't tie those cuts to creating jobs here in America, they're just going to continue to their race to the bottom and hiring slave labor overseas.
Van Hollen: GOP budget would cost 800,000 jobs:
Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen argued on Sunday that 800,000 Americans could lose their jobs if the GOP's budget proposal was enacted, and warned against making "reckless" cuts to the federal budget.
In an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," Van Hollen said that "everybody agrees we need to get the deficit under control," but argued that drastic cuts in 2011 would damage an already fragile economy. [...]
Ryan did not address the figure of 800,000 potential job reductions, but argued that President Obama's budget failed to adequately tackle the deficit and would lead to a halt in job creation.
"High deficits and uncontrolled debt means job creation goes away today," he said. "If you actually get this deficit and debt under control, you can help jobs today. Our goal is to cut spending and grow the economy and get prosperity in a lasting way back in place.
"We know if we keep going down this same path of borrowing and spending more money and taxing, it won't produce new results - because we've already seen what it does," he argued.
Ryan also said the nation's "huge fiscal problem" was primarily being driven by our entitlements, and argued that the issues needed to be addressed directly.
"We don't have much more road to keep kicking the can down the road," he said. "We have to get serious about this. We're going to lead and propose serious solutions to this country's problems so we can get growing again."
Van Hollen countered that Social Security was not responsible for the rise in the deficit, and argued that Republicans are "not serious" about Medicare reforms.
"Social Security is not a driver of these deficits and debt. We're not going to balance the budget on the backs of Social Security beneficiaries," he said.
"The health care reform bill we just passed included significant Medicare reform," he added. "What was the response of our Republican colleagues? They ran ads against Democratic Members of Congress in districts around the country saying that they were cutting Medicare. It was 'Medi-scare' ads.
"Yes, we should come together to talk about these things, but what just happened in the last election was a clear indication that they're not serious," said Van Hollen.
Every time a Republican says we need to get "serious" that's double speak for sticking it to the working class.
