Jason Chaffetz and Cotside Chats
By Saintless. Filed in Barack Obama, Democrats, Republicans, Utah, politics |
I follow Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Twitter. He sent a link out today to this video with Stephen Colbert:
Amusing, as all Chaffetz-Colbert interaction seems to be. But, the next one has me a bit concerned. Watch him talk about Obama’s budget:
He says that Obama’s budget is “an all time record high”. Except he’s leaving out the fact that Obama isn’t hiding pieces of his budget, as Bush did. He included everything that should have been in there, instead of hiding funding in other bills and pretending they weren’t supposed to be part of the budget.
“It is only by restoring fiscal discipline over the long run that we can produce sustained growth and prosperity. [...] In keeping with my commitment to make our government more open and transparent, this budget is an honest accounting of where we are and where we intend to go. For too long, our budget has not told the whole truth about how precious tax dollars are spent. Large sums have been left off the books, including the true cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
It feels like Chaffetz is not viewing the situation honestly, and is instead giving in to the kneejerk reaction that there’s no room for compromise between Democrats and Republicans. Perhaps he’s trying to make a name for himself, and secure his seat in the years to come. But, if he saw things wrong with the budget, I think he would have been far more effective to try to work with it, and fix the things he saw wrong, instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. He won’t prevent the budget from being passed, but it’s possible that if he wasn’t so dead set against it, that he might be able to make it better. And that if he didn’t view everything with partisan glasses, he might be an effective Congressman someday.