Growing Number of Democrats Argue Washington Does Not Have Spending Problem

The Insiders: Spending Problem or No? Let’s Have the Debate (Ed Rogers, Washington Post)

I don’t know what has gotten into the Democrats’ coffee, but they finally appear to be allowing a clear, simple dividing line to emerge between Republicans and Democrats on a big issue. At least for the time being, the plain question of whether government is spending too much or too little is being asked and answered in a refreshingly clear way.

Washington hates binary questions with yes or no answers. Both sides of the aisle usually want to have it both ways. Both parties develop talking points and choose words that could mean anything. But now four serious leaders of the Democratic Party have gone on the record as saying they don’t think Washington has a spending problem. Our friends at The Fix have done the first analysis I’ve seen of this emerging debate. This Insider applauds when politicians say what they really think and then articulate a serious defense of their position.

President Obama, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and the uninhibited, retiring Democratic senator from Iowa Tom Harkin have all said in recent weeks that Washington does not have a spending problem. Period.

When Obama told Speaker John Boehner that we don’t have a spending problem, I chuckled but thought, so what — the president can acknowledge the obvious and stake out a clear position, but no one ever holds him to account. The mainstream media give the president both sides of almost every issue anyway.

When Pelosi said it, I thought, good for her, but she mostly lives in a liberal bubble and no one will notice what she says.

Then Hoyer, who is more deliberate, measured and precise in his language, came out, and I thought, this is a remarkable fit of candor that could bring the contrast of the two parties’ positions into focus. Now Harkin has put an exclamation point at the end of the Democratic position.