From CNSNews.com:
When Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave her inaugural address as speaker of the House in 2007, she vowed there would be “no new deficit spending.” Since that day, the national debt has increased by $5 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
“After years of historic deficits, this 110th Congress will commit itself to a higher standard: Pay as you go, no new deficit spending,” Pelosi said in her speech from the speaker’s podium. “Our new America will provide unlimited opportunity for future generations, not burden them with mountains of debt.”
Pelosi has served as speaker in the 110th and 111th Congresses.
At the close of business on Jan. 4, 2007, Pelosi’s first day as speaker, the national debt was $8,670,596,242,973.04 (8.67 trillion), according to the Bureau of the Public Debt, a division of the U.S. Treasury Department. At the close of business on Oct. 22, it stood at $13,667,983,325,978.31 (13.67 trillion), an increase of 4,997,387,083,005.27 (or approximately $5 trillion).
The President and Congressional Democrats love to criticize Republicans for “wanting to return to the policies that got us into this mess”… The problem with that argument is that Congressional Democrats have essentially doubled down on the big spending, big government policies of George W. Bush and former House Speaker Denis Hastert. Who as CNSNews notes “enjoys the distinction of having increased the debt more than any other speaker except Pelosi.” Having added $3.1 trillion to the debt during his tenure as Speaker.
To put this in to perspective it took 207 years from Frederick Muhlenberg who became the First Speaker of the House on on April 1, 1789 to February 23, 1996 more than a year into Newt Gingrich’s speakership for the federal government to amass $5 trillion in debt. Since then the national debt has skyrocketed to 13,667,624,992,210.96 (13.677 trillion) as of October 22, 2010.
The government’s current spending level is unsustainable, it’s time we held our elected leaders accountable and returned to the type common sense, constitutionally limited, fiscally responsible government our founding fathers intended.
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