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Hoyer Blames Reagan and Bushes for Deficits, Says Policies Did Nothing to Grow Economy
January 4, 2011 - 4:01 PM
FILE: House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer of Md., Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
(CNSNews.com) - In his last day as House Majority Leader, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) put much of the blame for America’s growing debt on past Republican administrations, including former President Ronald Reagan.
“Ronald Reagan came in and adopted an economic program that created $1.4 trillion in deficits over the next eight years,” Hoyer said in a Capitol Hill press conference on Tuesday, where he appeared with other members of the Democratic House Leadership.
“George Bush continued those policies and added another trillion dollars to the deficit," said Hoyer. "Bill Clinton came in 1993 and we adopted a PAY-GO (pay as you go) process.”
Hoyer warned that new rules that will be adopted by the incoming Republican majority in the House of Representatives will lead to an increase in the federal deficit. (The new Congress is scheduled to be sworn-in today, Jan. 5.)
Hoyer went on to say that the policies of Ronald Reagan not only increased the deficit, but also did nothing to grow the economy and were responsible for the recent economic downturn.
“We will oppose these rules that will unfortunately return us to the fiscal irresponsibility that was practiced under President Reagan, President Bush, and the second President Bush, which put us deeply, deeply into deficit and -- contrary to the researchers -- not only did not grow the economy but gave us the worst economy we’ve seen since Herbert Hoover,” said Hoyer.
“There is no free lunch," said Hoyer. "Supply-side economics that is argued so fervently for by so many simply means that if you do less, you get more. Nothing that I have done in my lifetime showed me that if I did less, I got more. Nothing.”
Hoyer did not mention the $3.2 trillion that the Congress has added to the federal debt since President Obama took office in January 2009.
But Hoyer claimed that repeal of Obamacare would add to the deficit, even though the policy will not be fully implemented until 2014.
“Those rules that they're providing now say in effect that if you cut revenues or if you eliminate health care or if you do about 10 other things, that you don’t have to pay for it," he said. "Somebody will pay for it. It will be our children and our grandchildren who will pay for it."
As CNSNews.com has reported, according to the Congressional Budget Office, at the end of fiscal year (FY) 1980, four months before Reagan was inaugurated, the federal debt held by the public was $711.9 billion.
At the end of FY 1989, which occurred on Sept. 30, 1989, eight months after Reagan left office, the federal debt held by the public was $2.1907 trillion -- an increase of $1.4788 trillion over the eight years of the Reagan administration.
By the end of FY 1993, which ended eight months after George H.W. Bush left office and occurred during Bill Clinton’s first year in office, the debt was $3.248 trillion, growth of just over $1.05 trillion over four years.
By the end of FY 2001, eight months after Bill Clinton left office and during George W. Bush’s first year in the White House, the debt stood at $3.319 trillion.
By the end of FY 2009, (Sept. 30, 2009) eight months after George W. Bush left office, during Barack Obama’s first year in office, the debt stood at $7.544 trillion.
According to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Public Debt, on Jan. 3, 2011, the public debt stood at: $13.998 trillion. ($13,997,932,781,828.89)
A transcript of Rep. Hoyer’s comments on Tuesday follows below:
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.): "Ronald Reagan came in and adopted an economic program that created $1.4 trillion in deficits over the next 8 years. George Bush continued those policies and added another trillion dollars to the deficit. Bill Clinton came in 1993 and we adopted a pay-go process, which we had pursued in 1990 in a bipartisan way and renewed in '97 in a bipartisan way."
Hoyer: "That statutory pay-go process led us to a surplus for the first time in over a century for 8 years under the president’s term $62.9 billion surplus. We then dumped , effectively went back to the rules that they now want to adopt tomorrow. We went back to those rules and we incurred an additional $2.6 trillion dollar in deficits which means that under Republican presidents since I’ve been in Congress over the last 30 years we’ve had some $5.5 trillion dollars of operating deficits and a surplus under Bill Clinton."
Hoyer: "Those rules that they're providing now say, in effect, that if you cut revenues or if you eliminate health care, or if you do about 10 other things, that you don’t have to pay for it. Somebody will pay for it. It will be our children and our grandchildren who will pay for it."
Hoyer: "There is no free lunch. Supply-side economics that is argued so fervently for by so many, simply means that if you do less, you get more. Nothing that I have done in my lifetime showed me that if I did less, I got more. Nothing. As a result, we will oppose these rules that will unfortunately return us to the fiscal irresponsibility that was practiced under President Reagan, President Bush and the Second President Bush, which put us deeply, deeply into deficit and contrary to the researchers not only did not grow the economy but gave us the worst economy we’ve seen since Herbert Hoover."
