The second GOP presidential debate is about a month away. That's plenty of time for the candidates who made the stage for the first debate but may not qualify for the Sept. 27 event to decide whether it's wiser to bow out now and get on with their lives or continue to pretend they might yet catch an electoral wave.
There's at least one candidate from that first debate who should move forward – if for no other reason than the candidate's willingness to tell Republican voters the truth about spending.
That candidate is former U.N. ambassador and South Caroline Gov. Nikki Haley.
Haley was right on the mark when she said the government went on an unprecedented debt spree in recent years:
“The truth is that Biden didn't do this to us, our Republicans did this to us too,” Haley said during the early moments of Wednesday's Republican primary debate. She pointed specifically to Republican support in Congress for COVID stimulus bills and other recent spending packages. “They need to stop the spending, they need to stop the borrowing, they need to eliminate the earmarks that Republicans brought back in,” she said.
Then she delivered the hammer blow: “And Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt, and our kids are never going to forgive us for this,” Haley said.
In other words, the political class didn't let the crisis go to waste. It borrowed, spent, and borrowed some more in order to expand the state. Is Trump solely responsible for it? Hardly, and Haley knows this (or should). Congressional Democrats were eager to get the cash trucks rolling and keep them rolling as long as possible. Joe Biden wanted to spend even more – though he had to settle for slightly less.
The real kicker in Haley's remark has to do with earmarks, the gateway drug to more spending and higher debt. As The Wall Street Journal noted, Haley said:
“You look at the 2024 budget: Republicans asked for $7.4 billion in earmarks. Democrats asked for $2.8 billion. So you tell me who are the big spenders.” Those figures are backed by a Roll Call story last month: “House Republicans have so thoroughly stacked the earmarking deck in their favor in appropriations bills for the upcoming fiscal year that the top Democratic recipient doesn't even appear in the top 60.”
Because nothing says “fiscal conservative” like a laundry list of earmarks. From the Roll Call story, we learn that even the self-described fiscal hawks on the House Freedom Caucus can't help themselves when it comes to earmarks:
Agriculture Appropriations Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., a Freedom Caucus member who two years ago signed a “no earmarks” pledge, is No. 20, at $42.9 million; Ben Cline, R-Va., another Freedom Caucus appropriator, is No. 24 with $42 million.
Whatever else Haley may be as a candidate, on spending, she's right as can be: “The truth is that Biden didn't do this to us, our Republicans did this to us too.”
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Yes, but she came out in first debate as unabashedly supportive of funding the Ukraine war. She’s the same as the rest, all dancing to whatever tune the big money industrialists demand of them. You wanna put a dent in our out of control spending? Quit sending our dollars overseas, no matter what the excuse, funding wars, bribing foreign officials, etc, etc, etc.
You want to put a dent in our out of control spending, another thing would be to stop giving huge tax breaks to the rich and big corporations. It’s cuts our goverments income. These big corporations also get subsidies. Of course, it’s called Socialism if they do that for the average worker.
Haley is RNC & DC Estd type Not MAGA
Even if $10 billion in earmarks all were included in the final bills, wrong as it may be to include them, it utterly pales against the spending and handouts the Biden administration has doled out, seemingly nearly every week. Money not clearly authorized by Congress … The problem clearly lies with Biden’s fiscal irresponsibility.
No way, TRUMP 2024 !