Bush-Dole Team Increase Deficit to Record High $482 Billion: Since 2003, Dole Voted Against Pay-As-You-Go Rules 6 Times

July 29, 2008

GREENSBORO, NC- State Senator and U.S. Senate Candidate Kay Hagan (D-Guilford), a budget chair in North Carolina for five years, who produced balanced budgets while investing in the right priorities to move the state forward, slammed the Bush-Dole team for increasing our nation’s deficit to a record high $482 billion.

“This is what you get when you pair someone like President Bush, whose failed economic policies and misplaced priorities took a surplus and turned it into the largest deficit in history, and a Senator like Elizabeth Dole, who votes with Bush 92% of the time against sensible budgeting decisions and priorities that put special interests before working families,” Kay said. “You can’t balance your checkbook like that, you can’t run a business like that and it’s time we showed those in Washington that you cannot mortgage our children’s and future grandchildren’s future like that. Senator Dole has been in Washington for over 40 years, and it’s clear that her kind of experience is simply a way of doing business that puts the special interests and lobbyists ahead of North Carolina families. That kind of experience has done nothing to lower gas prices, invest in sensible priorities for our families, or responsibly end this war in Iraq and take the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan. North Carolina can’t afford six more years of that kind of experience.”

While co-chair of the Senate budget committee, Kay balanced five straight budgets, holding the line on spending and investing in priorities that helped make North Carolina the best state in which to do business. While in the state Senate, Kay turned down taxpayer funded per diem payments for days she could not be at the General Assembly and called on the General Assembly to enact strict time limits on session lengths to help cut down on wasteful spending. A strong proponent of accountability when using taxpayer dollars, Kay pushed for reviews of such spending, saying to the Associated Press, “Anytime we use statewide money for any program, there must be accountability and the agencies must know how that money was spent.”

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Dole Voted 5 Times To Increase Debt Limit To Nearly $9 Trillion. Since 2003, Elizabeth Dole has voted to raise the debt limit five times, bringing the limit to $8.9765 trillion, a 50 percent increase. [Vote 54, 3/16/06; Vote 76, 3/17/05; Vote 213, 11/17/04; Vote 57, 3/11/04; Vote 202, 5/23/03; AP, 3/16/06; Chicago Tribune, 3/17/06]

Dole And Bush Have Increased The Debt By 43 Percent, To $9.2 Trillion, Since 2003. Bush and Dole have presided over the largest explosion of debt in our nation’s history. Under the Bush-Dole team, the federal debt has increased 43 percent, from approximately $6.4 trillion at the end of 2002 to an estimated $9.2 trillion in February 2008. [U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of Public Debt]

Under Dole, Debt Owed To Foreigners Climbs To Record Levels. In order to finance record budget deficits, the United States has had to borrow at unprecedented rates from foreigners. Since 2000, the United States has accumulated more debt to foreigners, approximately $2.182 trillion, than this country had accumulated in its first 224 years. [U.S. Treasury Department, Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities, 5/07; Federal Reserve Board]

Dole Voted Against Studying Effect of Foreign-Held Debt. While the United States is forced to borrow trillions of dollars from foreign countries as a result of skyrocketing budget deficits under the leadership of Bush, Dole, and their Republican allies in Congress, Dole voted against requiring the Secretary of the Treasury to study the national security and economic effects of foreign governments, institutions and individuals holding U.S. federal debt. [Vote 53, 3/16/06; Market Watch, 3/16/06]

Since 2003, Dole Voted Against Restoring Pay-As-You-Go Rules Six Times. Since 2003, Dole has voted against restoring pay-as-you-go rules, which would require a 60-vote majority to enact tax cuts or new spending on entitlements without showing how to pay for them. “For those who say they are fiscally responsible, here is your chance,’’ said Sen. Kent Conrad, senior Democrat on the Budget Committee. ‘‘You are going to be able to prove with one vote whether you are serious about doing something about these runaway debts and runaway deficits or whether it is all talk.” [Vote 38, 3/14/06; Star Tribune, 3/16/06; New York Times, 3/15/06; Vote 53, 3/16/05; Vote 283, 11/3/05; Vote 340, 11/17/05; Vote 38, 3/10/04; Vote 200, 5/23/03]

Dole Voted Four Times Against Truman Commission. In 2005 and 2006, Dole voted four times against establishing a committee to investigate the awarding and carrying out of federal contracts for Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terrorism. [Vote 228, 9/14/05; Vote 259, 10/19/05; Vote 176, 6/20/06; Vote 316, 11/10/05]

Dole Voted Against Strengthening Accountability Laws for Iraq Contracts. In 2006, Dole voted to continue to allow monopoly contracts and waste, fraud and abuse in defense contracts in Iraq. [Vote 169, 6/14/06; CQ Today, 6/14/06]

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