When Democrats sang a different tune

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)

2003: “Sadly, this administration has chosen to support tax policies where affluent people will reap enormous benefits, while working families will receive very little tax relief.” Source

“Passing another enormous tax cut this year will only amplify this trend of growing deficits and add to the economic burdens our children and grandchildren will inherit. Increasing deficits will decrease national savings and increase long-term interest rates — effectively lowering the incomes of working Americans.” Source

“I just do not think we can afford another large tax cut at this time until we get our own fiscal house in order. Clearly, this tax cut plan is not about growing the economy or creating jobs. It is about starving the Government and wooing some voters.” Source

“In 2001, I voted against the Bush tax cut bill because it was too skewed toward the wealthiest Americans and too fiscally irresponsible. Since then, we have gone from record surpluses to record deficits, and the economy is still floundering.” Source

 “As I said when this bill passed the Senate, I have two of the world’s most perfect grandchildren. And while the promise of another tax cut sounds great, I am not going to ask my grandchildren and everyone else’s grandchildren to pay for it. It is not right. It is not fair. And it is not the American way.” Source

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.)

2001: “This is a fiscally irresponsible thing to do. It will put us, in all likelihood, back in a deficit ditch, which we have just climbed out of. We have not acted in a fiscally responsible way today.” Source

2003: “The president’s fiscal year 2004 budget request contains misplaced domestic and economic priorities.” The Bush tax cut is “a huge deficit creator [that] makes it impossible, as a result, to assist states like Michigan.” Source

“A close look reveals too many ill-advised cuts in too many critical areas in order to help pay for a tax cut which is too large, too inequitable and which will worsen our fiscal situation without providing our economy the jump-start it needs.” Source

Former Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.)

2001: “Just think of the conditions that this Bush administration found when it came to office: a government in [an] unprecedented position, with surpluses of more than — trillions of dollars ahead, and with the opportunity to work across party lines to put together a program that would invest in America’s future and continue America’s prosperity and progress. Those opportunities were lost.” Source

“So I would say that this is a day, sadly, that could be titled “Opportunities Lost.” And the consequences of those opportunities lost, I’m afraid, are serious for our nation’s future. This is a sad day for fiscal responsibility in our government and for economic growth in the future of our country.” Source

“This bill may prove to be nothing but a one-trick pony, and, if so, it’s a bad trick to play on the American people. No matter the well-intentioned claims of my colleagues, this bill promises something we cannot deliver. It abandons fiscal discipline, fails to invest the wealth our Nation has earned over the past eight years, and may send us back down the road to debt, higher interest rates, and higher unemployment. It is not what the American people deserve, nor is it what they expected it to be.” Source

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) (Member of the House of Representatives in 2001 and 2003)

2001: “The Bush plan is unfair to working families…Forty-three percent of the tax cut goes to the wealthiest 1 percent of the country.” Source

“Worse yet, by committing all the surplus to pay for these lopsided tax cuts, there is no money left to invest in our nation’s priorities.” Source

2003: “America simply cannot be red, white and broke and meet its challenges both at home and abroad in the years to come. It is time for Republicans to realize that their tax cut is not the answer to every problem. For two-and-a-half years it has not worked; ask the 8.8 million Americans who are unemployed.” Source

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.)

2001: “…If you look at this, there is no money for justice, and there certainly is no money for opportunity. And when you divide the rich from the poor in this tax break, it certainly is not a single nation.  The Bush budget is reckless. It mortgages America’s future with these lavish tax cuts. Now we Democrats believe that we do want to put money in people’s pocket books. But we want to do it in a way that’s here today, and they can count on it tomorrow.” Source

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.)

2001: “The president seems to have his priorities backwards. He’s willing to pay for his tax cut at the expense of our children, our neighborhoods, our health, and our future.” Source

2003: “Each week, we get more proof that Bush-a-nomics is failing American families…This week, consumer confidence plummeted to the lowest level in nine years.” Source

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.)

2001: “It poses a serious threat to our economy because it will use up what surplus there is so we cannot pay down the national debt … and it seriously threatens our Medicare and Social Security trust funds.” Source

“This legislation greatly increases the likelihood that the Federal Government will use up all of the projected surplus and there will not be any left over to pay down the national debt without raiding the Medicare and Social Security trust funds. That would be tragic. And if there are additional investments needed over the next decade, as there certainly will be, such as for education, the environment, health care, and national defense, then the federal budget will be written in the red ink of deficit spending.” Source

Sen. John Reed (D-R.I.)

2002: “We had 10 years where our government was focused on fiscal responsibility and we generated surpluses…Now, we are in a situation where a lot of opportunities are lost, where we just don’t have the resources to invest…we would be a lot better off had Congress been more judicious in passing the Bush administration tax cut.” Source

2003: “The Bush tax-cut agenda…it surely and dramatically has made the tough problem even tougher. It makes the fiscal hole even deeper, and it unjustly pushes off most of the financial responsibility for the tax cuts and government programs we now enjoy onto our children and grandchildren. We’re putting our tax cuts on a credit card that our kids will have to pay off.” Source