Michelle Malkin | Steny Hoyer: We don’t have a spending problem

Steny Hoyer: We don’t have a spending problem — we have a ‘paying for’ problem

By Doug Powers • February 13, 2013 04:33 PM

**Written by Doug Powers

Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer partially made a good point in a CNBC interview, albeit unintentionally. As far as ability goes, no, the government definitely does not have a problem spending — they’re too good at it, actually. But from an “addiction” angle, they’ve got a massive problem and should have been forced into rehab decades ago.

Hoyer’s message here is “America needs to give us more to cover the bills”:

MICHELLE CARUSO-CABRERA: Does the country have a spending problem sir? Does the country have a spending problem?

REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD), HOUSE MINORITY WHIP: Does the country have a spending problem? The country has a paying for problem. We haven’t paid for what we bought, we haven’t paid for our tax cuts, we haven’t paid for war.

But if you bought something you knew you couldn’t pay for then you have a spending pr… oh, never mind!

For Dems like Hoyer, when the going gets tough in an interview, the tough blame Bush:

CARUSO-CABRERA: How about what we promised? Are we promising too much?

HOYER: Absolutely. If we don’t pay, we shouldn’t buy.

CARUSO-CABRERA: So how is that different than a spending problem?

HOYER: Well, we spent a lot of money when George Bush was president of the United States in the House and Senate were controlled by Republicans. We spent a lot of money.

I’ll bet when Hoyer was a kid and got caught in the cookie jar after his parents told him to stay away from it, his defense was “I don’t have a cookie eating problem, but you obviously have a major issue with jar security!”