Disagreements
happen all the time in Congress. It is a natural part of any democracy. But
what doesn't happen all the time is a sitting senator essentially calling a
witness a liar.
And that is
exactly what Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., did to Heritage Foundation
scholar Dr. Salim Furth during a Senate Budget Committee hearing on June 4th
titled, "The Fiscal and Economic Effects of Austerity."
During that
hearing, Furth testified that "austerity" is an overly broad term
often used to obfuscate the true mix of spending cuts and tax hikes governments
use to lower their debt burdens. He said that while spending cuts can often
improve economic growth, tax hikes only harm the economy and often make debt
worse......
[Senator Whitehouse] "I am contesting whether you have given us fair and accurate information," Whitehouse continued. "When you look at the actual balance between spending cuts and tax increases, that the OECD uses it self, to describe what took place in Europe, I cannot connect that to where you come out."Clearly, Whitehouse believed he had caught Furth and The Heritage Foundation in a bald face lie........There is just one problem with Whitehouse's big gotcha moment:....the numbers Whitehouse used to attack Furth for misreporting "what took place in Europe" were actually mostly projections of what governments said they were planning to do in the future...... To Read More....
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