Murkowski warned the crowd of several dozen people about the $5.8 trillion public debt,.which she said will double in five years and triple in 10 years if government spending continues on its current course.
“There is nothing more out of check than what is happening with the debt, what is happening with the deficit,” she said.
Murkowski warned that such spending puts the federal government’s AAA bond rating at risk, and could even lead to civil unrest like recently seen in Greece.
While Murkowski offered few specifics about cutting spending, she did say she welcomed an internal review by the Pentagon, led by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to cut defense spending, which makes up nearly a quarter of the federal budget.
The senator also called for the repeal of health care reform that was signed into law by the president earlier this year, saying it was the wrong time to add a new entitlement program when older programs such as Medicaid need to be fixed.
Murkowski saved some of her sharpest criticism for the Environmental Protection Agency, which she butted heads with earlier this month when her disapproval resolution to keep the agency from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act went before the Senate.
Though the rarely used resolution procedure failed to pass the Senate 47-53 and President Obama promised to veto it if it reached his desk, Murkowski said that she considered it a “badge of honor” that the Obama administration spent so much effort defeating the effort.
While six Democrats joined with Republicans in voting for the resolution, Murkowski said a handful of other Democrats had shown support for it as well, but voted against the resolution when the EPA promised to delay enforcing regulations for several years.
“We made our point,” Murkowski said. “Forty-seven members of the Senate said they do not want to allow the agency to set climate change policy.”
Contact staff writer Chris Freiberg at 459-7545.
Nice saying all of them. Lisa seems to be walking through the furnace and continues to trot along, so I don't think she is ready to "leave the kitchen" yet. Why is it we always have to choose the lesser of two evils? (Yet another saying...) At least the tea party movement is trying to make things better. I don't agree with everything they do, but I give them points for trying. Do you have any better ideas?
Lease-a!!!! it fits her to a T.
LMAO
I love it!!!
joe's a tea bagger, huh? well now THERE's a reason to vote for him....
decaf? don't do either, caf or decaf. can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen.
AP, did you see where she said she would "look" at reducing defense spending? Of course, I'm sure you trust Lisa as much as the conservatives do... (Yes Lisa, we don't trust you.)
where o where are my tea baggers???
Two things goldstream. One, Joe Miller (read up on him...). Two, DECAF. You seriously need to switch to decaf.
We do not have "national socialized medicine" and how anyone could call the health care bill that is beyond me. The insurance companies are still in control. Only a bit more regulated.
Fund raising in Alaska? She gets more in one month in D.C. than we could provide if forced to give her our PFD checks.
What a shill and a sham.
I fear her banking kind (Wall Streeters in particular) much more than the EPA trying to keep our air breathable, something she doesn't need while breathing the rarified air of D.C. cocktail parties and sticking up for the rights of BP and other "mom and pop" offshore corner grocery store drilling platforms.
Our country is broke because she, her dad before her, and the Dems who have been living the high life on our backs (Wall Street is still getting free money from China via the Fed they won't even lend to we low-lifes who are supposedly the backbone of the country who are going to be held accountable paying us back.
The rich need more tax breaks to provide us with more jobs so we can pay the tax bills they've incurred by putting it off into the future.
What abourt the nearly 50 years of social security and medicare deductions I've seen dis appear from my with-holdings?
Have you invested that wisely for me too, Lease-A?
That is called cutting your nose off to spite your face.
---
fsbgl
Time to vote her (and the rest of them) out.
You cannot rubber stamp as many years of Bush spending as you did and then pretend you're a 'fiscal conservative' right before the elections, Lisa.
You're not a conservative. You're a Republican.
Stop insulting conservatism.
Where are you when it comes to ending the drug war on Americans, that does NOTHING to stop illegal drug use, but feeds the weapons and prison industries with hundreds of billions of dollars? Nearly twenty five billion dollars already this year alone to arrest nearly 900,000 drug law violators. (You do the math and figure out the efficacy of such worthless spending.) http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm
And how much do you think it costs to keep nearly 900 military bases open around the globe? We're supposed to be a nation, not an empire.
Lisa, you never speak out against the "entitlement programs" of the war machine, nor the drug war machine, nor the out of control corporate government using our trillion dollar military for their own monetary gains.
Corporate welfare is killing America faster than social welfare ever thought of. They capitalize the profit and socialize the loss. What a sweet deal our criminal government has set up for them. Thanks for doing your part in perpetuating the theft.
We do not need somone we cannot count we. We don't need any we can't rely on.
Anyone but Lisa is fine with me.
There are not enough Liberals in the State to defeat her unless she an another Republican "split the vote" so now is the time to pay attention NOT ONLY to what she says now BUT WHAT SHE HAS SAID (AND DONE) in the past.