Claire McCaskill: Strong Politician or Just Following Suit?

Raising the Debt Ceiling is only OK when a Democrat Does It


With a Democratic president in office, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) had no problem voting for an increase in the debt ceiling this summer.


But in 2007 it seemed that under a Republican president, Senator McCaskill would never be caught voting for a raise in the debt limit. She was quoted saying, “‘President Bush and the previous Republican Congress have taken the surpluses from the Clinton administration and turned our budget to an unacceptable color of bright red. I am comforted by new pay-as-you-go rules that we put in place in January which will result in a surplus by 2012.’” It is clear that she thought it was fiscally irresponsible for President Bush to propose the raise in the debt ceiling.


It is now 2011 and the tides have turned. Senator McCaskill had an opportunity to vote on raising the debt ceiling once again and results were much different. Now that a new party is in the White House it has become a matter of necessity to her to raise the debt ceiling. Her spokeswoman said, “Failing to raise the debt ceiling would cause a financial panic that would be devastating to the economy. She thinks it is profoundly irresponsible to play chicken with the debt limit vote, especially to pursue divisive social issues.”


Not only can we not trust Senator McCaskill to cast honest votes in the Senate, but she has quite a record of not paying her own debts, i.e, taxes. Here are a few examples:
• Senator McCaskill’s Osage Beach condo was auctioned off in 1994 due to a failure to pay $2,337 in taxes.
• Her husband’s car dealership was sued for over a million dollars owed to GMAC. She was the registered agent of the business. Records show that the business had a history of errors and failure to pay taxes.
• In 2011 it was discovered that she owed $300,000 in taxes on her privately owned plane. Apparently she “forgot” to pay these property taxes.


Are these the kind of people running Washington? The policies that Senator McCaskill backs ask the American people to shell out their hard earned money to pay for Washington’s excessive spending. Ironically, she seems unable to do the same.