GOVERNOR BRANSTAD VS. CANDIDATE BRANSTAD ON SPENDING CUTS
Candidate Branstad promises Iowans that he’ll cut the budget, claiming that spending has “skyrocketed.” But, if he wants to know about out of control spending, he needs to look no further than Governor Branstad.
There are two faces of Terry Branstad on every issue: candidate Branstad who makes these empty campaign promises to help him survive the Republican primary and Governor Branstad whose record shows that his campaign promises can’t be taken seriously.
"Branstad makes promise after promise. But, we know better than to believe a word on any campaign promise that escapes his mouth,” said Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan.
Promise: Cutting spending by 15%.
Fact:In every year but one, Terry Branstad increased the size of the budget. Over his 16 years in office, he more than doubled state spending from $2 billion to over $4.5 billion.[1]
Fact: In today’s dollars, Branstad's last budget would be $5.98 billion,[2] Kiernan said. By contrast, Culver presented a $5.32 billion balanced budget.
"Voters can only judge Branstad by his record as Governor- and he was no fiscal conservative. If he did this before, why should we believe he won’t do it again?"
Sources:
[1] Des Moines Register 10/6/09
[2] Inflation Calculator, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, accessed January 27, 2010: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl