Congressman Adam Smith blasts both parties and president for failing to find fiscal fix

Washington Congressman Adam Smith says he’s fed up with both sides in the ongoing budget battles continuing in D.C., and he won’t rule out the possibility of a government shutdown this spring.

Smith joined Seattle’s Morning News Monday to explain why he was one of the Democrats to vote against the last minute deal that prevented a plunge off the fiscal cliff.

Smith says he simply couldn’t support deep cuts in a wide variety of programs he supports while Congress refused to tackled deeper issues.

“It’s incredibly inconsistent to vote against revenues for programs that need to be funded,” he says.

Smith criticizes leaders of both parties and the president for approving extension of Bush-era tax cuts and increasing them at the same time they were preaching the need for deficit reduction – yet refused to make any significant spending cuts.

“I have nothing against tax cuts but if we’re deeply concerned about social security and medicare and education and transportation and the deficit, in order to accomplish all of that, we’re either going to have to have unacceptably high deficits or we’re going to have to make some choices.”

After a weekend of tax talk, it’s clear the two sides remain far apart on those choices.

Now, a new deadline looms. The U.S. reaches its credit limit on March 27, which could mean a government shutdown. Yet leaders of both parties spent the weekend making it clear they are far apart on how to deal with it.

Democrats are calling for a massive review and overhaul of the tax code to close a number of loopholes and generate more money. But Smith says he’s extremely skeptical because no one has offered any specifics despite months of talks.

“I’m still waiting for the person who says specifically where the deductions are. So yeah, I think that’s going to be a bit of a problem.”

At the same time, Republicans continue insisting on no new taxes, meaning no additional revenue. The two sides couldn’t be farther apart.

“We have to end the hypocrisy and have the numbers add up, end the idea that we get $2 for every $1 in taxes we pay,” Smith says.

And while he opposes deep cuts to important social programs, he’s adamant both sides stop dodging the elephant in the room.

“Entitlements are 58 percent of the budget that’s 40 percent in deficit. There’s no way we get back to any sort of fiscal sanity without finding places in entitlements to save money.”

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