Laura Ingraham Transmogrifies Back Into a Deficit Hawk, Grills Mike Pence on Spending

Back when there was a Democrat in the White House, talk show host Laura Ingraham was first in line to snark on promises of new federal giveaway programs. See her Twitter stream during an Obama State of the Union address.

Paid sick leave…paid maternity leave…paid childcare…and it’s all freeeeeeeeeeeee!

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) January 21, 2015

Oh…and community college…it’s also all freeeeeeeeeee!

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) January 21, 2015

Freeeeeeee wifi….I’ll cure cancer…freeeeee maternity leave…we’ll all need to go into outerspace! #colonizeMars

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) January 21, 2015

When Ingraham was cheerleading for Donald Trump and he proposed a new program designed by his daughter Ivanka (D-NY), her tone was a lot more measured. She just needed to see the details about how he planned to pay for it. Not even a peep about how maternity benefits aren’t something the federal government should be dictating to the states.

Need to see details re. how Trump proposes to pay for a new 6-wk maternity benefit. Savings bc those women won’t go on disability?

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) September 13, 2016

Now that Trump has won the White House, Laura has transmogrified back into a real deficit hawk again. CNN reports on her interview with Vice President Mike Pence and she holds his feet to the fire over deficit spending.

In the interview with Pence on Wednesday, Ingraham said, “Back in 2010 you were described by many, including me, as a deficit hawk. That the way you saw government was that it was one of our sacred responsibilities not to pile future debt and big deficits on future generations. And yet in this budget that we’re looking at — at least the outlines of it — the priorities the President struck last night, it’s not clear how we’re going to be trimming this deficit after we’ve had some success in doing so with these sequester cuts in previous years.”

“Have you gone from a deficit hawk to a deficit dove?” she asked Pence.

Like I did during the presidential campaign?

“No, not in the least,” Pence replied. “Let me say the President’s full budget will be out in a few weeks. The budget outline that was sent to Capitol Hill earlier this week is deficit neutral.”

Pence explained the need for an increase in military spending, and said Trump’s view is that economic growth would reduce deficits and the debt.

“So is that how you’ll pay for this — you’re going to pay for this additional spending you think through the additional tax revenues that are coming in?” Ingraham asked. “Because, again, I’m trying to make sure that the Republicans don’t get themselves in that bind that they got themselves in, and you were there, Vice President Pence. I mean, you were cited by Reason Magazine, by all these other publications, and I wrote about it at the time.

Now that she’s trying to sound like a conservative again it’s a little ironic that she picks deficit spending as her first target, given that her own company is having difficulty with that issue. I’m not saying that this rises to the level of hypocrisy because businesses go through highs and lows. I’m just saying it’s a little ironic.

Ingraham is flirting with the idea of a run for U.S. Senate though so her business record could become an issue. Her potential leap into the political arena might be what triggered her transformation back into a conservative. It will be interesting to watch where she goes as a pundit with regard to Trump’s less conservative ideas now.

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