Steve Benen adds this:"During their reign, Republicans took an annual surplus of a quarter of a trillion dollars and, in just eight years, turned it into a $1.2 trillion deficit. The GOP added $5 trillion to the national debt, and inexplicably put two tax cuts, two wars, Medicare Part D, and No Child Left Behind on the national charge card, left for some future generation to worry about.
If fiscal responsibility is the new chief concern of voters, they literally couldn't find a less qualified, less credible bunch than the congressional Republican caucus.
But wait, our conservative friends remind us, that was the recent past. What about the ongoing deficit problems on the Dems' watch? The answer isn't complicated. As Michael Ettlinger and Michael Linden recently explained: "The policies of the Bush administration, which included tax cuts during a time of war and a floundering economy, are clearly the primary source of the current deficits."
And what of those recent reports about deficit projections rising from $7 trillion to $9 trillion? The bottom line, Kevin Drum recently noted, is simple: "[P]roperly accounted for, the deficit actually goes down when you compare Obama's budget proposals to current policy, not up."
If Americans want to prioritize deficit reduction, fine. But they should at least recognize who has credibility on the issue, and who doesn't."
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