And the whole “lower taxes” as the one and only answer to all economic questions is so naive, simplistic, and just plain wrong as to be laughable. If it were any sort of an absolute then NO taxes whatsoever would be the only logical choice for any nation. When you can show where that has ever worked, then maybe it would be worth considering. Until then the issue is optimizing taxes … in terms of amount and who or what gets taxed. Only fools and liars think otherwise. That being the case both Dems and Pubs get lost trying to target taxes to help their supporters and hurt their political adversaries rather than making decisions that might benefit the nation as a whole.

Everyone knows that Congress is the one that sets the budget, and the PotUS is limited to his capacity to veto some or all of it.

That said, the Dems were in charge under Reagan and Bush I, the GOP for most of Clinton and Bush II’s first part, and the Dems again since 2006.

It is also undebatable that one of the reasons why the Dems began winning again in 2006 was that the GOP was, despite having the majority, spending like Dems (well, “old style” Dem… the new bunch is creating a new distinction for insane spending policies) — in short, the GOP under Bush II wasn’t setting its budgets responsibly.

Further, it has long been recognized that there are several looming fiscal problems, namely, Social Security and Medicare. Every effort to approach resolving these problems has been dealt with by GOP-dominated action, not by Dem-dominated action, and, in each case, the Dems were at best obstructionist.
(Also note — the latest round of Medicare idiocy WAS supported by the GOP, so do not think I am letting them off the hook. And even the most casual review of political opinion finds that one reason for the backlash against the GOP in 2006 was their support of such fiscal idiocies).

Instead, the Dems have twice attempted to force through yet another SS/Medicare type boondoggle spending program through in the form of Federal Health Care. They can’t get the first two right, hey, what the heck, let’s make yet ANOTHER irresponsible spending commitment!!

And finally, the notion that the “national debt” declined under Clinton is either a prevarication on your part or a foolish stupidity, depending on if you’re ignorant or just a lying SoS. The so-called “reductions” in the debt under Clinton were nothing but a blatant accounting trick tied to the misuse of Social Security funds to make it appear as though the budget deficits went down by switching to alternate funds. It’s like claiming he put less money onto the credit cards because he paid off more (but still charged a net increase) onto the cards, by taking out a home equity loan. It was crap, and anyone with a clue KNOWs this. So what are you — a liar or a fool?

Q.E.D., your comparison is specious, your reasoning faulty, and the conclusion inescapable: Dems are inveterate over-spenders, The GOP isn’t as good on fiscal responsibility as one might hope but is generally a major improvement regardless — as the latest round of Dem-zero-spending-control is showing.

Oh, and you might recall the legacy recession Bush got from Clinton when you start throwing THAT claim around. Not in the same arena as the current one, but it wasn’t trivial, especially after 911 threw it into high gear.

The distinction was, Bush did the thing which has worked to increase the economy time after time — he cut taxes.

Obama refuses to do this, even though it’s the only know tactic that actually works.

Similarly, if one looks at the Patriot Act and other neo-con backed legislation it is difficult to assert with a straight face that Republicans favor the personal freedom and liberties of the people as opposed (supposedly) to the Dems. And both parties seem quite happy to allow the corporate business community the freedom to do whatever they damn well please, individual citizens need not apply for similar protections.

I am not enamored of Obama and find both major parties problematic, however it is self satisfied partisan nonsense to keep asserting these tired old myths about “tax & spend” liberal Dems running up the debt, while claiming Pubs have been “fiscally conservative”.

Unfortunately, this is one more example of the right preferring a good sounding sound bite contradicted by the actual data.

Prisons are full of people who “believe” in Jesus too. It makes zero sense to say you believe in free markets while actually pushing wealth redistribution. Which is like saying you believe in freedom but slavery is acceptable from January 1st through May 15th.

That about says it.

Yes. The problem is that the Republicans, while believing in the free market, have not the first clue of what kind of fight they are in to defend it. And leave off the free market–it goes way deeper than that. We’re not just talking about a free market. We’re needing to defend and preserve a free society.

Well, OK, maybe they know they are in a fight. But they keep seeming to think that the way to win it is to surrender.

We must co-opt this party. Opposing it will fail

I keep on being unable to understand, except that someone once said that in Washington we have the evil party and the stupid party. Guess which is which.

Watch this interview with Milton Freidman.