Deficit Spending: Are Conservatives the Only Ones Allowed to Do It?

Mitch McConnell wishes to remind us that before we spend any money on the Stimulus Package, we are running a trillion dollar deficit for the coming year. He neglected to remind us of two things:

1) His party is responsible for the need to stimulate the economy and...
2) His party is responsible for the deficit.

Senate Republicans are trying to act the part of their longstanding myth--that they are for small government and it's the Dems who want to control the country and everyone's lives. If they expect us to believe that then they must think we have a short memory. It was republicans that increased spending at a higher rate than any administration since WWII. It was republicans that initiated illegal spy programs. It was republicans that put the entire economy onto the shoulders of the middle class. (It should be noted here that none of this would have been possible without ineptness on the part of the democrates, so well done.)

And now they want to sell you a lie about this stimulus plan. McConnell claims that this has become the biggest spending bill in the history of the US. Even if it was, big problems, like this economy, call for big band aids. But, as Barney Frank points out, it was republicans that passed the largest spending bill in history: that was the bill which authorized force in Iraq.

And the difference is we don't and never will have anything to show for it (by now we can't even say it was a war for oil because the Chinese have the rights to that...). While the GOP might be confortable with calling every war ever "necessary" and well worth any cost, they always seem hesitant when considering spending American money to help actual Americans. There's no way the Stimulus Bill could be half the disaster that the war in Iraq has become.

Now to be clear, I agree that pointing fingers is wasteful when there are important things to be done (mostly). The point of this is not to blame the GOP for all our woes. The point is that people should realize that these comments about deficit spending are not being made in good faith. In reality they have shown themselves to be quite confortable as a party with spending, as long as it's their party deciding where it goes. And that's the truth. Are they partisan obstructionists? If for once they voted on their claimed principles instead of party lines, then maybe they could defend their possition now. But after going spend crazy for eight years, it's time for the American people to tell them where to get off if they are going to whine about spending now.

For your enjoyment, here's Barney Frank on George Stephanopoulos' show: