When President George W. Bush was in office, most conservatives were very upset at the amount of spending that was going on. We were willing to put up with the expense of war, when justified, but the other spending that the Republican-controlled congress shoveled on the American people and President Bush signed into law was unacceptable and a constant source of frustration.
From the gargantuan and Orwellian-named Department of Homeland Security to Medicare Pard D to the pork-laden highway and farm bills to the horrible omnibus spending bills that had more giveaways to home districts for congressmen, we growled and yelled at the waste and the debt. Then came the capper at the end of the Bush administration, TARP, which shoveled billions of dollars at super-rich mega corporations to prevent them from paying for their stupidity.
All that time, Democrats complained about the deficit and the national debt. Now that a Democrat is in power, conservatives continue to complain about the spending, which has gotten even worse than when Bush was in office, but Democrats suddenly think deficit and debt is perfectly fine. Here are a few comparison quotes for you to read:
If my Republican friends believe that increasing our debt by almost $800 billion today and more than $3 trillion over the last five years is the right thing to do, they should be upfront about it. They should explain why they think more debt is good for the economy. – Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), 2006We can’t back out on the money we owe the rest of the world, we can’t do as the Gingrich crowd did a few years ago, close the government. – Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), 2011
The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. – then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), 2006, on raising the debt ceilingThis is no time for fooling around or playing politics on this critical issue. US Government spending is the driving force of global prosperity. Without it businesses and individuals would be forced to make their own decisions on what to produce, how to produce it, and where to sell it. We need government to ensure that resources are used wisely and distributed equitably… – President Obama on raising the debt ceiling, 2011
Republicans aren’t immune to this hypocrisy, of course. Some of the very same congressmen who in 2006 argued that the debt ceiling absolutely had to be raised are now saying it cannot be. Republican Members of Congress, such as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.), Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.) and House Speaker John Boehner (Oh.), for example, all voted to raise the debt ceiling under President Bush and are arguing it ought not be raised now.
The difference, of course, is that in 2006 the debt was $8.5 trillion, whereas now it is $14 trillion. So reversing yourself from agreeing to something when it is much smaller and somewhat less dangerous to rejecting it when it is much larger is significantly less troubling to me than doing the opposite, as Democrats are doing. And back then, the debt was largely pushed by a war, which you cannot do on the cheap, whereas now its pushed by gargantuan spending projects which are accomplishing nothing beneficial to the economy.
This is the kind of thing that people cannot play politics on. This is too important an issue, with the stakes too high to be posturing with the intent of harming your foes politically to gain personal power. President Obama is right when he says that the American economy drives the world, and that’s exactly why this kind of childish playground squabbling has to end.
