A Massive Deficit of Republican Memory

I have bad news. Most Republicans have conveniently lost their short term memory. How else can one explain their sudden transformation into hard core deficit hawks? They have done nothing but railed against our new president for deficit spending while apparently forgetting their own role in bringing us to this point. They wildly attacked the stimulus package and I would expect them to go into attack mode after President Obama’s big speech tonight.

Perhaps, as a public service, someone should try to jog the collective right wing memory.

• Bush came into office with a $230 billion surplus.
• Bush spent $1.35 trillion on tax cuts for the wealthy in 2001.
• In 2002, Dick Cheney said that “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.”
• Bush spent $1.5 trillion on tax cuts for the wealthy in 2003.
• Bush spent untold billions of dollars on a war of choice in Iraq.
• Bush left behind a $1.2 trillion deficit – the largest in our nation’s history.

George W. Bush did not do all of this on his own because he had a faithful majority of rubber stamps in Congress from 2001 to 2006. No one in Congress was a bigger rubber stamp than Wisconsin’s own Paul Ryan. While he and his friends now complain about deficits and spending, they were certainly singing a different tune only a few years ago.

Call me a pessimist but somehow I don’t think that the likes of Paul Ryan will do the right thing tonight. I expect that we will hear more hypocrisy and sniping from the sidelines. While congressional Republicans are forgetting their recent past, the public can forget about hearing any real solutions from them.