More Fiscal Responsibility: Tax cuts for the rich, tax increases for the middle class

Republicans: party of fiscal responsibility! Just ignore all of that massive deficit spending during the Reagan and Bush years.

Republicans: Party of cutting your taxes! Well, at least rich people anyway.

And Republicans, who evidently think people have really short memories when they come out with a tax and budget plan that cuts taxes for the rich, gives little to the poor/middle class, and introduces even bigger deficits.

It's like a broken record. Republicans get out of office. And as soon as the Democrats are in power, Republicans start going on about the "tax and spend" Democrats. How the Democrats are the ones "breaking the budget." How the Democrats have these crazy schemes.

And, in the meantime, the Democrats pass Pay-Go legislation that calls for any new spending to be matched with either tax increases or budget cuts elsewhere to pay for the new spending - and do so over every Republican who voted against it.

Democrats propose a health care bill that includes measure to have it be paid for, as opposed to Republican tax cuts and Medicare drug expansions that didn't.

And then, along comes Congressman Ryan who says "You know what would be awesome? Get rid of Medicare, cut taxes to the rich, and magical fiscal fairies will make up the difference! Yes, I know, we tried it under the Reagen years, under the Bush years, but it'll *really really really* work this time!"

And the worst part is - people with political memories of a goldfish are lining up to go "Yeah, great idea!"

Lectured on Fiscal Prudence By Those Who Spent It All

Spending is an important issue. It's a serious issue, and one that needs addressing.

Government spending, and overspending, is an important issue as well.

Which is why it's not funny, more sad and infuriating when you read about people like Gretchen Hamel, a former Bush admiinstration official, are the ones doing the lecturing.

Let's seriously think about this for a moment. Let's pretend we have a business - call it Big Bubba's Shipping. Larry gets appointed to the head of the company, and he proceeds to spend every penny in the savings accounts on the greatest security system ever, on hiring a whole new group of employees, and then racks up tons of debt for the company in the process. He cuts prices on shipping charges with the theory of "it'll bring in a ton of new customers" - which reduces revenue just as the company should be paying the bills.

In the meantime, he ignores that the shipping trucks are breaking down to pieces and the accounting department is racked with fraud.

So when the new head the company comes into office, they say "Look, we need to buy some new trucks and fix up what we've got, or else we won't have any business. So we need to extend our line of credit, fix up the fleet, get back in business, and then we'll be able to repay our bills."

At which point Larry starts to complain "We can't do that - we'll go further into debt! Debt is bad!" All the while ignoring the fact that it's Larry's fault *we're in so much debt right now*.

So let's review the Bush administration, who:

• Started out with a surplus in the yearly budget.
  
• Expanded government to create a whole new department called Homeland Security - without cutting expenses to pay for it or raising taxes.
  
• Offered a huge tax cut without cutting any spending to pay for it.
  
• Expanded Medicare without any tax increases to pay for it.
  
• Started two wars without cutting spending or increasing taxes to pay for it.
  
• Let the Pay-Go rules lapse (these were the rules in place during the Clinton administration, that said that any new spending by the government had to be paid for either by a tax increase or a budget cut elsewhere)
  

And then - these are the people who want to come out and start lecturing about "fiscal responsibility." When we're trying to bring down costs in health care (which has the potential to bankrupt the government), or when we pass Pay-Go under the Obama administration over *every Republican in the Senate who voted against it*.

It's like being lectured on diet and exercise by the obese guy stuffing Twinkies into his mouth. It's like being told to be morally chaste by a pimp.