On the GOPers who claim "We didn't create this mess!"

[Donnachaidh]

http://titanicsailsatdawn.blogspot.com/2011/06/on-gopers-who-claim-we-didnt-create.html

Titanic noted the GOP congressman who told Tres. Secy. Geithner "We didn't create this mess!" during the recent White House meeting over raising the debt ceiling. James Kwak at Baseline Scenario has this reaction:

The frightening thing is, he probably believes it. When people hold certain ideological beliefs strongly enough, no amount of facts will get in their way. If you believe that the current deficit is the result of excessive government spending (passed by Democrats, even though they only controlled Congress and the White House for four out of the past thirty years*), no pile of charts will be big enough to convince you otherwise — just like if you believe that tax cuts increase tax revenues, that the deficit has produced high interest rates, or that Barack Obama was born on Mars, no amount of evidence will convince you otherwise.

This is just fine if you are my daughter, who is four years old — although, actually, she admits it when she makes a mess (and helps clean it up). But if you are a legislator in the most powerful country in the world –and the one whose debt is the definitionally risk-free asset against which the yield of every other financial asset in the entire world is measured — it’s not good enough.

[trumad]

1. 4 out of the last 30 years?

Wow---when it's put that way...ya got them.

[Bandit]

2. Except it isn't true

:shrug:

[LiberalAndProud]

4. How many of the last 30 years have Democrats held both White House and Congress?

I'd bet not much more than 4.

[hfojvt]

7. not really

because Republicans only controlled Congress and the White House for 6 out of the last 30 years. So 20 out of the last 30 years were divided control.

Going from 1980 - 2010

20 years of far-right Republican Presidents
10 years with moderate Republican Presidents

12 years of Republican control of the House (1994-2006)
18 years of Democratic control of the House (1980-1994, 2006-2010)

16.5 years of Republican control of the Senate - 1980-1986, 1994-Jun 6,2001, 2002-2006
13.5 years of Democratic control of the Senate - 1986-1994, June 6,2001 - Nov. 12, 2002, 2006-2010

[deacon]

3. This is still bush's economy. We fight to repair it daily as the GOP works

to keep us in the bush economy.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

8. I CAN'T STOP PUKING

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[bvar22]

9. The Great Wall Street Bailouts, along with de-regulation, "Free Trade", and Military Spending...

...belong to BOTH parties.
The current economic disaster is a truly bi-partisan creation.



There are still a handful of FDR/LBJ Democrats in the Progressive Caucus, but they have been completely marginalized.


"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans.
I want a party that will stand up for working Americans."
---Paul Wellstone


"By their works you will know them."

[Scuba]

5. Yeah, you did...

<img src="" title="Hosted by imgur.com" />

[zbdent]

6. the point that I try to drive home is this ...

"Okay, so you claim that the boom of the 90s was because the Republicans 'reined in' Clinton ... but then, when the Republicans had total control ... what happened? The economy went straight to hell, the jobs left, and the debt soared. So much for the 'adults' being in charge ... when Obama was against raising the debt ceiling in 2006, that was when the Republicans, the 'adults', the 'fiscal conservatives', were in charge of everything, the Bush tax cuts were not anywhere near ending, and WE HAD TO RAISE THE DEBT CEILING??? What happened???"