Republicans, Democrats, And The Debt

Megan tries to decide which party is worse on deficits since Reagan. The one strong argument she has to any kind of equivalence - the presidency of George H.W. Bush - seems weak to me for one simple reason. His party hated him for his fiscal responsibility, and have demonized him for it ever since. Not so the Democrats with Clinton's less impressive deficit-reduction. And the demonizers of GHW are clearly running the show in the current GOP.

As for inherited economic circumstances?

I just don't think anyone comes close to Obama after 18 months, given that he got on the hope and change elevator just after its brakes malfunctioned and was plummeting to the ground floor. He stopped the fall and the rise now is frustrating slow, and the vast majority of the debt is a function of the crisis-driven plunge and inherited wars and entitlements.

I'm sorry but today's GOP is far more toxic to fiscal conservatism than the Democrats. But we'll have an interesting test soon in an intensifying crisis, won't we?

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