How can we not think about that one when yet another Republican presidential ticket comes along and tries to sell us on the idea that they're deficit hawks?
First of all, lets review the historical record. Here's a look at how much our federal debt has increased under the last 5 presidents.
Looks to me like red is the perfect choice of color to represent Republicans...they have been the masters of red ink.
But now along come Romney and Ryan promising that this time they really, really, really mean it! They are the ONLY ones who can be counted on to reduce the deficit.
Since Romney is the most inexperienced man to run for the presidency in generations, we don't have much of a record to review as far as he's concerned. But the Center for American Progress did take a look at Paul Ryan's record. They found that from 2001-2011 Ryan voted to add $6.8 trillion to our national deficit. Here's how it breaks down:
Notice that the biggest increases (by far) came in his support for various Bush tax cuts and defense spending.
So if we were to ever have an actual honest discussion about federal spending, it would be about how Republicans want to increase the debt by giving tax cuts to the wealthy and increase defense spending while the Democrats want to spend on investments in education, infrastructure, and innovation to grow the economy, maintain the safety net, and balance all of that by asking everyone to pay their fair share.
You have to wonder who we'd have to shame if we let the likes of Romney/Ryan fool us a fourth time.
And let's no forget who was the only president to balance the budget in like a bizillon years-- DEMOCRAT Bill Clinton. Then the republicans turned right around and blew it up with tax cuts and unfunded spending.
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