August 16, 2010

This is exactly how Democrats should respond when someone like Ed Gillespie tries to pin our exploding deficits on the Obama administration. On this week's Face the Nation, DNC Chair Tim Kaine tossed it right back in the Bush administration's lap where it belongs. Republicans are really good at wrecking the economy and then blaming the Democrats for not cleaning up their mess quickly enough to suit them.

Kaine: And with respect to Ed Gillespie's position about the deficit, I chuckle to hear Ed Gillespie, part of the Bush administration, criticize Democrats about the deficit. A recent analysis by the New York Times showed that of the current deficit, 55% of it was caused by Bush administration policy, 33% caused by the economic climate, and only 10% caused by decisions that President Obama has made since he's been in office.

The good news is that the President has said "I'm going to do what the previous Democratic president, Bill Clinton, did - I'm going to get control of the deficit." And so he's cut domestic spending and frozen discretionary spending, they're making strategic cuts to defense. He's got a deficit commission working that the Republicans tried to block. The only party that's ever done anything about the deficits is the Democratic party in recent years. If you want to fight deficits, don't put the Republicans back in. They'll blow it sky-high.

I don't take any comfort from Kaine touting that deficit commission but he's exactly right about the Republicans. They cannot claim to be the party of fiscal conservatism after the way they've governed for the last several decades, but that won't stop them from doing what Gillespie did here and blaming their messes on the Democrats. Thomas Frank summed up their tactics perfectly in his book The Wrecking Crew. And as our own Jon Perr wrote last year, "the American economy overall almost always do better under Democratic presidents" -- Democrats. Saving American Capitalism Since 1933.

And even The Wall Street Journal recognized that the Bush administration had the worst track record when it came to job creation.

Ed Gillespie doesn't have any standing to be criticizing anyone when it comes to the economy or jobs. That won't stop the media from continuing to bring these Bushies back on the air to give their opinions though.

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