THE MYTH OF REPUBLICAN FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

That seems like a bit of an understatement to me. This is just the beginning of the trickle down effects of this Republican administration's total lack of fiscal restraint, their reckless and irresponsible governance, their disdain for the rule of law, their obsession with deregulation, and belief that tax breaks for the rich and powerful are the best way to go in a time of war.

To top it off Republicans take the prize in bringing home the bacon with pork barrel legislation. Cheri Cabot had a featured article here on Gather about this and gave the impression that it was an equal  problem with both parties. It ain't so. The facts show a different picture.

Sure you can find folks in both parties dealing in pork barrel legislation, but there is no doubt that the Republicans lead overwhelmingly. While John Murtha is the poster boy the republicans like to point to on the democratic side, however, two house Republicans bested him by a long shot, Roger Wicker of Mississippi (now a senator) and Bill Young of Florida. They each scored highest in earmarks with $176.3 million and $169.8 million respectively. That makes that $211 thousand spent in Paris that Cheri got so excited about, look like chump change.

Again, in the Senate, the big three spenders were Republicans, who together scored almost 2 billion (YES that's "B" as in BILLION) dollars in their favored home-state projects. Those senators were Thad Cochran the senior Republican on the Appropriations Committee, Richard Shelby of Alabama and Ted Stevens of Alaska, currently the target of a federal corruption probe. He's the "bridge to nowhere" guy.

So lets call a spade a spade here folks. Lets look at the whole ball of wax. Sure you can selectively pluck a few examples to show that dems and republicans engage in this, but there is NO CONTEST, who the leaders are, who the top dogs are in shafting the American tax payers. The Republicans win the prize.

The comic strip Doonesbury in today's Sunday paper gives us a bit of history to add to our analysis of this myth. Let me quote for those of you who don't read the funnies. "Since 1776 the US has accumulated a national debt of $9 trillion...over HALF of which was incurred when a Bush was on watch! What a family legacy...If you throw in Reagan, fully 70% of the national debt was created under just three Republican presidents! What's more, they didn't even TRY to restrain spending! Out of 19 submitted budgets, (by these Republicans) only TWO were balanced." Doonesbury winds up by asking, "So here's my question dude...Where did the myth of GOP fiscal responsibility COME from?"

The final panel in the strip shows the Easter bunny, in other words, it is just a figment of our imagination. If you repeat something long enough people just believe it, no matter what the facts say.