I hate to sound like a broken record* but on the other hand, our Republican Party leaders don't seem to let that concern stop them, as the GOP drags out its worn drum again to complain that the Obama administration's budget is all wrong and they won't support it. So I'll just reiterate that the huge deficit they're so worried about was created by their President - the one who left office just a year ago.
It's interesting how seldom we hear that guy's name (except from the Democrats, of course). For Republicans, he's a black hole in the party history; they prefer to deny his existence. If you have a Bible (I'm partial to the Ishka bible myself) you can find there the tale of Moses and the burning bush. The latter was an attention-getting device to assure that Moses heeded an important message (as in later years, as the old joke runs, you had to use a 2x4 to get a mule's attention).
Now, what was that last President's name? .... Bush! Yes, that's it! Glad you were able to recall it, because unlike the biblical bush, this one seems to have been consumed by the fire. As the administration of George Bush caught fire and went down in flames, the modern-day Moseses of the Republican Party (for example, take minority leader Mitch McConnell...please!) were either too oblivious even to look (the mule syndrome) or they got the message garbled (e.g., many say the problem with Bush was he wasn't conservative enough, he should have cut taxes even more and that would have saved the economy, for sure.)
Regrettably, many people today seem willing to let "Dubya" slip unobserved and unlamented under the waves of history. But I would still be very doubtful about relying on this crop of Republicans to lead us out of the wilderness.
* How many expressions such as "like a broken record" will disappear in the next 10-20 years? For readers under 40 or so, I'll just note that back in the dark ages, music came on things called "LPs" which were different in two ways from today's digital downloads: (1) you had to pay for them and (2) they could stick in one groove and endlessly repeat some little phrase or snatch of music. Some people still acquire music on LPs, or collect old ones, but even I'm not that retro.
While we're on the subject of the ancients, Ishka Bibble and Henny Youngman were comedians of a very different era - my dad's more than mine - yet they don't seem so out of date in the context of today's Republican leadership. I'll bet Mitch McConnell remembers them!
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