Republicans Alone Responsible? Wait A Minute. What About Historical Facts?

Today I heard that most Americans hold Republicans most responsible for this debt problem by a significant margin. While they clearly made the problem worse under Bush by their irrational spending, there is plenty of blame to go around.

Republicans are responsible for only about $4.0 Trillion of debt this century.

I know, that's not what The Media and Democrats have led you to believe but here are the facts, assuming you're interested in truth (Ref: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt.htm):

• $5.7 Trillion ... accumulated by both parties' congresses prior to Bush taking office.
• $3.0 Trillion ... accumulated by Republican congresses 2001 through 2006.
• $1.6 Trillion ... accumulated by Democrat congress in 2007 and 2008.
• $4.0 Trillion ... accumulated, by Democrat congress since Obama took office in Jan 2009.*
• Current total debt= $14.3 Trillion.

*: Indeed, some of this $4.0 Trillion is directly attributable to the recession that Obama was handed. It's arguably true however that Democrats did more to cause the sub-prime mortgage mess than Republicans. Not only were they the primary drivers of the sub-prime mortgage mess but they were also in charge of oversight of that, Fannie and Freddie for two years prior to the collapse. They should have seen it coming and prevented it or softened its impact. To say that all the bailouts and stimuli were caused by Republicans alone is nonsense because none of their policies pushed the sub-prime mortgage business which led to that collapse and most Republicans opposed the various stimuli. To be generous to those on the left, however, I'd accept crediting $1.0 Trillion of that $4.0 Trillion to the GOP.

So, of the $8.6 Trillion of debt created this century, approximately $4.0 Trillion can be attributable to Republicans and $4.6 Trillion to Democrats. To take 'fairness' one step farther and not split hairs, let's just agree that Republicans and Democrats share approximately EQUAL blame for the debt we have. There's more than enough blame to go around so let's just stop whining about the past for which both parties share responsibility more or less equally and move on.

It is unfair and inappropriate to achieving the best solution for one side to get all the blame when it's factually untrue. It is also very counter-productive to spend so much energy and time playing the blame game. Let's behave like grownups for a change and agree:

• We have a HUGE PROBLEM facing us.
• The problem is VERY COMPLEX both to understand and to solve.
• There's BLAME ENOUGH ON BOTH PARTIES who share responsibility for this mess.
• It'll REQUIRE THE BEST EFFORTS OF EVERYONE to arrive at a solution that ACTUALLY solves it. We need all oars in the water on this or we'll just paddle around in circles and go nowhere.
• A vigorous and often heated debate is natural for something this big and complex and we shouldn't be affraid of it. (If we didn't get heated over it, that would mean we really don't understand the seriousness of the problem nor are we really interested achieving the best solution.)

Other points to understand and consider:

• CONGRESS has TOTAL ULTIMATE control over spending , taxes and debt per the constitution. The president has zero constitutional bottom-line authority to make the call on any of those that cannot be overturned by congress. So congress, NOT ANY PRESIDENT, has primary and ultimate authority and control over those items. Therefore all spending, debt and taxes is the ultimate responsibility of congress.
• Republicans have had control of ONE house for only 7 months over the past 4 1/2 years ... ie, during Bush's last 2 years and Obama's 2 1/2 years in office.
• Last year there was no budget from Democrats who controlled the House, Senate and White House.
• This year the only budget from congress was passed by the Republican House. The Democratic Senate didn't pass one. The president sent one to congress but it was so unacceptable (irresponsibly doubling(!) the debt over ten years) that it got ZERO votes; not even a single Democrat voted for it.

So, the only branch of government to pass a budget in the past two years was the Republican House this year. Republicans are 1 for 1 (in the House) on opportunities to pass budgets. Democrats are 0 for 3 (Both houses last year and the Senate this year). How do Democrats rate on fiscal responsibility there? What's interesting is that an annual budget is a constitutional responsibility!

Which party has actually put details to debt control/reductions, passed a budget and passed a debt reduction package? The Republican House of Representatives. No package was even voted on in the Democratic Senate.

For the sake of honesty and progress, I wouldn't say it's mostly either party's fault that we're in this predicament. Considering all the above, doesn't it look to you like BOTH parties share the responsibility for this mess approximately equally? [But only one party has made an HONEST attempt to deal with it (Republican)]. Let's all 'get over ourselves' and work hard on an honest solution minus all the 'agenda' politics. Stick to facts, truth and honest debate as much as possible so we can generate a solution that works.