Being Republicans

There has been a lot of talk about the deficit lately by Republicans who are opposed to the health care bill. As I listened to Representative Boehner yesterday trash the bill because it will cost $940 billion to insure some 30 million more Americans, I could not help but to think about the lies and hypocrisy that usually accompany such talking points. Republicans are supposed to be conservative and Democrats are supposed to be liberal. The line has long been that Republicans cut and Democrats spend. Here is a graph of the reality of deficit spending under Republican and Democrat administrations:



The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the CBO, reports that the health care bill will cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion over ten years as the government does the moral thing to offer health care to those without it. Representative Boehner entered the House of Representative in 1990, serving under both Presidents George H. Bush and George W. Bush. He didn't have any problems with increasing the deficit to record levels under these Republican administrations. His repeated Republican talking point about deficit reduction, while being in a position then and not offering a real solution now, renders his words merely mute.