A hollow complaint

Some Republicans in Congress, while receptive to the idea of an economic stimulus package, have complained about the potential cost of the plan President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to introduce.

Among the complainers is House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who told reporters after he and other congressional leaders met with Obama on Monday: “I remain concerned about wasteful spending that might be attached to the tax relief. Simply put, we should not bury future generations under mountains of debt ..”

Excuse us, but where were Boehner and fellow Republicans when President George W Bush presided over mounting national debt that has now topped $10.6 trillion, nearly double what it was when the president took office in January 2001?

Where were Republicans when Bush encouraged a spending spree to finance wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while pushing for tax cuts? Did Republicans stand up to Bush and say “no” in the name of reducing the nation’s debt? Of course not.

Here’s what the record tells us.

A Government Accountability Office report released in 2004 reminded us the country had enjoyed four straight years of surpluses under budgets signed by President Bill Clinton during the Democrat’s second term in office. It was a different story when Bush occupied the Oval Office. “Tax cuts, increased spending and weak economic growth returned the unified budget of the federal government to deficit in fiscal years 2002 and 2003,” the report stated.

All Bush has done since then is guide this nation into record deficit spending, meaning the government spends more than it takes in, which adds to the mounting debt. It is instructive to recall that Republicans controlled Congress during Bush’s first six years in office. Democrats took over for the final two years, but the Democratic-controlled Senate found its hands tied by endless Republican filibusters. This disruptive tactic led to a record number of cloture votes in an effort to curtail those filibusters so that the Senate could go about conducting the people’s business.

Obama is inheriting an economic mess that was created largely by failed Bush administration fiscal policies, including a stubborn refusal to adequately regulate financial institutions.

There is no question the stimulus package, which could be in the neighborhood of $800 billion, will add to deficit spending. But Obama’s quest to create 3 million jobs while shoring up the nation’s crumbling infrastructure and providing tax cuts will require a sizable spending package that is sorely needed at this time.

At a speech Thursday at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., Obama said: “I know the scale of this plan is unprecedented, but so is the severity of our situation. We have already tried the wait-and-see approach to our problems, and it is the same approach that helped lead us to this day of reckoning.”

Although the nation’s debt is a serious problem that Obama will have to address, Boehner’s complaints about the size of the plan ring hollow, coming from someone whose party was in full partnership with Bush in enabling his eight-year spending spree.