I’m dying to know now how the Republican party can possibly position themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility in the upcoming elections. Remember the huge budget fracas in 1995-1996, when the GOP took such a stand against deficit spending that they shut the federal government down to force President Clinton to submit a balanced budget? Do you remember that principled (if dangerous) stand for fiscal sanity?

So now we have a solidly Republican government that has no sense of financial responsibility. Instead of “tax and spend” Democrats (a favorite old conservative cliché), we have “spend and spend” Republicans. Ten years ago the weekly GOP radio address called deficit spending not only wrong, but immoral.

Yet here we are again, spending more money we don’t fucking have. Our debt has, as of yesterday, iincreased by about 42% since Bush took office. Clinton presided over a debt increase factor of 36%. Neither is good, but it doesn’t sound like the “conservative” party is exactly putting the brakes on spending. The Administration’s apologists point to the emergencies that have arisen as a primary driver of budget-breaking items. OK, I’m willing to buy that, but we can’t even point to any successes achieved by all this emergency spending. Iraq? A bloody, chaotic, overpriced mess. Afghanistan? Our puppet rules Kabul and not a whole lot else. New Orleans? It’s still shamefully fucked up, and lies within our own borders, no less.

Just remember, GOP voters: you can’t blame this shit on liberals anymore. You’re large and in charge. The Democrats are hiding under the bed. It’s all you. You want to show us liberals how it’s done? Fine. Now’s your chance. Prove you’re really fiscally conservative, and not just drunk with power. Prove you can actually fix more things than you break.

I dare you.