Budget ghosts haunt GOP

For the past two years, Republican congressional leaders have been complaining loudly that we simply cannot continue “this current administration’s irresponsible practice of borrowing and spending” to fund stimulus programs and other initiatives needed to get our country out of this current economic recession.

Hmmm. Seems these people have short memories. In the first few years of the Bush administration, the Republican-controlled Congress managed to turn a significant budget surplus, inherited from the Clinton years, into a huge budget deficit by borrowing and spending for unfunded programs such as the incredibly expensive Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, and the frequent “supplemental budget requests” to fund the ongoing unprovoked war on Iraq (not included in the regular budget).

Don’t worry about how to pay for these things, they said. Simply borrow the money needed, and let future incumbents deal with the consequences.

So my message to Republican leadership is, shut up already about the current administration’s “irresponsible borrowing and spending” and remember just how much the prior Republican-sanctioned legislation and “irresponsible borrowing and spending” contributed to the huge budget deficits and national debt we are now facing.

Michael D. Adams

Spokane