House GOP Leader John Bohner had this to say after President Obama’s speech Tuesday:
Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) declared a return to “the era of big government” the day after President Obama’s first formal address to Congress.
“From everything I’ve seen, it looks like the era of big government spending is back,” he told reporters at a lunch convened by the Christian Science Monitor. “My question to my Democratic friends is how are you going to pay for it?”
And my question Congressman Boehner is where were you when President Bush was increasing discretionary spending at faster pace than Lyndon Johnson, or when he proposed programs that are usually associated with “big spending Democrats” ?
Were you not part of the Republican majority that sat back and participating in this massive expansion of spending and debt ?
Did you not tell the members of your caucus that the TARP bailout was a “crap sandwich,” but that they should vote for it anyway ?
And then didn’t you cave on the idea of giving taxpayer dollars to the auto companies ?
Sorry, Congressman, you’re wrong.
The era of big government isn’t back, it’s the same era we’ve been in for the past eight years. This is a monster of your creation, I hope you enjoy it.
Russell Roberts sums it up nicely:
I almost feel sorry for the Republicans. They know what their role is supposed to be. Having failed to inhabit the role for the last eight years (and a lot longer) they don’t realize how silly they look slipping into the same old costume. It’s like a fat man trying to do an ad for a weight loss regimen. It doesn’t sell that well.
