Look in the mirror, Bob

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (VA-6) has just sent out an email calling on President Barack Obama to exercise fiscal disciple to rebuild the American economy. The congressman worries that Obama's freeze will "only lock in the out of control deficit spending levels that have been enacted."

If so, the freeze will be locking in the excesses of the Bush years when Republicans controlled both or one house of Congress. Among their "accomplishments" after inheriting a budget surplus of $236 billion:

• Bush and the GOP expanded the federal budget by some $700 billion.
• Bush launched two expensive wars in which we remain mired.
• Bush started the bailouts of the financial industry.
• Bush and the GOP presided over a $2.5 trillion increase in the federal debt.

Where were today's Republican advocates (like see-no-Republican-evil-Bob) of fiscal restraint when President Bush ran up the red ink adding more debt than all previous presidents and leaving us with a financial crisis worse than any since the Great Depression. If you want to place blame for deficits, debt, and our struggling economy, look first in the mirror, Bob.