When President Bush came into office, he faced the prospect of a revenue surplus totaling almost $6 trillion over the ensuing decade. Bush proposed lopping $2 trillion off the national debt, vowed to put Social Security and Medicare in solid financial shape, and offered generous tax cuts.

Fast forward seven years. Instead of being paid down, the national debt has grown by more than $3 trillion. And the $725 billion surplus once projected for fiscal year 2009 has been replaced by a $407 billion deficit.

For six of the past seven years, Republicans have been in control of both the White House and Congress. But Republicans have shown themselves to be as profligate as spenders as Democrats were, and never adjusted their political agenda to the grim new fiscal reality.

Apologists for deficit spending point out that the shortfall this year would amount to just 2.9 percent of the $13.9 trillion U.S. economy. But that shortfall will be piled onto the ever-expanding national debt, which has grown 55 percent under the Bush administration, while the U.S. economy has grown considerably less: 37 percent.

It’s time to put pressure on Congress to rein in spending and cut the deficit to zero.

Click here to contact your senators and representative.

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