My Republican neighbor sent me this graph to demonstrate that the national debt under Bush is not so out of line with previous administrations, which I guess it does. But the most glaring fact it demonstrates to me is how Republicans, who claim to be fiscally conservative, are not as fiscally conservative as the Democrats. Take a look and see if you see what I see.Please notice that in those years where there is the biggest differences between deficits and revenue, they happen to be years when Republican presidents are in office. The ones who kept spending more in line with revenue were the Democrats. And where the graph's yellow line crosses over the blue line (a budget surplus occurred), those were Bill Clinton's years.

Deregulation vs regulation? Blank checks with no questions asked? No accountability, no oversight? The gamblers in charge of the casino? Who but crazy people would think these are good ideas?

Here's what conservative columnist George Will said yesterday on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos :

"I suppose the McCain campaign's hope is that when there's a big crisis, people will go for age and experience," said Will. "The question is, who in this crisis looked more presidential, calm and unflustered? It wasn't John McCain who, as usual, substituting vehemence for coherence, said 'let's fire somebody.' And picked one of the most experienced and conservative people in the administration, Chris Cox, and for no apparent reason... It was un-presidential behavior by a presidential candidate."

And for more details on Bush's Legacy of Squandering Taxpayer Money, Think Progress has this.