Boehner: "Republicans Will Accept Our Fair Share of the Blame" for Unbalanced Budgets, Deficit Spending

John Boehner (R-Ohio), who succeeded Roy Blunt as the House GOP Leader in 2006 when Republicans sought to make a break from the simmering Tom DeLay/Jack Abramoff scandals, says "Republicans will accept our fair share of the blame" for deficit spending and irresponsible fiscal policies.  Posted today at The Washington Independent:

The obvious thorn in the side of Republicans — who’ve made a habit of blasting the Democratic majority under President Obama for deficit spending — is that the GOP majority under President Bush never once balanced its annual budgets. As a result, the national debt jumped from $5.7 trillion in 2000, when Bush was elected, to $10 trillion eight years later. The GOP controlled both chambers of Congress for six years of that span, during which time they not only cut taxes in the middle of two wars, but also passed the largest Medicare expansion since the program’s founding — an unfunded prescription drug benefit that former comptroller general David Walker has called “the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s.”

Today, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) was asked point-blank how Republicans, given their track record, can criticize others for fiscal irresponsibility.

“Republicans will accept our fair share of the blame,” Boehner said. “But over the course of the last several years, Republicans have stood up on fiscal responsibility issues each and every time.”

Emphasis mine. Something tells me Blunt won't be making a similar concession to Chuck Purgason any time soon.