DNC head challenges Republican Party on spending, deficit reduction

As GOP leaders are vowing to tackle federal deficits head on, the leader of the Democratic National Committee on Sunday challenged the Republicans on their historic spending record.

Tim Kaine, the former governor of Virginia, warned that Republicans hoping to cut federal spending will have to break from past habits — particularly under the Bush years, when GOP leaders added trillions of dollars to the debt. 

“With the bipartisan deficit commission, you’re going to see the president roll out a series of proposals … and we’re going to see if the Republicans are serious about cutting the size of government,” Kaine said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” They weren’t during the Bush administration.”

Under President George W. Bush, the GOP-led Congress launched two wars, cut taxes and enacted the largest Medicare expansion since the program was launched four decades earlier — all unfunded. Indeed, the national debt was roughly $5.7 trillion when Bush was elected in late 2000, according to the Treasury Department. Six years later, when Democrats took over Congress, the number had grown to $8.5 trillion. 

GOP leaders have acknowledged “mistakes” of the past when it comes to spending. In September, as House leaders unveiled their “Pledge to America,” Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) conceded that Republicans “made our fair share of mistakes” when the party was in charge on Capitol Hill. But the caucus, he argued, has learned the lessons of the past. 

“We’ve demonstrated over the last 20 months,” Boehner said, “that Republicans have heard the American people.”

Boehner will be sworn in as House Speaker this week.

Kaine also downplayed the idea that Democrats would run a liberal primary candidate against Obama in 2012 as a response to criticisms of the president from the left.

“The likelihood of any serious challenge is virtually nil,” Kaine said.