The first chart dates from when they were trying to sell the stimulus package in 2009. The red dots were added later, and have been updated regularly. The second chart is also based on one from 2009. The orange bars and associated text were added a few days ago when the 2012 deficit became official.

"I had no idea what I was talking about back then" is not a good thing to be running on, particularly when we're discussing promises for the next four years.

We had a mortgage collapse. This had nothing at all to do with tax rates. It had nothing to do with wars.

And then after the collapse, the nation elected a president who, along with a Congress under Democratic control, proceeded to try and nationalize the health care system, spend hundreds of billions more than we had on "picked" recipients, attacked major private industries on several fronts, and created a climate of business uncertainty that's still out there. Two years of socialist wet dreams.

Their response to Republicans charging up the nation's "credit card" was to add as much to that debt in four years as Bush did in eight.

If somebody had been paying the Democrats to step on our economy, what would they have done differently?

And now we're supposed to believe that this time, after four years of failure, they've finally got it all worked out?

You want the hard truth: This country will start to prosper again when we have people in power who don't think "pro-business" is an insult.

P.S. Which party took over both the House and Senate in 2007?