During George Bush's administration the president allowed the war to get in his way of vetoing anything coming out of Congress no matter what it cost.

He so needed the support of Congress for the war that he allowed them to engage in an orgy of unrestrained spending. This took the traditional Republican issues of lower taxes and less government spending off the table, leaving the GOP with the stigma of fiscal irresponsibility.

That makes it difficult for the GOP to claim they are the nation's guardians of financial responsibility even when faced with an outrageous bill in the House with a price tag of $400 billion that is loaded with 9000 earmarks. That's 3000 more earmarks than were in the spending bill that got George Bush in trouble.

Yet President Obama, who claims to be a dedicated foe of earmarks, says he'll sign that pork-laden bill because he wants the support of Congress for all the burdens he wants to put on the backs of the top 2 percent of Americans.

In his speech the President laid the blame for the budget deficit on the past administration, blithely ignoring the fact that it was his party that controlled the Congress that rolled up that deficit since winning control of Capitol Hill in 2006. They were running the show that produced that deficit and that's where the blame lies.

From now on, the blame for huge unfunded deficits, borrowing from future generations -- Sen. John McCain calls it "generational theft" -- and the economy-deadening taxation of the productive sector will lie squarely on the shoulders of Barack Obama.