Not only did the Republicans not give us balanced budgets, but they incurred enormous deficits:
Bush came into office with a $230 billion surplus. Due to a $1.35 trillion tax cut in 2001, a $1.5 trillion tax cut in 2003, and a massive defense buildup through the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Bush quickly blew through that surplus. After the financial crisis at the end of Bush’s second term and the ensuing bailouts, Bush’s budget deficit ballooned to over $1 trillion. Budget deficits swelled under Bush because his supply-side tax policies slashed revenues while failing to deliver strong economic performance.
While purporting to be deficit hawks, the Republican-led Congresses from 2001 to 2006 rubber-stamped the Bush agenda that created the current fiscal crisis. Now they want to portray Obama as the creator of the recession and deny him the opportunity to govern by slashing spending, despite the warnings of most economists that cutting government spending will likely reduce the growth of the economy, not stimulate it.