Why "think" when you can check? It was 49-49 with two independents, Sanders and Lieberman, caucusing with the Dems. So the Dems did control the Senate. The Reps have only had 60 senators twice since 1855: 1869-71 and 1907-1909. the Dems have had it numerous times including recently until Scott Brown came on the scene. The fact that the Dems controlled the House and the Senate is very relevant since they could have stopped any excessive spending. Blaming it all on Bush just doesn't wash.
Under certain circumstances, the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 provides for a process called "reconciliation" by which Congress can pass bills related to the budget without those bills being subject to a filibuster. This is accomplished by limiting all Senate floor debate to 20 hours.
And Dems did a great job working with the President and RINOs to pass the first stimulus package 300B, bailouts and TARP 1.
And Obama voted for all of them.
They tried to pass amnesty but that one died fortunately. Unfortunately the President calling for much of the spending in the bills he signed was Republican.
Actually, an amnesty passed the Rep controlled Senate in 2006 (Hagel-Martinez). The Rep controlled House stopped it. The Dems under Obama have put spending into overdrive. They have passed budgets with deficits triple those under Bush and we will have $trillion annual deficits for the next decade at least.
Democrats will be using that fact again in 2012 when Obama shows his debt commission report that claims he inherited all his problems. This is why we need new conservative republicans elected and a new party leadership that voted against TARP to confront him, since he (Obama) voted for TARP himself.
The "inherited routine" may work with fools and the radical Left in 2012, but Obama's record will speak for itself no matter how much lipstick he puts on that pig. Obama has made our problems far worse by adding another huge entitlement program and making 9% unemployment the new norm. The almost trillion dollar porkulus bill didn't work. By 2012 or before, Obama will be calling for new taxes, including the VAT. And there must be reductions in the entitlement programs to make any appreciable difference in spending. Does anyone see Obama campaigning on that platform?
10,000 baby boomers are retiring daily and will continue to do so for the next 20 years. By 2030, one in five residents of this country will be 65 or older, twice what it is today. And there will be only two workers for every retiree compared to 3.3 today and 16 in 1950. We are already cashing in the HI Trust fund bonds since 2008 (Medicare Part A) and by 2014, 45% of all Medicare expenditures will come from the General Fund. SS, a pay as you go system, is in the red now and will go permanently in the red in 2016. This country is facing a fiscal train wreck and Obama has been speeding up the train.
I did a bit of a RANT on that subject on Saturday. Feel free to post agreements/disagreements.
Why 2010 should be the year of the conservative, and to dump the RINOS