By JEFFREY H. ANDERSON Posted 03/04/2010 03:14 PM ET

American voters have expressed strong opposition to the Democrats' proposed health care overhaul, and clear concerns about rampant deficits.

Yet, the Democrats seem to be poised to use the "budget reconciliation" process not to reduce deficits (as that process is intended to be used), but instead to try to pass their health care overhaul — which, in turn, would almost certainly raise deficits, probably by hundreds of billions.

The Democrats, however, don't hold a monopoly on fiscal irresponsibility. As Alexander Hamilton wrote, Congress "commands the purse." And both Democrats and Republicans have controlled Congress in recent years, during which time our national debt has skyrocketed.

When Ross Perot got 19% of the presidential vote in 1992 on the strength of his anti-deficit message, our national debt was $4 trillion. It's now about $12 trillion. Clearly, both parties share the blame for our casual deficit spending and frightening debt. But do they share it equally?

The last seven years that the Democrats have controlled both houses of Congress are 1992 to 1995, and 2008 to 2010. The last seven years that the Republicans have controlled both houses are 1999 to 2001, and 2004 to 2007.

During these respective seven-year stretches, each party has been paired with a Republican president for four years (George Bush or George W. Bush) and a Democratic president for three years (three with Clinton for the GOP, two with Clinton and one with Obama for the Democrats).

So, how has each party fared at keeping deficit spending in check?

During the most recent seven years that the Democrats have controlled Congress, their deficits have averaged $619 billion a year, or 5.3% of the gross domestic product (GDP). During the most recent seven years that the Republicans have controlled Congress, their deficits have averaged $93 billion a year, or 0.6% of GDP. Over their entire seven-year spans, the Democrats' deficit spending has totaled $4.3 trillion, the Republicans' $651 billion.

Over the 14 years in question, the four highest deficits as a percentage of GDP have all occurred when the Democrats have controlled Congress. The five lowest have all occurred when the Republicans have controlled Congress.

The Republicans' highest deficit (3.6% of GDP) has been lower than the Democrats' average deficit (5.3%), and the Democrats' lowest deficit (2.2% of GDP) has more than doubled the Republicans' average deficit (0.8%).

Some of the disparity between the two parties' records is likely attributable to economic variations. Over each party's respective seven-year periods, GDP growth has averaged 3.8% under Democratic control and 5.7% under Republican control.

Leaving aside any question of whether Republican policies may have contributed to this greater economic prosperity, how much does this gap in economic well-being account for the disparity in deficits?

If one were to drop the two worst economic years (2009 and 2010) from the Democrats' tally, while dropping the two best economic years (2000 and 2005) from the Republicans' tally, the economic disparity would nearly disappear.

The average growth in GDP would then be 5.1% when the Democrats have controlled Congress and 5.4% when the Republicans have. Furthermore, each party would then have been paired with a Republican president for three years (one of the Bushes) and with President Clinton for two.

Under these nearly identical conditions, the Democrats' deficits for the remaining five years have averaged 3.4% of GDP, while the Republicans' have averaged 0.8% of GDP. In other words, even after throwing out the Democrats' two worst economic years and the Republicans' two best, Democratic deficits have still more than quadrupled those of the Republicans.

And none of this counts the 2011 budget. If the Democratic Congress passes a budget similar to what President Obama has proposed, it will increase deficits by another $1.3 trillion, or 8.3% of GDP (even with growth in GDP projected at a healthy 4.6%). That's 14 times the average deficit under Republican control of Congress.

The simple truth is this: If you take all of the deficits accumulated over the last seven years in which the Democrats and Republicans, respectively, have controlled Congress (14 years in total), $8.70 out of every $10 in deficit spending has been racked up by a Democratic Congress, $1.30 by a Republican Congress.

President Obama, who according to White House figures will post more deficit spending in his first two years than any other president in U.S. history has posted in eight, said last week that "my administration is doing what families and businesses all across the country are doing during these difficult times — we're tightening our belts."

This statement was made the day before he argued at the "health summit" that we need to pass his health care overhaul, which would launch $2.5 trillion in new federal spending in its real first decade alone.

In truth, evidence of belt-tightening in Washington has proven to be quite elusive — especially when the Democratic Party has been in control of the purse strings.

Anderson was the senior speechwriter for Secretary Mike Leavitt at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/522949/201003041514/Both-Parties-Bear-Part-Of-Deficit-But-Dems-Is-Quadruple-The-GOPs.aspx