Dems: We'll Win Debt Fight for the Gipper

The Democrats, the party that Ronald Reagan ditched in 1962, says that even the Gipper would be on their side in today's debt ceiling debate. Dems are telling Republicans they should follow Reagan's lead in fiscal responsibility, circulating a 1987 radio address in which Reagan slammed brinksmanship and stressed that the US had a "special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations," the Huffington Post reports.

Reagan—who presided over 11 tax hikes and 18 increases in the debt ceiling—probably wouldn't be welcome in today's GOP, writes Dana Milbank at the Washington Post. While most Republicans continue praising Reagan, he notes that a few have admitted that he wouldn't be able to win the nomination in the current atmosphere. Steve Kornacki at Salon, however, believes that the Democrats are overplaying the Reagan card. If the Gipper were around today, he'd be siding with House Republicans and "finding some way to rationalize away his past statements," he writes. (More debt ceiling stories.)