When economists were pretty unanimously agreed that running huge deficits was a seriously misguided economic policy, Republican lawmakers went “Up yours!”, and cheerfully embraced huge deficits anyway.

Now, when economists are pretty unanimously agreed that running huge deficits is necessary to rescue the economy from the deep and devastating recession that eight years of Republicanomics have wrought, Republican lawmakers have suddenly become deficit hawks again. Of course, they are still saying “Up yours!” Not to economists so much as to you and me.

“Congress cannot keep writing checks and simply pass IOUs to our children and grandchildren,” says Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

No sir, certainly not. Congress simply cannot keep doing that forever. Only during Republican administrations.

Asks House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio: “How much debt are we going to pile on future generations?”

I don’t know, John, please put it into perspective for us. How much debt did you enthusiastically cheer for piling on future generations in the last eight years? Speak up, sir, don’t mumble! Almost five trillion dollars? So that’s the magic number, then, is it, the optimal amount? Running up the national debt from $5.727 trillion on the day Bush took office to a projected level of $10.649 trillion on the day Obama takes office was proper and fitting and laudable. But anything over $10.649 trillion will be criminally irresponsible?

(That, boys and girls, is a foretaste of the new and improved version of IOKIYAR that Republican lawmakers are going to be playing during the Obama administration: It’s only OK if you’re a Republican!)