Democratic plot to turn US into Greece

You know the Republicans know a French plot when they see one. Except in this case it's a Democratic plot to turn the US into Greece. The sharp minds of Eric Cantor, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann and Todd Tiahrt says so, so it must be true.

From Dave Weigel:

[T]he argument that Greece's crisis was brought about by deficit spending of the kind America has engaged in during the recession.

Paul Krugman snarks back:

Of course, the real rap on Greek fiscal policy is that the Greek government ran deficits even during the good years - not that it's running deficits in a slump. And it's true, we did something like that too. But guess who was in power then? Funny about that.

Micael Tomasky suggests a rebranding exercise, like the wildly successful Freedom Fries movement.

Less snarkily, the premise of this "America is the new Greece" argument is so facile, shallow and incredibly stupid that it's a small wonder if it entrenches itself as a meme. Which is exactly why it will happen. Everyone knows if the Republicans say so in public enough times, a new reality is made. It doesn't matter that it's the IMF, not the US, that's bailing Greece out, and failure to act will pull the world into a double-dip recession. That makes too much sense.

It would be funny if this is a plotline from a very badly-scripted and conceptualised B-grade movie. And did I mention that this is an incredibly stupid argument?