Actual ABC News/Washington Post poll question:

Which of these statements comes closer to your view: (Beneath it all, Obama is an old-style, tax-and-spend Democrat.) -OR- (Obama is a new-style Democrat who will be careful with the public's money.)

The only president to balance a budget in the past 40 years was Democrat Bill Clinton, so ABC and the Post should probably drop this nonsense about Democrats not being careful with the public's money.

Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush -- both Republicans, one of them universally embraced as a role model by the GOP -- ran up huge amounts of debt. And they did so by doing things like launching unnecessary wars against countries that didn't attack us and giving massive tax cuts to billionaires.

So, when can we expect to see ABC and the Washington Post ask the public questions premised on the Republicans' history of fiscal recklessness?