"GOP's gamble on the budget pays off, so far":

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-04-25-Poll-Republicans-budget-deficit-trust.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Americans are evenly divided between the deficit plan proposed by President Obama and the one drafted by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, and those surveyed put more trust in Republicans than Democrats to handle the federal budget and the economy.

Pessimistic about the economy and the nation’s course, they overwhelmingly blame too much spending for soaring federal deficits and want to rely more on spending cuts than tax hikes to get it under control.

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“The bad news for the Democrats is that even after the Ryan budget comes out and has been attacked for a little while, the Republicans have an advantage,” says Joseph White, a political scientist at Case Western Reserve University who studies budget politics and policy.

Republicans have held their political base intact, he says, but the nation is still polarized along partisan lines, and spending cuts are easier when they’re discussed in the abstract. “Everybody can find something they don’t like,” he says, “but that doesn’t mean there’s a majority to cut anything in particular.”

So, Americans, how did the Republicans handle the federal budget and the economy when they had total control? Yeah, spending cuts are great as long as it's somebody else's spending that gets cut. That's the Republican philosophy--as long as I get mine, cut somebody else.