Greece and the US.

Paul Krugman has a great post about the differences between Greece's situation and that of the US' debt and current fiscal situation. In short, we don't belong to the Euro, and the primary cause of our fiscal deficit is from joblessness.

Of course some people will argue that the US has been running deficits for most of its history, which is only partially true. Much of the time between the end of WW-II and the start of Vietnam War, there were generally small budget surpluses or relatively modest deficits. The last 4 presidents (aside from Obama) to START a federal deficit increase were all Republicans (Nixon, Reagan, Bush senior, GW Bush).

The last 3 Republicans actually massively shot up federal deficits. Reagan pushed massive deficit spending, when he got his huge tax cuts passed and pushed to increase military spending in an effort to modernize it. Bush senior obliged his predecessor's low taxes while engaging in Gulf War I, which continued to push huge federal deficits. GW Bush pushed Medicare expansion and tax cuts simultaneously, arguing that the massive surplus created under Clinton, was the taxpayer's money, and shouldn't be kept.

Tea Party supporters should be asking, "Where will you CUT SPENDING?" Forget CUTTING TAXES; it has never worked to create a federal surplus.