If the GOP House lets Obama raise the debt ceiling w/o some very serious curtailing of federal spending in FY12 and FY13 then you can be sure that the GOP have caved in bigtime. We’ll soon see how much FY12 and FY13 are in comparison to FY08 and FY09. And there will be nowhere to hide for the GOP in the November 2012 elections if they caved in. They have their opportunity now with the Debt Limit debate to make sure that real cuts happen.
Keep in mind that just 42 months ago the government was forecasting a surplus for FY12.
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy08/browse.html