Republicans on the Rocks?

I keep reading news reports saying that Republicans are imploding over all the terrible things going on in the country and that they are set to lose the House, the Senate etc., unless things get a whole lot better.

Well, how exactly would things get a whole lot better? and relative to what? I keep hearing that the Republican Congress spends like a bunch of drunken sailors. However, if you compare today to 1994, government spending is down to 20.4% of GDP from 21.75% in 1994. Is this progress? A 1.35% swing is not chump change, it is almost $200 billion per year.

Tax revenues as a percentage of GDP is also down to 18% today from roughly 18.5% in 1994.

We keep hearing about the public debt, yet the debt as a percentage to GDP in 1994 was 65%. Today it is only 62%.

It is certianly true that spending and the debt are up from lows reached in 1999 and 2000. However, the trend line from 1994 still remains down (and there was no war going on in 1994). We should be more positive about Republican accomplishments in the long term rather than just thinking in isolation. Lets not be so cynical.