Greece Spending Beyond it's Means

Lots of people on this side of the Atlantic are pointing at Greece and making statements about it spending beyond it's means. They are referring to government spending. Of course, the US has spent beyond it's means too, most seriously by Reagan and the Bushs.

Then, there are insightful people who see get to the kernel of the issue, like the following commenters on a post by Paul Krugman:

Ben W
Boston, MA

Paul said: "And it’s true, we did something like that too. [deficit spending] But guess who was in power then? Funny about that."

It's called "Starve The Beast."

Khal Spencer
Los Alamos, NM

I thought that running deficits even in good times was part of the "starve the beast" policy under Reagan and Bush I and II. Of course, it wasn't supposed to be a "kill the beast" policy, was it?