The Hill News

Democrats took Republicans to task on Tuesday with a new video hammering them for suggesting that their party might revert to the policies they pursued during George W. Bush's presidency.

The video seizes on remarks made by National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Pete Sessions (Texas) over the weekend in which he said Republicans would return to the "exact same agenda" they pursued during the Bush years.

The video, which is likely to go on air in Republican districts, is part of an offensive Democrats will look to mount this week, based on the sense that Sessions gave them an opening to tie the GOP to Bush.

"Republicans have given us an opening to tie them back to Bush and have also helped us frame this election as a choice â€" between Obama and Bush â€" rather than a referendum on the President’s policies," said a Democratic National Committee (DNC) official.

Democrats have sought to cast the shadow of Bush over this fall's elections for some time now, with party officials like Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the chairman of House Democrats' campaign committee, who's argued against "hand[ing] the keys to the car back to the same guys whose policies drove the economy into the ditch" in reference to Republicans.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has suggested there's no real statute of limitations as to how long Democrats can blame Bush for their problems, as long as problems from the previous administration linger over President Obama's.

Adding to the narrative is a poll from the liberal group Third Way, which released a poll conducted by President Obama's pollster arguing that voters would prefer candidates who offer "an economic agenda that is different" from Bush's.

House GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) defended Republicans' stances in recent months as forward-looking in their months in the opposition.

"We need to set goals. They need to be serious goals," he said on MSNBC. "And then we need to be prepared to do the hard work on everything in this budget through fiscal restraint and reform to bring our federal budget within its means and within the means of the American people."

View the video below: