And for my fellow Republicans who think that I am off the reservation or a “bad Republican” when I state that our party has become the party of uncontrolled deficits, reckless spending, and intrusive big government, read this and weep:
Mr. Gingrich indicated some concern, though, about the current political circumstances of his party.
“I worry about uncontrolled spending, because we are the party of balanced budgets, smaller government and lower taxes,” he said. “I worry about any effort to flinch on ethics, because we are the natural reform party.”
If you want to brush that off as a mild warning, do it at your own expense. Gingrich is a die-hard partisan, and would never use stronger language to condem the GOP. This is as clear a shot across the bow as you are going to get from Newt.
We were the party of balanced budgets, smaller government, and lower taxes. Now all we have left is the lower taxes bit- and it isn’t going to be that way forever. Pretty soon, there is going to be a reckoning day- we simply can not keep taxes at the current level while continuing to expand government expenditures exponentially. In the not so distant future, taxes are going to have to go up- because we will be unable to pay the bills otherwise.
Right now we are behaving like a bunch of rabid environmentalists, who, upon inheriting a Cadillac Escalade, realize that the seats are pretty comfortable and that a V8 is a real pleasure to drive, so we put the pedal to the floor and forget everything we used to call principles. Someone made this analogy in the comments of a thread a while ago, and it fits.
And if you think there is going to be no backlash- you are wrong. I just saw a poll on MSNBC ( I will find the cite in a little bit when it comes out) that states that the majority of the American people now believe that taxes are unfair- not because of the flawed tax code- but because the higher income brackets are not paying enough. I am sure the usual suspects will tell us how flawed the poll is- me- I tend to trust the numbers.
In other words- it looks like us ‘fiscal conservatives’ are poised to lose the tax debate, and more people are going to agree with this vision of the Republican Party:
Bush’s policies have very little to do with laissez-faire (just ask the Cato guys) or any actual moment in the American past. Instead, it has everything to do with corruption and funneling money to friendly corporations and religious groups. It’s a kind of christian democrat vision, but more along the lines of tangentopoli than Germany. I think this is important, because it’s become obvious that many Democrats now have high hopes that the investigations into Tom DeLay’s dealings will provide a major political payoff. It’s my opinion that it only will if Democrats manage to actually tie this stuff in to a broader critique of Republican policies. They’re not free marketers who happen to take bribes on occassion. The policymaking is fully continuous with the corruption.
Unfair? Maybe. But if you are a real Republican, a true conservative, and really do care about smaller and less intrusive government and free trade, and you do care about the dangers of the excesses of the far left- this should leave your knees shaking. We are beginning to appear to many to be the goofy and unfair caricature that the Democrats have painted us as for years.