Fiscal conservatism used to be about balancing the budget and running a tight ship. Now it’s about keeping taxes low no matter what. But this is well-trod ground. What’s bothered me lately is that I just don’t really understand why fiscal conservatism is so trendy now in the first place. For instance, here’s Andrew Sullivan complaining that Obama is not enough of a deficit hawk:
To coin a phrase, how long, O Lord, how long? We have a divided government, we just had an election in which one side campaigned on too much spending, we have a very pragmatic president able to explain the dangers we face, and a debt that grows every day. But nooo. Let’s get the GOP to lead.
And let’s not fool ourselves. The president has just asked the opposition to do his work for him. He should be careful what he asks for. If the GOP actually proposes cuts in Medicare, real tax reform, and some of the proposals in the Bowles-Simpson report, there will be many independents and fiscal conservatives who will take a second look.
What’s troubling to me about this is that I’m not sure Sullivan has made much of a case for entitlement reform or fiscal conservatism to begin with. It all feels very much like intuition. In fact, I’m not sure anyone claiming to be a fiscal conservative has made that case. The notion that we need to balance the budget and pay down the debt right now is just taken for granted with no real attempt to explain why.
Is inflation out of control? No, not even close. Are our creditors closing our accounts? No, because our creditors know that all we need to do to pay them off is raise taxes or get out of this recession. When growth picks back up deficits will shrink. The deficit is not a problem in the first place. The whole thing is just a ruse.
I do not think that word means what you think it means.Post + Comments (134)