Q&A Friday #23: What If The Democrats Got Serious About Controlling Spending?

by John Hawkins | September 23, 2005 8:41 am

Question: “If the Democrats were to adopt serious fiscal conservatism as a key policy and the GOP were to continue big spending, where does that leave those of us who are social and fiscal conservatives?” — Compiled

Answer: When expanding the power and size of the Federal government is your answer to almost every problem, it’s just not possible to “adopt serious fiscal conservatism as a key policy”.

So, in order for this to happen, the Democrats would have to change their core philosophy, convince their base to go along with it, and then resist the same political pressure that has led Republicans in Washington to spend money like it’s going out of style DESPITE the disapproval of a large majority of their base.

Not going to happen. And it also doesn’t look likely that we’re going to have another situation like we had in the nineties anytime soon either, where a long economic boom and a penny pinching Republican Congress determined to block the President’s new spending at every turn brought us into the black. There just aren’t enough Republicans in Washington who are serious about cutting spending to make that happen anymore.

Personally, I believe that it’s going to take a Balanced Budget Amendment, a BRAC structure[1] budget, a Tax And Spending Limitation Amendment[2], or something similar to get the budget under control.

If that doesn’t happen, I expect the deficits to continue as far as the eye can see, whichever party is in power.

Endnotes:
  1. BRAC structure: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/interviews/brownback.php
  2. Tax And Spending Limitation Amendment: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/interviews/friedman.php

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