free-lunch republicans
Mar. 12th, 2006 09:45 pmWell, well. The debt ceiling has to be raised again because the public debt has risen by an astounding 40% since George W. Bush took office. You mean to tell me that, even with a Congress controlled top to bottom by the "party of fiscal responsibility" and a President who's committed to cutting the deficit in half before he leaves office, both government debt and government spending have grown over the last five years?
The standard small-government-conservative response to shockers like this is "well, those weren't REAL small-government conservatives." (This leads me to believe that conservatism is the new communism: you can't say it doesn't work if it's never really been tried.) These arguments would have a lot more force if voters didn't keep falling for the same old tricks. Anyone who claims that they will cut government spending is either lying or delusional. People like their government programs; thus, politicians who vote against those programs are likely to be bounced out of office in the next election cycle.
[To the first person to mention "tax-and-spend Democrats:" 1) Which is more fiscally responsible: tax-and-spend or deficit-spending-'til-the-end-of-time? 2) Taxes are the price you pay to live in a civilised society.]
The standard small-government-conservative response to shockers like this is "well, those weren't REAL small-government conservatives." (This leads me to believe that conservatism is the new communism: you can't say it doesn't work if it's never really been tried.) These arguments would have a lot more force if voters didn't keep falling for the same old tricks. Anyone who claims that they will cut government spending is either lying or delusional. People like their government programs; thus, politicians who vote against those programs are likely to be bounced out of office in the next election cycle.
[To the first person to mention "tax-and-spend Democrats:" 1) Which is more fiscally responsible: tax-and-spend or deficit-spending-'til-the-end-of-time? 2) Taxes are the price you pay to live in a civilised society.]