I'm a fiscal conservative and political conservative, but the gap between me and others who claim to be politically conservative comes in our differences about money. Naturally, I believe my view to be the more responsible one (don't we all...) based on the premise that 'new' conservatives have abandoned the principles of good economics.
'Tax and Spend' administrations of the past took the easy way out and I always disagreed with it, but today we have something worse - "No-tax, but still spend."
I'm quite comfortable now in the view that our previous beliefs about debt were wrong. Macro-economic resiliency (and yes, size does matter) do indeed allow mature economies to function and grow under heavier det burdens than we believed even 6-7 years ago. There is no 'historical constant' like a gravitational constant that needs to be added to formulae to make them work. The history is not the present in economics.
The tax cuts under President Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were the right thing to do at the right time. Tax cuts in the last administration were not the right thing to do - unless accompanied by spending cuts.
You know, if you take a look back to the 90's (and ignore the personalities of the players), the economy wasn't too bad overall.
I don't agree that the Clinton adminstration is to blame for the current condition. The deficits are not cyclical issues, they are technical issues. The largest budget surplus in history was on the books in 2001 and look where we were 2 years later (even pre 9/11). The biggest turnaround in the history of the world. Too bad it was negative.
Congress has abandoned all rational fiscal thought and I think it is the president's fiduciary responsibility to counter Congress. The buck didn't stop at his desk as it should have under good conservative fiscal leadership. President Bush has yet to veto or even voice any opinion about one spending bill - not one.
Very strange. Almost as if he doesn't want to get involved and has acquiesced all fiscal thought to congress - which is like giving a bankrobber the combination to the safe.
Aw well, nothing we can do about it. We just have to take it and I think we're going to start taking up the you-know-what pretty soon.