I am a “true” fiscal conservative. This is very easy to define – I believe that we should not spend money that we don’t have, (or incur debt), and that when we do, we should do so carefully and deliberately, with a plan to eliminate this debt at the earliest possible opportunity. I believe in this conservative philosophy not only for my own life, but also for the life of our great Republic. The issue, it seems to me, is not how much we spend in our lives or in our country, for actual dollars spent are relative to income, (at least one would hope). No, the fiscal issue can be viewed as twofold:
- Am I responsible enough to assure that my spending is within my income stream, and if it is not, am I accountable enough to either reduce my spending or find a way of increasing my income?
- Have I looked at the proportion of my total spending that goes to different spending categories, and do I believe that these proportions are reasonable?
This form of true conservatism is not in style today. It is not in style in the personal lives of most Americans, and it is certainly not in style with the politicians that we have been electing over the past couple of decades.
Consumer debt continues to skyrocket, personal bankrupcies continue a long-term trend upwards, and foreclosures continue to increase. While there has certainly been a long-term trend of increasing personal earnings, (otherwise known as inflation), there has been a disproportional increase in personal debt in relation to these earnings. Bottom line – the average American continues to spend more money than we take in. Of course, these are personal decisions that every American must make, and every American must be willing to live with the consequences of these decisions.
And what sort of example does our government provide for us? Is the government willing to live with the consequences of the decisions that it has been making over the past 25 – 35 years? Throw partisanship away for a moment my friend, and think about what has been happening. Democrats in control of Congress continued to institute expensive Progressive government programs through the 70’s. While citizens like you and I seemed to like the nature of these programs because they reflected our generous nature and desire to help those who needed help, the programs became increasingly expensive. Republicans started off by decrying excessive spending for these programs, and came to power in the early 80’s with the mantra of fiscal responsibility, starting off by cutting taxes in order to starve these bloated programs. But the programs (for the most part) didn’t go away. In fact, federal spending continued to increase under the new Republican leadership, often at a faster pace (when viewed in real adjusted dollars) than it had under the Democrats. But politicians had discovered something important with this new “revolution”. They discovered that so long as they used the phrase “cut taxes”, they could get elected, and if they used the phrase “increase taxes”, they didn’t get elected. It no longer mattered whether or not you actually balanced the budget or acted responsibly with the financial health of the nation – all that mattered was that you used the correct magic phrase. They discovered something else as well – they discovered that they could steal from the savings account that had been set up to provide for grandma and disables cousin John, and nobody noticed! They could use this money that they took from these trust funds (like Social Security) and make it look like there was less deficit than there really was!
And as criminal as this behavior might sound, people continued to elect them regardless of how irresponsible they were with our financial health! While it may have been Republicans who came in with Ronald Reagan who discovered this wonderful little trick, Democrats were quick to join in the fun. Democrats learned very quickly that bringing up budget deficits meant that you had to address either spending or income. If you addressed spending, this meant that you had to propose cutting programs that people liked – usually either corporate or individual welfare – and that was a difficult way to get elected. If you addressed income, this meant that you were immediately labeled with the dreaded “tax increase” label, dooming your political career. So rather than do the responsible thing, they did what politicians always do, they did the easy thing – they joined the Republicans in the greatest fiscal debauchery in the history of our nation.
At this point, I can clearly hear the wails of two camps of friends. First, my Republican friends are outraged that I can say something bad about the Grand Old Party – especially something linking Ronald Reagan to such nasty behaviour. Second, my Democratic friends are wailing that if only we had stuck with the fiscal policies of Bill Clinton – who balanced the budget – then we be OK.
Friends, please put away your partisanship, and think! Think as Americans – not as Republicans or Democrats – before we lose this great nation. Ronald Reagan was a great leader and did some good things – but he also did some nasty things that we should be ashamed of. Iran-Contra comes to mind, as does the fiscal nightmare that was created under his leadership. He was certainly not solely responsible for the nightmare, but he was the steward when it happened. Bill Clinton DID NOT balance the budget, despite the Democratic rhetoric to the contrary. The budget only appeared to be in balance, because politicians include in the operating budget the money that they steal every year from trust funds like Social Security. He certainly came closer to balancing the budget than any other recent president, but it was not in balance. The budget was so close to balance primarily as a result of a very robust economy, and again, while he can take some credit since he was the steward at the time, he should not be given complete credit. And he certainly has his warts and blemishes too – or at least that is what Monica said…
More to come on the specifics of how to fix this mess, and how much debt we really have, and what it means to us all…