Republicans need consistency on spending
When it comes to politics, nothing irks me more than a free-floating standard, when one candidate or party criticizes another on some count, then turns around and does the very same thing. In this schematic, what was once reprehensible or of grave concern becomes acceptable and far less important as an issue. Enter the federal budget deficit. I remember a time when Republicans, who weren’t then in control of Congress, derided the majority Democrats for embracing free-spending ways. Remember the big “tax-and-spend liberal” tag that the GOP liked to affix to nearly every office-holder in the opposition party?
In those days, Republicans cast themselves as far more fiscally conservative than their Democratic brethren, who were routinely accused spending the county into oblivion with all manner of social and pork-barrel programs that required hefty federal borrowing. Those of us with long memories know that this was true, because we watched many a Democrat take a berating on this count. Taming the federal deficit was the Republican Party’s holy grail.
So where do things stand now? Well, the GOP solidly controls both arms of congress – the House and the Senate, and they have for quite some time. Their guy also controls the presidency, completing a trifecta that essentially means everything the Republicans really want, they will get. Such as John Roberts as a Supreme Court justice.
All that the Democrats are these days, and all that they’ve been for the past five years, is a nuisance that merely has to be sidestepped to promote any aspect of the GOP agenda. We live under a Republican-dominated federal government – including the Supreme Court, where Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen G. Breyer are the only justices nominated by a Democrat president.
So when I read about the $10.5 billion in additional spending that Congress has already approved for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and when I read about a coming second appropriation of $51.8 billion, and when this will all come in the form of additional government borrowing, I wonder why no one’s chanting the good, old GOP mantra of fiscal prudence?
Where has all the fiscal prudence gone since 2000, when the federal budget showed a surplus of $236 billion, a legacy of the Clinton years? The deficit swelled to $412 billion last year, according to the Associated Press, and that was before the heavy extra borrowing necessitated by Hurricane Katrina. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are costly, but even if we don’t debate their merit, doesn’t it make good sense to live within our fiscal means, either by cutting spending elsewhere or raising taxes to cover extra expenses? If they really wanted to, given their clear majorities and demonstrated ability to play hardball – remember how they wrested capitulation from Democrats over the holdup of President Bush’s federal court appointees? – the Republicans could solve the problem by doing either or both.
Economists are starting to worry about the long-term effects of the nation’s current fiscal policy, especially in an era of increasing trade deficits. It doesn’t seem like too long ago that reducing the deficit was a front-burner priority; heck, independent Ross Perot made it his signature issue in the 1992 presidential race and pulled in enough votes to throw a scare into both mainstream political parties.
It’s pretty clear that the deficit isn’t any more of a concern to Republicans when they’re in control than it was to Democrats when they were in charge of Congress and/or the presidency. In fact, it may be even less important to them.
Either the federal budget deficit is a big deal or it isn’t. And if the Republicans thought it was when the Democrats were in power, they should still think that way now that they’re running the show. That’s pretty simple and fair, isn’t it?
As for me, I can’t wait for the day when someone starts calling Tom DeLay or Bill Frist a “tax-and-spend conservative.” That will be real ironic.
Paul Sunyak is editorial page editor of the Herald-Standard. He can be reached at (724) 439-7577 or at begin psunyak@heraldstandard.com psunyak@heraldstandard.com end