Question for Cons - tax cuts as litmus test - cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board

Ma'ake · 02-12-2008, 03:08 AM

Watching McCain getting raked over the coals for his opposition to the Bush tax cuts is a fascination. I understand the reflexive push for tax cuts... and then more tax cuts on top of that. That is one thing about conservatives that is predictable.

But what about the other side of the equation - spending? It seems to me if you're pushing tax cuts you almost automatically are required to push (hard) for spending cuts... to the point of foregoing earmarks / pork-barrel in your own district.

Is there a single GOP representative or Senator who has pushed spending cuts for projects in their own district? (If not, why not?)

So... now we have the farcical political situation where GOP candidates pound their chests if they've voted for tax cuts and are quick to identify other GOP candidates who have expressed reservation for said cuts as being unworthy of the title of "conservative", and so on.

Of course, without equal attention to spending reduction these tax cuts yielded very large multi-year budget deficits - during *prosperity* - and now with a chill in the air the very real potential for $800B deficits is staring us in the face. (An $800B deficit for a budget of $3.1T amounts to just over 25% of the budget being put - essentially - on credit cards. This is insanity no matter which way you slice it, especially considering how during the economic boom we *still* spent more than we took in.)

So this charade in the synthetic world of primary politics goes on while mountains of cash are shoveled to the Chinese central bank and any others who happened to invest in T-Bills supporting this credit card spending spree.

I'm sorry, but with such an irresponsible pattern of tax cuts & navy_liberty_call-like spending, it seems to me the real conservatives have been those who resisted tax cuts while realizing government spending needed to be at levels greater than those afforded by the tax cuts.

Protracted deficit spending in both boom times & periods of struggle is anything but conservative.

02-12-2008, 03:08 AM	#1
Ma'ake Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: SLC Posts: 441	Question for Cons - tax cuts as litmus test Watching McCain getting raked over the coals for his opposition to the Bush tax cuts is a fascination. I understand the reflexive push for tax cuts... and then more tax cuts on top of that. That is one thing about conservatives that is predictable. But what about the other side of the equation - spending? It seems to me if you're pushing tax cuts you almost automatically are required to push (hard) for spending cuts... to the point of foregoing earmarks / pork-barrel in your own district. Is there a single GOP representative or Senator who has pushed spending cuts for projects in their own district? (If not, why not?) So... now we have the farcical political situation where GOP candidates pound their chests if they've voted for tax cuts and are quick to identify other GOP candidates who have expressed reservation for said cuts as being unworthy of the title of "conservative", and so on. Of course, without equal attention to spending reduction these tax cuts yielded very large multi-year budget deficits - during prosperity - and now with a chill in the air the very real potential for $800B deficits is staring us in the face. (An $800B deficit for a budget of $3.1T amounts to just over 25% of the budget being put - essentially - on credit cards. This is insanity no matter which way you slice it, especially considering how during the economic boom we still spent more than we took in.) So this charade in the synthetic world of primary politics goes on while mountains of cash are shoveled to the Chinese central bank and any others who happened to invest in T-Bills supporting this credit card spending spree. I'm sorry, but with such an irresponsible pattern of tax cuts & navy_liberty_call-like spending, it seems to me the real conservatives have been those who resisted tax cuts while realizing government spending needed to be at levels greater than those afforded by the tax cuts. Protracted deficit spending in both boom times & periods of struggle is anything but conservative. Last edited by Ma'ake; 02-12-2008 at 03:10 AM.