GOP Not Representing Fiscal Conservatives

In the past, being a Republican meant you were in favor of limiting government and governmental spending. Ronald Reagan said it best in his inaugural address, to paraphrase, "big government won't solve our problems, big government is the problem." That simply isn't true of the Bush Administration, with a huge expansion of governmental powers and programs and a debt of over $9 trillion and counting.



I am a fiscal conservative. I have been lost in the shuffle of spending bills arising out of 9/11, the WOT, the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Medicare Rx Plan, and so on, ad nauseum. Not that these bills haven't been necessary or justified, just that there hasn't been a sufficient revenue stream to support them.

I want the issue of fiscal responsibility to take the forefront in '06 and '08. If it doesn't, I believe we are headed into an economic tailspin of nearly unprecedented proportion. It is probably too late to stave it off completely, but we can mitigate the damage by observing and applying the laws already on the books mandating fiscal responsibility.

Bush, with only one veto of a spending bill to his record, is well on the way to leaving Gore's "iron-clad lock-box of Social Security" full of IOU's (if it wasn't already) that can't be repaid, and our government will default on its debt, causing a world-wide financial collapse and crisis. There must be a way to avoid this calamity, and we must find it, now.

I'm also a social liberal, but that is a topic for another thread.

[edit on 28-10-2006 by UM_Gazz]

Agreed. They are not representing me, a true Republican, in the following areas:

1. Fiscal conservatism
2. Minimized federal government, protection of state and local powers
3. Protection of the constitution

I'm ready for the real Republicans to come back.

Reponsible stewardship of the federal government from either side of the aisle would be a welcome change from the free for all of the past few years. The American public is literally under assault from several angles by our own government.

The tax cuts have mostly benefited the top 1-5% of the population, while the cost of basic needs like food, energy, housing, and transportation have steadily increased. Add to this the erosion of civil liberties brought on by the Patriot Act, NSA wiretapping, and the rise of the police state, and people are starting to get nervous.

Then, on top of it all, we have every kind of slimy scandal under the sun surfacing in Washington on basically a daily basis, and I think people are going from being suspicious of their neighbor to being suspicious of their elected representation in Washington. Politicians, not the issues, are becoming the focus. That's a good thing for the American public. Maybe not so good for the slimy, corrupt politicians, though. It is high time some changes favoring the people were made in the way business is done in Washington.

Agreed..

They are spending worse than the Democrats...

I agree with many of their policies, but Immigration and Spending is where we part ways...

I have never considered myself a "Fiscal" Conservative, just a Conservative with Conservative values like those expressed by Ronald Reagan...

Semper

GW is kinda making the "Minimized federal government" without the "protection of state and local powers" part happen isn't he?

Hes pritty much limiting the govermening power to 1 person, the president, he even said it himself before, he doesn't care what others thing, including house, parlement and judicial branch, what he chooses as law is law.

Guess the definition of what the Conservatives stand for needs to be explained a bit better to this dictatorial loon.