The American Spectator

AmSpecBlog

Redefining 'Fiscal Conservative'

By David Hogberg on 8.14.06 @ 4:08PM

David Boaz at Cato notes that the mainstream media is in the habit of calling politicians who oppose tax cuts and support more spending as "fiscal conservatives." It's confusing until you understand what meaning the MSM imparts to "fiscal conservative". About two years ago I was talking to former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore who was complaining about various liberal efforts to redefined fiscal conservatives as any politician who increases spending as long as he supports the taxes necessary to pay for it.

Thus, the confusion evaporates: those politicians oppose tax cuts because those cuts diminish the revenue needed to pay for spending. And that, according to the MSM lexicon, makes them fiscal conservatives.

UPDATE: Boaz replies: "Good point, except that none of these guys are proposing enough taxes to pay for all the spending they support. So even that test fails."

No doubt.

topics:
Taxes, Mainstream Media