Jumping off of what Jim wrote, I'd add that it would be a mistake
to allow the David Brooks/David Frum set to appropriate the term
"reformist conservatives," because implied within the term is the
idea that they want to change things, while the rest of us merely
want to cling to the past. Limited government conservatism is
perfectly compatible with change, but it's a matter of applying
that philosophy to contemporary problems, rather than focusing
attention on an issue such as marginal rate tax cuts, which isn't
as salient as it was when Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 and
the top rate was 70 percent. There are opportunities to do this
on health care, for instance, by removing burdensome regulations
and government policies that take power and choices away from the
ultimate consumers of health care, while driving up costs. I
wrote about this at
greater length in our magazine's summer issue. Also, one way
to address rising income inequality would be to reduce payroll
taxes, which slam lower income Americans who don't pay income
tax. Proposing such a cut would also make life difficult for
liberals, who would be forced to choose between demagoguery on
Social Security to scare senior citizens, and providing tax
relief to middle class families. The point is, the Brooks/Frum
crowd doesn't have a monopoly on "reform," so we would be better
off referring to them by a cruder but more accurate term: big
government conservatives.
monopoly| 1.10.09 @ 8:12AM
I am not sure that Limited government conservatism is perfectly compatible with change, BUT you are right, it will make life harder...
biniki| 8.28.09 @ 10:58PM
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