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The Spectacle Blog
There’s one other way in which the narrative about Republicans and overspending, disputed by Ramesh Ponnuru, contains an element of truth. A version of it is even endorsed by Barack Obama: “In the year 2000, the government had a budget surplus. But instead of using it to pay off our debt, the money was spent on trillions of dollars in new tax cuts, while two wars and an expensive prescription drug program were simply added to our nation’s credit card.”
Now, most conservatives supported the tax cuts and the wars. Obama supported one of the two wars and a prescription drug benefit that was, if anything, more expensive than the one George W. Bush signed into law. He even stuck with the tax cuts and the Iraq war longer than expected. But overspending did undermine the Republican Party’s image of sound fiscal stewardship and undercut GOP arguments on a whole host of economic issues.
Add to that Katrina, the missing weapons of mass destruction, ethical problems, and wage stagnation and you begin to get the impression of a party that does not know what it is doing. This impression was building long before 2006 — it is harder to believe that the 2004 election would have been as close as it was without the Iraq albatross than it is to believe that Ohio hung on the exact form of Medicare Part D Bush delivered — and ended only because Obama’s Democrats did not govern any better.
In 1988, Michael Dukakis exhorted the American people to cast their ballot based on “competence, not ideology.” This was his way of leveraging the perception he was competent and asking voteres to ignore his unpopular ideology. The GOP’s woes this past decade have owed more to incompetence, real and perceived, than ideological impurity. But mixing incompetence with ideological incoherence didn’t help matters.
One final, tangenitally related thought: the conservative demand for purity is only partially due to the perception impurity costs Republicans at the polls; the demand stems also from the conservative belief that they don’t have very much to show for Republicans having held power. Ponnuru writes that purity cost the GOP two Senate seats, which could come back to haunt conservatives if Obamacare falls two votes short of repeal in 2013. But conventional Republicans, even fairly conservative ones, don’t have a very good track record of repealing things like Obamacare. Why expect such Republicans to work particularly hard for repeal at all? The Senate seat the GOP inarguably lost because primary voters picked a conservative in Delaware. I’m assuming that seat went unlisted because nobody would have counted on Mike Castle to vote for repeal, even though he, unlike Christine O’Donnell, surely could be counted on to beat Chris Coons.
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More Blog Posts by W. James Antle, III
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/11/16/republicans-and-overspending-c
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 11.16.11 @ 9:25AM
There never was a budget surplus. It's a myth. The surplus year was actually 1998 but that also was a lie. The surplus was created by borrowing 160 billion from the Social Security Trust Fund which created the surplus.
In essence, the entire budget is nothing but a farcial misrepresentation of the facts.
John| 11.16.11 @ 9:33AM
Abolish five Federal departments and agencies (commerce, energy, education, interior, and EPA), and there we save almost $1 trillion. The GOP congress must pass a bill, making all states to be the "Right to Work States." De-fund the planned parenthood and the public sector unions. Repeal ObamaCare, we save another $1 trillion., and getting rid of Dood-Frank will free up the financial market, helping get out of the Obama-recession.
Brendan| 11.16.11 @ 10:53AM
When the republicans can't even accomplish a zero baseline budget (give me a break - are you telling me that in a time when people are loosing their houses, the various departments can't live with the same budget for a few years and have a hiring freeze?).
Reducing the govt won't solve all our problems. But too much govt means too many interfering sots with time on their hands. It would be better for us to give the entire epa a paid vacation (as long as they didn't go and take another job - vacation cancelled!) for the rest of their careers....
GW grew the govt, didn't stand up to the regulatory blitz, and, lets face it, created the earned income tax credit. It took normal everyday conservatives whose lives aren't into policy a few years to realize the poison GW had infected us with, and we cut out that poison in 2006.
The republicrat leadership is still infected, and they infect the newbies. Boner and his cronies have to go. The worst thing that could happen is Boner, McConnell, and Romney together. Lots of feel good lets grow the govt the right way on our way to budgetary and regulatory armeggedon....
aware| 11.16.11 @ 10:56AM
"But conventional Republicans, even fairly conservative ones, don't have a very good track record of repealing things..."
As in, like zero. No straws removed and a few even added. Continuing to talk of the Republican Party as if it is somehow different and opposed to the Democratic Party only proves you don't even know what ran over you. We are all socialists now, even "conservatives". A look at the GOP "frontrunners" easily confirms this.
Try as you might, the State and socialism are indivisible. The only way of reducing socialism is by the reduction of the State. The "Parties" are the custodians of the State. They successfully convince you that changing faces will fix everything and all the while the Monster grows to terrifying proportions, no matter the faces.
Now it is inconceivable to kick the State out of those areas it now dominates, or even to bar its intrusion into new areas. Soon "conservatives" will be left winning intellectual arguments about the "unconstitutional" nature of Obamacare while the vast bureaucratic machinery put in place implements it just the same, for example.
Nothing I see and no wonder kid trotted out makes me believe the momentum toward massive government is about to change. The reality of bankruptcy will change it but that unintentional consequence will be sudden and quite wrenching when that happens. That's how socialism finally ends every time.
PattyMor| 11.16.11 @ 12:35PM
Yeah what about the great moderate successes of Carley Fiorina, Meg Whitman, Tim Burns, Bob Dole, and John McLame? The Republican "swells" love to have selective memories. Besides, Christine didn't have a chance because Karl Rove trashed her right from the get-go so it became a self fullfilling prophesy.
martin j smith| 11.16.11 @ 1:36PM
Its the Republican establishment that has messed up politically and the economy as well. They are not Conservatives. GWB is not a Conservative. He is a Socialist-lite. The Tea Party's rise which Republican Leaders hate represents a challenge to business as usual. That is what has to end. The current Republican Leaders do not give a damn about the voters now nor did the leaders in 2006 and 2008--thus we got McCaine who was a fool at best and maybe a fraud.
PCC| 11.16.11 @ 4:28PM
"...it is harder to believe that the 2004 election would have been as close as it was without the Iraq albatross than it is to believe that Ohio hung on the exact form of Medicare Part D Bush delivered..."
What say?
Art Deco | 11.17.11 @ 12:15AM
One structural difficulty you have is that the rules of the U.S. Senate require (effectively) a supermajority for every consequential piece of legislation you wish to pass, and a supermajority you will never receive bar in cases of national catastrophe. Another you had is that you generally had only slim pluralities in the House of Representatives, allowing highly parochial interests and the usual troublesome characters (e.g. Christopher Shays) to throw a spanner in the works. Perfectly wretched institutional leadership (Trent Lott) completed the circle.