Ten Pounds of Bullshit in a Five Pound Bag
Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 04:58PM
Philip Klein basically admits conservative fiscal principles do not survive contact with reality:
- “Reagan, it’s often said, came into office with the goals of building up the military and winning the Cold War, cutting taxes, and reducing the size of government. He was tremendously successful in the first two areas, but failed to achieve the third goal.”
I’m sorry, but often said by whom? Reagan was the one who said “I’m not worried about the deficit - it’s big enough to take care of itself.” And doesn’t that thinking come back into fashion whenever a Republican is in the White House? - “he actually reduced non-defense discretionary spending by 13.5 percent in his first three years in office.”
Oh the qualifiers, oh the hedges! “non-defense,” “discretionary,” “in his first three years”! Anything to get around having to admit that spending exploded over the course of his presidency. - “Bush embraced big government and got the Republican Congress to go along, but this was much to the chagrin of conservatives.”
This chagrin can be found in the overwhelmingly negative coverage it received at the time in The American Spectator, National Review, Weekly Standard, etc. - “None of this analysis reflects well on Republicans, but it’s important to emphasize that ideological conservatives have consistently argued that spending is the driver of deficits…we have been put in a difficult spot by Republican politicians who refuse to cut spending.”
Remember the full throated revolt over Harriet Miers’ Supreme Court nomination because she was insufficiently conservative? Was there anything close to that when a Republican Congress and Republican president passed Medicare Part D? This difficult spot Klein writes of must involve a gag. - “conservatives should pressure Republican candidates into meeting the Paul Ryan test — either embrace his ‘Roadmap’ plan, or come up with another serious plan”
Paul Ryan’s plan is not serious and Paul Ryan is not credible on spending.
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