Now that we have a more monolithically Liberal government than at any time since 1980, the Obama’s, Patterson’s, Patrick’s and others are finding that the money for their Keynesian programs has already been spent!
Moreover, the Keynesian overspending that’s gone on over the last six years, the last TWO in earnest, has already, quite literally “broken the bank” and fiscal discipline is now mandatory for our very survival!
This is almost certainly what the great Maggie Thatcher meant when she said, “Reality is Conservative.”
For indeed, the fiscal realities we all face, are indeed Conservative in that they require Conservative principles to navigate them.
In New York, Governor David Patterson, has come into office having to deal with a fiscal crisis that threatens to be bigger than that of the 1970s, that nearly bankrupted New York City.
For years Conservatives, BOTH Republican and Democrat have been calling for massive budget cuts on all levels of government. What we got was ever more government spending to go with the ever increasing revenues generated by the housing boom, the Wall Street boom and the massive revenue increases from the Bush tax cuts.
On the federal level, Barack Obama and company face pretty much the same dismal fiscal realities.
For the first time in my life (and I’ve been around over half a century now) I’m hearing Democrats calling for huge budget cuts, layoffs of Municipal workers and both healthcare and pension fund relief!
After six years of Bush’s Keynesian policies, that were initially masked by increasing tax revenues from his only Supply Side policies (the across the board income tax rate cuts AND the Capital gains rate reduction), and only imploded over the last two years when Bush was able to cooperate with a more Keynesian Pelosi-Reid Congress, we are facing a 1970s redux! G W Bush, like his father, are devout Keynesians, who see government as a tool with which to do the public good. Bush Sr., railed against Ronald Reagan's Conservatism and called Supply Side policies "Voodoo Economics," before returning to those failed Keynesian policies (via the Kennedy-Bush Sr tax hikes) and presiding over four straight years of double digit Misery Indexes himself.
The irony is that NOW, at the hour of their biggest victory, America’s Liberal elite is faced with bare cupboards and the necessity for austerity.
There’s nothing I can think of that is more ironic than that.
Moreover, the Keynesian overspending that’s gone on over the last six years, the last TWO in earnest, has already, quite literally “broken the bank” and fiscal discipline is now mandatory for our very survival!
This is almost certainly what the great Maggie Thatcher meant when she said, “Reality is Conservative.”
For indeed, the fiscal realities we all face, are indeed Conservative in that they require Conservative principles to navigate them.
In New York, Governor David Patterson, has come into office having to deal with a fiscal crisis that threatens to be bigger than that of the 1970s, that nearly bankrupted New York City.
For years Conservatives, BOTH Republican and Democrat have been calling for massive budget cuts on all levels of government. What we got was ever more government spending to go with the ever increasing revenues generated by the housing boom, the Wall Street boom and the massive revenue increases from the Bush tax cuts.
On the federal level, Barack Obama and company face pretty much the same dismal fiscal realities.
For the first time in my life (and I’ve been around over half a century now) I’m hearing Democrats calling for huge budget cuts, layoffs of Municipal workers and both healthcare and pension fund relief!
After six years of Bush’s Keynesian policies, that were initially masked by increasing tax revenues from his only Supply Side policies (the across the board income tax rate cuts AND the Capital gains rate reduction), and only imploded over the last two years when Bush was able to cooperate with a more Keynesian Pelosi-Reid Congress, we are facing a 1970s redux! G W Bush, like his father, are devout Keynesians, who see government as a tool with which to do the public good. Bush Sr., railed against Ronald Reagan's Conservatism and called Supply Side policies "Voodoo Economics," before returning to those failed Keynesian policies (via the Kennedy-Bush Sr tax hikes) and presiding over four straight years of double digit Misery Indexes himself.
The irony is that NOW, at the hour of their biggest victory, America’s Liberal elite is faced with bare cupboards and the necessity for austerity.
There’s nothing I can think of that is more ironic than that.
2 comments:
ironic indeed but sadly our country is unravelling and we have a front row seat my friend!
The economy is slumping largely due to the Bush administration's over-spending (he's spent more, even adjusted for inflation, on reckless social spending, than LBJ did) and his two-year full cooperation with the Pelosi-Reid Congress has plunged the economy into a very deep recession, Angel.
Yes, in 2003 and AGAIN in 2005 G W Bush and John McCain fought for reforms and oversight over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, BUT they failed to get that through...they even failed to get enough GOP legislators on board.
I come into the next administration expecting the worst (MORE Keynesianism), but hoping for the best.
I have to be fair and admit that at the very LEAST, an Obama administration isn't going to be much worse than the Bush second term.
IF Obama hikes taxes (doesn't look likely right now) and makes it harder for businesses to make profits and hire people, than the economy will get worse...much, MUCH worse.
I don't see that happening.
In fact, as I said, I see the reverse.
In NY State, David Patterson and Mike Bloomberg (hardly a Conservative bone between them) are looking to rein in spending and even looking at massive public sector layoffs and seeking to control Medicair and Medicaid spending!
Often crises have the impact of steering government in the Right (fiscally Conservative) direction...and that is the irony here.
I honestly DON'T, at least not at this point, see Barack Obama as any worse than G W Bsuh was over his second term.
In Bush's first term he gets high marks for those tax cuts and all the revenues they increased, and for confronting the War on Terror in a military way, but his second term has been a Keynesian nightmare of overspending and over-regulation, which no matter how hard it tries, an Obama administration will find hard to top.
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