LIKE SO many other buzzwords of our political landscape, the term "fiscally conservative" is an overused phrase among many voters. Perhaps it's the appeal of the implied notion of governmental frugality that generates its popularity among Democrats and Republicans fairly equally; or it could be simply an expression of aversion to the idea of a massive federal spending machine eating up more and more tax dollars. Wherever its appeal lies, the term has fundamentally different meanings to almost every person who uses it. In fact, the total lack of exact definition for this vague notion of "fiscal conservatism" renders it meaningless when people describe their views on governing. Voters who feel that the government should avoid reckless financial habits, restrain pork spending, institute a fair and just tax code and avoid massive federal deficit spending clearly have only one good choice -- the Democratic Party.
Wise financial strategy and planning requires beneficial short-term moves combined with realistic long-term goals. The government must fulfill its financial obligations and satisfy its priorities while maintaining a just and fair tax system for all its citizens, and this is anything but a simple task. But time and again, we've seen Republican politicians pursue short-term political gain at the expense of long-term fiscal solvency. On the national level and even down the road in Richmond, Republicans have demonstrated that financial wisdom takes a back seat in their party to harsh ideological absolutes. Perhaps most galling is that even while Republicans consistently pass disastrous financial policies, they constantly accuse Democrats, with little or no factual basis, of favoring wasteful government spending and high taxes.
The case of our own state government is an excellent example. Former Gov. Jim Gilmore ran a mostly slogan-based gubernatorial campaign on abolishing the car tax, a relatively small and mostly progressive tax measure. Once in office, Gilmore and his fellow Republicans in the General Assembly (joined on occasion by some more conservative allies across the aisle) plotted a budget course begun already by his predecessor, George Allen, to reduce taxes to unsustainably low levels while actually increasing spending. Experts from around the state insisted this strategy would plunge the state into a fiscal crisis when the economic boom of the late '90s ended, but this never deterred the Republican leadership. Of course, the crisis came, and we've seen its aftermath in the budgetary emergency the state now finds itself in.
Only now, after Gov. Mark Warner has finally been able to win the few remaining "moderate" Republicans in the General Assembly to his side, have Democrats been able to (again) save the day. According to The Richmond Times-Dispatch on Feb. 20, the governor's tax plan calls for a few modest sales tax increases while increasing the state's ailing support for transportation, health care and education. Whether the remaining anti-tax radical Republicans in the legislature will succeed in gutting even this moderate proposal has yet to be seen.
Proof of the Republicans' incapacity to wisely manage government budgets is only too obvious on the national level. Despite inheriting one of the largest government budget surpluses ever recorded, President George Bush and his Republican majority in Congress have managed to create the largest federal deficit in history. Yes, that means even larger than Ronald Reagan's legendarily deep deficits. Even while they increase government discretionary spending by record levels, President Bush and Congress pass one tax cut for the ultra-rich after another. According to the non-partisan tax policy research group Citizens for Tax Justice, nearly 40 percent of the Bush tax cuts thus far have gone to the top 1 percent of income earners. A full 71 percent of the Bush tax cuts go to income earners over $72,000 per year. The full effect has been to leave nearly 80 percent of all Americans -- that's the other 230,000,000 of us -- with 29 percent of the Bush tax cut.
Even while they cut taxes for the rich, Republicans in Washington initiate an unnecessary war in Iraq, increase pork spending by hundreds of billions of dollars, suggest a new project to send a man to Mars and make no sign of correcting their balance sheets. It appears Republicans learned nothing from the disaster that was Reagan-era deficit spending. Voters have only one choice for a policy favoring balanced budgets, cutting unnecessary spending and instituting a wise, fair and low tax system. That choice exists with the Democrats now trying to take back the White House.
Blair Reeves's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at breeves@cavalierdaily.com.
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