fiscal responsibility

One of the most enduring, and most false, myths of the Reagan era is the myth of the fiscally irresponsible Democrat. Republicans try to imply that Democrats waste money and raise taxes. This isn't true in general. Generally Democrats are the more fiscally responsible party because they are more careful in their spending and they are willing to tax where necessary, but only where necessary. In general, the prime example is this graph:

This shows that under REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS (from Reagan on) America runs up huge debts while Democratic Presidents are more fiscally responsible. This gets at something I wrote back when Gerald Ford died: modern Republicans are NOT THE SAME as Eisenhower Republicans and are NOT traditional conservatives. I should note that the stock market also on average does slightly better under Democratic Presidents than Republican Presidents. Correlation or causation? Hard to prove, but the trends are clear.

But the New Hampshire Democratic Party is reminding us that on the state level, Democrats are fiscally responsible. From the New Hampshire Democratic Party:

[DEMOCRATIC] GOV. LYNCH PRESENTS BALANCED, RESPONSIBLE BUDGET