Democratic Values: 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

Gov. John Lynch Thursday presented a balanced, honest and fiscally responsible budget that invests in the priorities of the people of New Hampshire--without new taxes.

"This is a budget that uses taxpayer dollars wisely to meet state government?s most fundamental responsibilities: caring for our most vulnerable citizens; educating our children; strengthening our economy; protecting our environment and natural resources; and ensuring the safety of our citizens," Gov. Lynch said this morning as he presented his budget to a joint session of the legislature.

In balancing the budget, Gov. Lynch was faced with the immediate challenge of addressing a $300 million increase in non-discretionary costs. Outside of non-discretionary costs, the budget limits general fund spending growth to 4.15 percent over the two-year budget cycle. The overall growth in the budget in total funds is 7.73 percent.

Gov. Lynch's budget makes major investments in important priorities for New Hampshire--helping keep higher education affordable; providing health insurance for children; helping young people graduate high school; fully funding building aid, catastrophic aid and tuition and transportation aid for local school districts; increasing the number of state troopers; protecting New Hampshire?s natural environment; and replacing federal funding cuts in critical areas.

Click [HERE] to read more about Gov. Lynch's budget, including detailed highlights...

I think the Republican tendency to reward incompetence, wallow in corruption, and give massive tax cuts to the wealthiest of Americans is the reason why Republicans can't balance a budget to save their political lives.

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