The GOP was not fiscally conservative before Trump either.

peaseagee 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Exactly. I remember hearing "tax and spend Democrats" as a slur back in the 90s/00s, but seeing the GOP spend without taxing during those years showed what it was really all about...

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bluGill 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Before Trump the GOP was fiscally conservative - when the democrats were in power!

That explains a large part of why democrats were able to lower the debt - the republicans in congress wouldn't go along with efforts to raise the debt.

	▲	stetrain 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		And when Republicans were in power they cut taxes and spent $2T on a war in Iraq. Cutting taxes without cutting spending raises the deficit and seems to be the GOP's most common fiscal policy.

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michaelt 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes, in the 1970s-1980s the GOP came up with the idea of "starve the beast" [1] which allowed them describe unfunded tax cuts and deficit spending as "fiscally conservative", like a parent taking away a child's allowance.

Complete nonsense in practice, obviously - but political gold! Voters get all the same public services, lower taxes, and to think they're being responsible with money. And if you're a 65-year-old legislator, you'll be dead and buried before the consequences start to bite.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

	▲	SmirkingRevenge 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Running up massive debt and deficits is also a way to kill appetite for D priorities that require new spending. The best way to make sense of the GOP is in it's opposition to wealth redistribution. Primarily downward wealth redistribution. That's their north star. Upward redistribution is mostly OK though, they consider it just giving rich people their own money back