Throwing money at the problem!!

[Deny and Shred]

The $700 billion ought to push that phrase back to the front-burner.

For years, I've listened to conservatives sneer at liberals with this derisive phrase, claiming it is the Modus Operandi under which all liberals operate. Give them enough access to the Federal purse-strings, they'd say, and liberals will hand all your hard-earned tax-dollars to welfare moms, and poor folk, destroying the moral fabric of America in the process. This is a major axis upon which the conservative hold over working-class America turns.

It is truly time to set the record straight, and I'd enjoy the insights of the good people at DU on this one.

For me, the philosophical difference is what is the problem at which the money is thrown? If it's not enough food, clothing, shelter or quality of education, then throwing money may actually help. Combating the root causes would go further, but somehow that rarely makes it onto many legislative agendas.

The conservatives always starve the budget of these things, but still manage to request Federal dollars. And when they request the money, it's rarely peanuts. Often the calamity from which they save us is of their own making. I'm recalling the S&L bailout, and military funding from Star Wars to Iraq-Homeland Security-Terror funds, but there are many more.

They also use policy to not have to ask for the money. The combination of tax-breaks, foreign policy and trade policy can insure the the dominant market player at the time the playing field is tilted will see huge revenues. The fallout of these altered makets deprives the Treasury of revenue, and frequently requires added public financing. These include myriad policies tilted for Energy, and selected industries du jour all the way back to US Fruit and before - and there are many more.

Needless to say, Reagan and the Bushes have piled on the debt to unfathomable levels, and Clinton had federal surpluses when he left office. In the Macro, it is the conservatives who throw money at the problem, as the slap-dash manner of approaching the $700 billion will attest.

[aquart]

1. Yep. Still no word about re-regulation, huh?

[JuniperLea]

2. I'll take "tax and spend" over "borrow and spend" any day!

This points to the clear fact that whatever Bush/Republicans say is absolutely and without question the direct opposite of what they are doing, what they intend, or what is needed.

The only thing they have produced is fear.

[aquart]

3. Pay as you go is the meaning of tax and spend.

Pay as you go has been an honorable American practice since our founding. It took Republicans to tarnish the concept. They dirty good useful things, like cockroaches.

[JuniperLea]

4. I agree...

That's why I used the term. Republicans use it like it was a bad thing.

[Deny and Shred]

5. They absolutely do, and pay as you go IS the more responsible thing.

What I can't stand is the implied moral ground claimed. "We're for lowering taxes, not raising them." Still, it is they who are the drunken-sailors when given access to federal dollars. Its always couched in dire terms, too: bringing down the Russians, fighting for freedom, combating terror, solving the financial crisis, et al.
How to convince the average Joe who doesn't follow politics who thinks in terms of personal responsibilty who is gullible for the 'liberals give to freeloaders' crap?

[JuniperLea]

6. FEAR! FEAR! FEAR! 9/11!! Terrists!!!

It's always a crisis with them.

I think they have cried wolf one too many times this time!