Kerry and Bush: Who's the Liberal?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

There was a time when the Republicans could effectively paint the Democrats as "tax and spend" liberals, while portraying themselves as the party of fiscal restraint. This election, however, that logic will be turned on its head, as President Bush is likely to face a Democrat whose credentials as a deficit hawk are surprisingly strong.

Meanwhile, President Bush has his own deficit deficit. Since he took office, the record budget surpluses built up during the Clinton administration have turned to record red ink, and government spending has expanded at its fastest clip in 40 years. As a result, the GOP has lost most of its edge over the Democrats on the issue of fiscal responsibility. In a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 33% of respondents said the Republicans did a better job controlling government spending—just 2% more than said Democrats were better at cost control.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, has a long history of fighting deficits. He co-sponsored the 1985 Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget and Emergency Control Act, which triggered automatic spending cuts if the President and Congress failed to reach predetermined targets (but which ultimately failed to balance the budget). He also backed the Deficit Reduction Act of 1993, which helped Clinton achieve those surpluses. Now Kerry says that if he's elected he'll halve the deficit during his first term in office.


http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,588762,00.html

[corporatewhore]

1. kerry and bush are both NEOliberals

[cheezus]

2. oh, the irony

just noting that you call kerry and bush "NEOliberals", and then have a big image in your sig against stereotypes

-nothing personal, just thought it was funny

[einniv]

4. Well check out the user name.

"corporatewhore"
LOL. Something tells me this person is full of it :)

[corporatewhore]

6. well if by knowledge than yeah

[corporatewhore]

5. Neo liberalism is a school of economic thought

something tells me this person has done her home work
"Neo-liberalism" is a set of economic policies that have become widespread during the last 25 years or so. Although the word is rarely heard in the United States, you can clearly see the effects of neo-liberalism here as the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer.

"Liberalism" can refer to political, economic, or even religious ideas. In the U.S. political liberalism has been a strategy to prevent social conflict. It is presented to poor and working people as progressive compared to conservative or Rightwing. Economic liberalism is different. Conservative politicians who say they hate "liberals" -- meaning the political type -- have no real problem with economic liberalism, including neoliberalism.

"Neo" means we are talking about a new kind of liberalism. So what was the old kind? The liberal school of economics became famous in Europe when Adam Smith, an English economist, published a book in 1776 called THE WEALTH OF NATIONS. He and others advocated the abolition of government intervention in economic matters. No restrictions on manufacturing, no barriers to commerce, no tariffs, he said; free trade was the best way for a nation's economy to develop. Such ideas were "liberal" in the sense of no controls. This application of individualism enconomics
NAFTA/GATT/WTO/IMF are neoliberal trade policies

[Feanorcurufinwe]

3. I'd guess about .000000000001 % of the country agrees with you.

Kerry and Bush cut from the same cloth? :eyes: