The Hobo Philosopher

Republicans and Fiscal Responsibility

By Richard E. Noble

My mother-in-law was a Republican. To her Republicanism meant fiscal responsibility. Republicans were more “conservative” in spending the taxpayer’s money, she thought.
I have also considered myself a conservative in these respects. I watch every penny and only spend on what I must spend. In the past I have often pacified my staunch Republican friends by agreeing that I was also frugal and believed in practical, common sense spending.
Today’s Republican Party can no longer be considered the champion of frugal, common sense government spending. Beginning with Ronald Reagan, Republicans have spent taxpayer’s money like drunken sailors.
The Reagan administration outspent all of his predecessors. In fact, Ronald Reagan spent more than all previous presidents combined. And Reagan had no war to deal with – unless you want to count Grenada as a war.
Ronald Reagan tripled our nation’s national debt in just eight years in office. Reagan was the first president to spend taxpayer’s money faster than the growth rate of the GDP. The bulk of Reagan’s excess spending went to the Military Industrial Complex. Huge amounts went to a “Star Wars” program. This program made taxpayer money disappear – and with no compensating rewards. Have you heard anything about Star Wars or its residual benefits recently?
Ronald Reagan would have been classified as the least fiscally responsible president in all of American history, if it were not for the two Republican presidents that followed him. George Herbert Walker Bush DOUBLED Ronald Reagan’s economic misadventure with taxpayer’s money and George W. Bush doubled his father’s horrible record.
The Republican Party can not be considered the champions of fiscal responsibility any longer. There is no party with a worse spending record than our present day Republicans.
What makes the whole situation even worse is that Republicans have spent all of this money while letting our country fall apart. Our infrastructure has been neglected, our education system has been abandon, our health care has deteriorated, illegal drugs have been allowed to proliferate, and the middle class has been bankrupted – the poor have been bludgeoned and left to survive in sewers and back alleys.
What can we make of Republicans speaking out now against the Obama administration’s spending?
It is interesting to note that after the drunken spending of the Reagan administration followed by the unimaginable spending of the George H.W. Bush administration we then had the Newt Gingrish fanatics and their push for frugality. They had a contract with America they told us. Unfortunately this “contract” was to benefit only the rich and the well off – the bulk being Republican Party supporters. The poor were kicked to the gutter and the middle class got the boot.
But what is interesting is that when in office the Republicans spend like drunken sailors and when a Democrat gets elected they morph into “fiscal conservatives” and champions of the taxpayers. I must conclude that Republicans are not against wasteful spending on the part of the federal government. Their case is that if there is any wasteful spending to be done they, the Republicans, want to be the ones to do it. They don’t want any Democrat cutting in on their honey pot.
They pulled this on Clinton and the American public fell for it and now after the nightmare of George W’s psychopathic spending they are back again to fool the American people with what can only be considered as a case of brass balls on their part.
Now to add insult to injury we must kick this up a notch. By examination of the record we must conclude that Republicans are not against excess government spending. They have been the Mother of all government excess spending. So what are they against? They are against Democratic excess spending. Maybe any Democratic spending whether it is excess or not.
We must conclude that they don’t like what the Democrats choose to spend on. The Republicans spent on Star Wars, the Military, and War in general.
The main thrust of Republican excess spending went on military. Not defensive military but aggressive, imperialist military spending. Republicans want to save the world – but what about America?
Whenever there is an investment to be made in America the Republicans kick, scream and yell. “We are going to bankrupt America.” But all the while they were spending every cent they could get their hands on and neither bankruptcy nor the National Debt got a serious mention.
When we finally have a president who wants to invest in America and the American people, the Republicans are crying bloody murder. Our country is on the brink of a 1929 style depression and once again we see the revival of the Party of Herbert Hoover. They have no answers, no solutions. Americans are selling apples on the street corners because it offers them a better economic opportunity than their previous employment, Herbert Hoover told the American people in 1929.
Reagan cut domestic spending while increasing military spending. Newt and the Contract with America people gutted domestic spending. They were opposed to “social” spending – especially to the poor and middle class. The Contract with America was a contract with some of America but not the part I live in.
When in office the Republicans spend every penny they can get out of the pockets of the American people or the American Treasury. They try their best not to leave a nickel for any Democrat who follows. God forbid that there would be any money left in the treasury for some corrupt Democratic president to spend here in America. God forbid that an American should benefit from American taxpayer money. God forbid that the American people should benefit from American taxes. Better to carry bundles of dollars across the seas and dump them into the hands of tribal leaders in Afghanistan or Iraq or India or Pakistan or anywhere but at home here in America. Politicians say that we should not question their loyalty by the political decisions they make. But when a particular political party, decade after decade, refuses to vote in favor of the American people, the American worker, the American family and America in general what is one to conclude.
The Republican Party is certainly not in favor of doing anything that will make life better for the American people. How can this attitude be considered patriotic?
The Democrats are now trying to get the Republicans to spend on America and on things that will directly benefit the American people. The Republicans will not do it. Why?

Richard Edward Noble is a freelance writer and columnist. His local column, the Eastpointer, won the first place 2007 humor award from the Florida Press Association. He has published several books. All of his books can be viewed and purchased on Amazon.com. He can be contacted at 1-850-670-8076 or richardedwardnoble@gtcom.net for bookstore discounts and volume sales.