Redistributionists

Conservatives consistently refer to most Democrats as “tax and spend” and, more recently, as “redistributionists”. They do this almost out of habit. Relative to “cut taxes” and “less government” Republicans, most Democrats can probably be characterized as “redistributionists” on a relative basis. I find it interesting that, while Republicans and fiscal conservatives in general have maintained the “high road” on taxes historically, they have also been the most fiscally irresponsible by running up massive budget deficits. This is because they cut taxes but don’t have the political will to cut spending proportionally in order to come close to balancing the budget. It is ironic that Republicans talk tough about Democratic spending, but consistently fail to make the tough choices needed to cut spending on social programs and pork barrel projects.

We live in a country with some of the lowest tax burdens in the civilized world. So my conclusion is that “tax and spend” (aka “redistributionist”) is probably better than “don’t tax but spend”. In other words, aren’t we better off trying to take in as much as we spend, or shall we just keep printing money without regard to our ever-expanding deficit? With the U.S. economy now in recession, even the Republicans can’t possibly still believe that we can magically grow tax revenues enough to cut taxes further.