The frustration of the modern Republican Party is that we had won. We had forced the Democrats to agree to a balanced budget process going forward, Pay as You Go, that required offsetting cuts or new revenue for any policy proposal. We had finally put in place the best protection against the growth of government – making people pay for the government they used.
Except of course, that a part of the Republican Party didn’t want it to work – they wanted it to fail. Yes, a part of the Republican Party actually convinced themselves that the best thing for our country, our best chance to stem the growth of government, was to bankrupt it. Deficit spending, allowing the size of government to grow while limiting tax revenue, would eventually “starve the beast” and cause government to collapse.
When George W. Bush was elected president, that branch of Republicans knew voters wouldn’t support radically shrinking the size of government. So instead they chose a different path – they pushed for tax cuts that essentially de-funded the role of government. They replaced a balanced budget with massive deficits with the expectation that eventually this would cause our current role of government to collapse under its own weight.
The Bush years validated every nightmare fiscal conservatives had about deficit spending. The size of the government jumped. Deficit spending created a financial bubble that destabilized our economy. And when the bubble collapsed into a financial crisis and severe recession, people became even more dependent on government.
By 2004, it was just too much – my party was destroying itself, and with it harming our country. Frustrated, I ran as a protest candidate in the 2004 Republican President Primary. I considered running in 2008, but Sen. McCain was a traditional balanced budget Republican (as least before the zombies got to him), and Obama was solidly moderate. And at least from a budget standpoint, it worked out. Obama inherited the 2008 Bush Budget, at the time the largest budget deficit ever, but then cut the size of the deficit by 2/3rds. We were actually heading back towards a balanced budget, before President Trump’s election. Even before the pandemic, he more than doubled the size of our deficit. By literally any measure, his administration was a fiscal disaster.
As the 2020 election was getting closer, it seemed our choices as a country were becoming even more dire – it looked like we would be given a choice between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. That choice was frightening enough to make me throw my hat in the ring and I started running in the 2020 Libertarian Presidential Primaries. Thankfully, Bernie didn’t prevail. I ended by my campaign when it became clear that Biden would be the Democratic nominee.
Who knows where the Republican Party goes from here. I keep hoping it will get back to Rational Republicanism, to being the Daddy Party. But at least for the moment, it seems far more comfortable continuing as the Crazy Uncle Party. It’s a shame for the party, and a shame for our country.
Except of course, that a part of the Republican Party didn’t want it to work – they wanted it to fail. Yes, a part of the Republican Party actually convinced themselves that the best thing for our country, our best chance to stem the growth of government, was to bankrupt it. Deficit spending, allowing the size of government to grow while limiting tax revenue, would eventually “starve the beast” and cause government to collapse.
When George W. Bush was elected president, that branch of Republicans knew voters wouldn’t support radically shrinking the size of government. So instead they chose a different path – they pushed for tax cuts that essentially de-funded the role of government. They replaced a balanced budget with massive deficits with the expectation that eventually this would cause our current role of government to collapse under its own weight.
The Bush years validated every nightmare fiscal conservatives had about deficit spending. The size of the government jumped. Deficit spending created a financial bubble that destabilized our economy. And when the bubble collapsed into a financial crisis and severe recession, people became even more dependent on government.
By 2004, it was just too much – my party was destroying itself, and with it harming our country. Frustrated, I ran as a protest candidate in the 2004 Republican President Primary. I considered running in 2008, but Sen. McCain was a traditional balanced budget Republican (as least before the zombies got to him), and Obama was solidly moderate. And at least from a budget standpoint, it worked out. Obama inherited the 2008 Bush Budget, at the time the largest budget deficit ever, but then cut the size of the deficit by 2/3rds. We were actually heading back towards a balanced budget, before President Trump’s election. Even before the pandemic, he more than doubled the size of our deficit. By literally any measure, his administration was a fiscal disaster.
As the 2020 election was getting closer, it seemed our choices as a country were becoming even more dire – it looked like we would be given a choice between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. That choice was frightening enough to make me throw my hat in the ring and I started running in the 2020 Libertarian Presidential Primaries. Thankfully, Bernie didn’t prevail. I ended by my campaign when it became clear that Biden would be the Democratic nominee.
Who knows where the Republican Party goes from here. I keep hoping it will get back to Rational Republicanism, to being the Daddy Party. But at least for the moment, it seems far more comfortable continuing as the Crazy Uncle Party. It’s a shame for the party, and a shame for our country.