Big Sky Cairn

I certainly don’t envy Jay in his self-imposed task to re-brand the Democrats as the party of Fiscal Responsibility. His effort to de-brand the Republican party isn’t as difficult a task as it should be. Some in the GOP lost their way, and for too long the philosophy of small government got lost. But it was the Party - not the philosophy - that failed.

I’m willing to concede that both parties actually want fiscal responsibility. The difference is how they prefer to get it. When a Democrat preaches fiscal responsibility, they are using code for “higher taxes” to pay for all their great ideas about how government can take best care of us.

Take, as an example of the Democrat’s habitual need to raise taxes, Jay’s criticism of Republicans for rejecting a tax increase tied to the continued extension of the Alternate Minimum Tax (AMT) - i.e. the preservation of the status quo.

Forty Republicans signed the letter, indicating that, once again, no responsible offsets will be included in an AMT patch. The Republicans have Congress and the country between a rock and a hard place: the only recourse Democrats have in this battle is to not implement a patch, which is neither politically palatable nor particularly progressive.

Here’s the problem for the claim that Democrats are acting responsibly. They spent money that they never intended on collecting.

That’s why they are insisting on an off-set. Think about it, the Democrats always intended to fix AMT so then they never expected the revenue that would have come from not fixing AMT. Since they always knew that revenue wasn’t going to be there, it was fiscally irresponsible for them to spend the money. By spending non-existant income, they justified for themselves a need to raise taxes - even though the policy they are off-setting is the status quo.

The last paragraph was a mouthful, so I’ll put it in terms of 13-year-old econ like Jay did. While I don’t know many 13-year-olds with credit cards (you have to be 18, don’t you?), you don’t need a credit card to understand that you shouldn’t spend money that you aren’t going to earn.