Losing It
It goes like this: Democrats start spending money wildly, handing out goodies to a wide range of people who they want to vote for them, while Republicans complain about deficits and the national debt. Then, when the public becomes alarmed about the debts that are piling up, the Democrats get the Republicans to vote for higher taxes to deal with the debt crisis, in the name of “fiscal responsibility.”
So, in Sowelland, the problem with the Republicans is that they are too gosh-darn responsible and bipartisan. I think that Sowell is losing it.
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Filed under: Conservatism
Not for the first time, I find myself simply gobsmacked.
The point of the column was not that Republicans shouldn’t be responsible, or even bipartisan–though many people long ago realized that “bipartisan” is Washington-speak for “conservatives lose.” The point of the column was that Democrats have mastered the art of convincing Republicans to enable their over-the-top spending in the name of responsible bipartisanship, or by promising Democratic cooperation on spending that never actually materializes.
I don’t agree with everything Dr. Sowell has to say, either, but in my opinion, it would be wise to carefully consider what you have to say about a man of his accomplishments. It would be easy to wind up looking foolish.
But why would anyone expect the Republicans to have the nation’s fiscal well-being at heart anyway? They’re just as profligate as the Democrats, just they’re big on tax cut rhetoric. Both are irresponsible. The whole peanuts reference with Lucy pulling away the football isn’t the Democrats pulling a fast one over the Republicans; it’s anyone thinking that either party is going to govern well.
MOW:
“The point of the column was that Democrats have mastered the art of convincing Republicans to enable their over-the-top spending in the name of responsible bipartisanship, or by promising Democratic cooperation on spending that never actually materializes.”
Yes, and that point is absurd. That may have been true in 1967, but it isn’t today, and hasn’t been for years.
[...] Losing It [...]
“Yes, and that point is absurd. That may have been true in 1967, but it isn’t today, and hasn’t been for years.”
I believe it was in the 1990′s that Newt Gingrich launched his famous gibe at Senator Bob Dole about wanting to be the tax collector for the welfare state. And I believe it is a fact that the Republican Congresses elected in 1994 and later years succeeded in restraining government spending enough that it allowed Bill Clinton to later claim that he produced a government budget surplus for the first time in years. George W. Bush, of course, changed all that with his lavish spending and tax cuts.
“I think that Sowell is losing it.”
No. Lost it long ago.
Mr. Stooksbury,
Thomas Sowell has had plenty of criticisms of the big-spending Republicans over the years. A simple Google search by you would have yielded this:
http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=ZDY5NjhjMzI3OTJmODgzY2U2MTFmYmMzMzQzMmViZmM=
Key quote:
Now, how hard was that?
Dr. Sowell is a great man, and he’s been battling for smaller government – and sound principles – far, far longer than this magazine, and this blog, ever have.
I assume he’ll be doing so in the future long after this unneccesary swipe at him will be long-forgotten.
Dr. Sowell was onto the global warming scam very early on. That is the real reason Stooksbury attacks him. And BTW, notice how Stooks never mentions that anymore…?