Conservative Fiscal Policy Is Really Conservative Social Policy

Mark Thoma gets it:

That tells us that the true agenda is some­thing other than reduc­ing the deficit or call­ing con­fi­dence fairies to stim­u­late the econ­omy. The fairies are myth­i­cal, and so is the idea that the true goal is reduc­ing the deficit. The deficit is just the means to an end of smaller gov­ern­ment, social insur­ance in par­tic­u­lar — that’s why tax increases that reduce the deficit aren’t sup­ported — and if a slower recov­ery, higher unem­ployemt, and more inse­cu­rity (for oth­ers of course) is the price of reach­ing that goal, so be it.

 

27 April 2011 – 12:52 pm | By Benjamin Daniels | Posted in Economics, Federal Budget, Politics | Comments (118)