CONSERVATIVE DISARRAY

The massive 825 billion stimulus package passed the House of Representatives without one Republican vote. The Senate is now considering a similar bill that, at best, will be supported by a small number of Senate Republicans.

President Obama campaigned on the importance of bipartisan politics, stressing that the economic crisis had to be faced, without regard to ideology or preconceived policy dictates from the right or the left. We were all invited to pull together in the face of the worst economic news since the Great Depression. The new President met for hours with the House Republican leaders. They said that they found him very interested and respectful of their views, and then they voted en masse against his proposals.

They accused their Democratic opponents of pushing a Big Government agenda, spending huge sums in new programs in education, healthcare and infrastructure – a quintessentially liberal response to the crisis. Instead, they advocated for tax cuts for businesses and individuals. They also said that they could not justify the massive borrowing that the Democratic plans entailed.

The Republicans have a major problem in putting forward conservative solutions. They will, surely, hear the advice often given to people whose ideas are not consistent with the way they live: Talk louder because your actions are shouting you down!

George Bush came into office in January, 2001, promising limited government, low taxes and fiscally responsible policies. For six of his eight years in the White House, he had a Republican majority in the House and the Senate. They invited us to watch conservatives in action!

Well, we did. They inherited a budget surplus from President Clinton, but when President Obama took over eight years later, he found a projected deficit of a trillion dollars, not only for 2009, but for every year until 2018! President Bush cut taxes, especially for the rich, promising that, by some magic, this would result in continuing surpluses every year. Contrary to his promises, he also increased spending in nearly every government department from 2001 until he left office. Furthermore, he invaded Iraq and borrowed the hundreds of billions required to fight that war.

The Republican leaders in the House and Senate backed him all the way. The one absolute rule with present-day Republicans is that taxes must never – ever – be increased. They regularly attack their opponents as “tax and spend” Democrats.

Big deficits mean that future generations will have to pay for this Republican profligacy – the very antithesis of the conservative philosophy. Serious Republican theorists of the past, like the late William F. Buckley, would have considered leaving big bills for our grandchildren to pay as completely reckless and definitely un-conservative.



So, today, when the Republican leaders in both Houses trot out the old shibboleths about cutting taxes and reducing spending as a way out of the present crisis, they have a real credibility problem. Democrats are correctly pointing out that it was the so-called conservative Bush policies that got us into the mess in the first place.

Not that voters have embraced the liberal alternative. Indeed, it was very noticeable that the main contenders for the Democratic nomination, including Barack Obama, never identified themselves as liberals. It seems to be a noxious word that voters associate with soft-headed do-gooders who have a government solution for everything.

Democrats have learned to talk about the issues that concern people everywhere – healthcare, employment, education and retirement benefits. Their approach in all these issues is indeed a liberal one, involving hefty government involvement, but please don’t use that “L” word.

The Obama/Democratic proposals surely constitute a liberal response to the present economic crisis. The focus is on creating millions of jobs and enhancing the country’s infrastructure, which, they argue, will improve the chances of long-term, sustainable economic growth.

If the Democratic plans succeed, then we can look to a long period of that party in government. If they don’t turn the economy around, the people will reject the liberal approach, as they now reject conservative thinking.