What does it mean to be fiscally conservative?

Question

The last three conservative presidents have run up 70% of the national debt (two Bush's and a Reagan).

"Fiscal conservatism is a political phrase term used in the United States to attack government spending and advocate instead lower spending and a lower federal debt..." (source: wiki)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiscal_conservatism

Does it just not work...or was it implemented in the wrong way?

Answer 1

First off, don't use wikipedia, dude, it really isn't that reliable. Second, even though they have run up all that debt they have presided over the biggest growths of the national economy in that time. FDR proved that you can stimulate the economy by the government spending money and raising the edbt.

Answer 2

It's BS. From United States National Debt:

In 1993 President Clinton inherited the deficit spending problem and did more than just talk about it; he fixed it. In his first two years and with a cooperative Democratic Congress he set the course for the best economy this country has ever experienced. Then he worked with what could be characterized as the most hostile Congress in history, led by Republicans for the last six years of his administration. Yet, under constant personal attacks from the right, he still managed to get the growth of the debt down to 0.32% (one third of one percent) his last year in office. Had his policies been followed for one more year the debt would have been reduced for the first time since the Kennedy administration.

When President Bush II came into office in 2001 he quickly turned all that progress around. With the help of a Republican controlled Congress he immediately gave a massive tax cut based on a failed economic policy; perhaps an economic fantasy describes it better. The last year Mr. Clinton was in office the nation borrowed 18 billion dollars. The first year Mr. Bush II was in office he had to borrow 133 billion[8]. The first tax cut Bush pushed through a willing Republican Congress caused an upswing in government borrowing that was supposed to stimulate the economy, but two years later Bush had to push through yet another tax cut. The second tax cut was needed because it was clear that the first one did not work. Economic history tells us the second did not work either. As a result of all his tax cutting with no cutting in spending, in 2003 President Bush set a record for the biggest single yearly dollar increase in debt in the nation’s history. He did it again in 2004, increasing the debt more than half a trillion dollars. Since 2003 total borrowing has exceeded $500,000,000,000 per year. Even Mr. Reagan never increased the debt that much in a single year; Mr. Reagan’s biggest increase was only 282 billion, half of GWB’s outrageous spending. As a result of the fact that the debt was already pretty high when Bush II entered office, his annual rate of increase is only averaging 7% per year so far. In 2006 he was holding press conferences bragging that the debt was increasing at the rate of only 300 billion dollars a year, yet in reality it was twice that. Again the facts do not match Neo-Con rhetoric.

As to the current economy, from 1980 to 2002, the latest year of available data, the share of total income earned by the top 0.1 percent of earners more than doubled, while the share earned by everyone else in the top 10 percent rose far less. The share of the bottom 90 percent declined. I personally cannot recall a more frightening time, economically, in our nation's history.

Answer 3

There aren't many fiscal conservatives left. The Republicans became as bad as the Dems with their free-spending ways during the 1990's. The Repubs had control of Congress and they fell in love with pork-barrel spending, and increasing the size of the govt. They gave the people what they thought the people wanted in order to maintain power. They deserved to be kicked out of power for violating their most important principles.

To me a fiscal conservative is one who wants to limit the growth of spending, balance the budget every year, and cut down the national debt.

Answer 4

Actually, the President can't spend anything. Spending is done by congress. Unfortunately, the last 3 conservative Presidents, while, for the most part, having the right idea on taxes, were a little conservative in using their veto pens to stop congress from spending money like drunken sailors.