More Drumbeat

The ability of true believers to bury their heads in the sand is at once amazing and frightening. Many fiscal conservatives have noticed that the Republicans they have elected are spending like drunken sailors and have begun to react, anywhere from grumbling to fleeing. Other notice and pretend it isn't happening. A check of the Indy Star's message boards reveals a great deal of this latter.

The latest intellectually honest conservative think tank to rat out the GOP is the Heartland Institute. Joe Bast reminds fiscal conservatives of who pays taxes in this country, compares our current tax burden to that which helped spark the American Revolution, and the degree to which the GOP is making things worse- all worthy considerations. From Bast's article:

If government is too big, as Republicans love to chant, why is it growing larger and at a record pace with a Republican president and Republicans in control of both houses of Congress? Why did it grow at a slower rate when Bill Clinton was in the White House?

Meanwhile, state governments have been indulging in their own spending orgy. Between 1990 and 2000, total state spending grew by a staggering $512 billion, or 89 percent. All of that new built-in spending is moving through today's budgets like a pig through a python, causing state politicians to cry about "budget cuts" even as they reap record revenue increases due to the reviving national economy.

Voters need to hold to the fire the feet of elected officials, and especially Republicans who pretend to be pro-taxpayer. Officials who cut taxes and balance budgets need to be rewarded with success at the ballot box, and those who raise taxes and increase spending should be targeted by taxpayer groups and lose elections.

The best way to get what you want is to support the Libertarian Party before the elections. Why?

1. If you are a libertarian philosophically, and believed voting Republican the best route to get your policies enacted, you probably should have been voting Libertarian as a means of empowering those who agree with you more completely.
2. If you aren't a libertarian philosophically, but agree with Libertarian fiscal conservatism, you should use Libertarians as a lever. If the GOP sees its' support drain away from them and over to the Libertarians, they will investigate and figure out why. They will at long last begin to reclaim you and focus on cutting government instead of growing it.

It's all about getting what you want. No matter how you slice it, the Libertarian Party can help. Support us!