The Parties Of Big Government
As Trump's Big Beautiful Bill plods along to eventual enactment, I find myself reminded - again - that the GOP talks a great fiscal responsibility game when it's out of power, but never actually walks that walk when it's in charge. The handful of stalwarts resisting the spending portions of TBBB are, of course, dubbed traitors by Trump loyalists and incur the Orange Man's wrath.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are in a panic because their new "base," young college-educated urbanites, are not only still tugging the party leftward, they nominated an overt "seize the means of production" socialist with "globalize the intifada" antisemitic tendencies to be mayor of New York City.
Old-guard conservatives and never-Trump Republicans are gnashing their teeth at the party's pro-populist policy shift (how's that for alliteration?), but those groups are, like people not in the 18-49 demographic re consumer marketing, mostly irrelevant. This WSJ article tells a troubling tale - at least as far as the OG Right is concerned - about how the party's new base is one that is more reliant on social safety nets.
In other words, they are more apt to "vote themselves largess from the treasury," and if they are the ones putting the Republican Party in power, that's what the Republican Party is going to do.
You and I can gnash our teeth at this, as well we should because the government's spending is unsustainable and will lead us off an inflationary cliff at some point, but it'd be fallacious to assert that the party is being irresponsible. This is what the people voted for.
I'm wearing this meme out, but it is apter every day.
Libertarians and the libertarian-leaning are drawing fresh scorn from the Right as a result. Tribal loyalty trumps (pun intended) principle, and daring to say "we are spending too much in this bill" is considered so treasonous that the utterers are facing threats. In the politicians' cases, it's primary challenges. In Elon Musk's case, it's deportation.
The contemptuous retort is "what good are your principles doing you?"
My response is "what good is your tribal loyalty doing YOU?"
What's the point of political power if you're not going to fix the things you've been complaining about when you weren't in power? Yes, on the societal side of things, the GOP victory is injecting some much-needed common sense into the culture wars, but endless hair-pulling over the Dems' fiscal recklessness was quickly forgotten in the name of practicality.
Practicality, in this case, means "we gotta spend money to get this bill passed." Why that is the case is what the OG Right doesn't want to admit - the party base has little actual interest in spending restraint. The GOP voters didn't vote to cut spending.
What does this mean for fiscal conservatives? Unfortunately, nothing good. While the BBB is almost certainly less profligate than what we'd have seen from a Harris administration, and while there are positives coming from the Trump administration, the hope of real spending reform - previously hinted at by DOGE - will have to wait.
And it will require a signal from the new GOP base that they want it.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are in severe disarray. Their strategists know that the leftward lurch of the Biden years hurt them, but the new Democratic base still embraces it. Even if Mamdani loses in NYC's mayoral race, the Party will have to contend with an energetic left flank through at least the next election cycle. The Party of Big Government is verging on becoming The Party of Even Bigger Government.
The rest of us should continue to make our case for smaller government, applaud it when it happens (credit where due: deregulation is proceeding apace), and continue to remind people that principles still matter.
Happy Independence Day!
Happy Independence Day Peter! Like you, I can only hope for fiscal restraint. Unfortunately, the deregulation will likely open a gusher of growth - and tax revenue - that the next iteration will just spend instead of paying down debt. We've got to - at least - freeze spending and let growth reverse our course. Or we're doomed.
“…it will require a signal from the new GOP base that they want it.”
Exactly. Unfortunately - or fortunately, I suppose - the decades of warnings from conservatives that the country is about to go over a fiscal cliff, with Social Security going broke, have yet to come to pass. OTOH, this is good, of course. OTOH, myriad warnings about a looming disaster that never shows up invariably deadens people to those warnings.
I see no point to blaming politicians for voting as their constituents want them to. First, they are *supposed* to represent their constituents’ preferences, and second, human nature being what it is, they are unlikely to vote in a way to almost guarantee they’ll lose the next election.
The GOP ought to devise a comprehensive program to educate the populace about what will happen if we do go over that fiscal cliff, and what painful steps will be required to avoid it.
And for crying out loud, do not get current politicians to do it! Those who are retired, okay, but otherwise, get people outside of politics.
Few GOP reps live in districts so heavily Republican they can safely vote for painful reductions in spending. It’s ridiculous when the few who *are* so happily situated insist on being critical of those not so situated for voting as their districts wish.