A Little Fiscal Responsibility (Finally)

By Zach Foster

News website The Hill reported today that “Blue Dog” Democrats in the House of Representatives might support a Republican plan to cut thirty-two billion dollars in discretionary spending this year.  Representative Mike Ross stated that Democrats would need to see more details before proceeding with any support or opposition.  The Hill (to the Political Spectrum’s amusement) reported that at least several Democrats “are willing to defect from their party and vote for the plan despite the vocal opposition of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.”  Why should it be called defecting?  After all, the word and verb are usually connotative of military campaigns.  Is it sacrilegious that a member of one political party sees that the opposition party has actually come up with a good idea, and the said member supports the said idea?  This is a free country, after all.  Using verbiage that denotes militarism or even outright violence is a hateful act these days.  After all, fanatical rhetoric was deemed a contributing factor to the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and other innocents in Tucson.

Returning to the subject of the thirty-two billion dollar cut, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has cried that the cuts “will come at the expense of economic growth and American jobs.”  That’s a nice bold statement which is sure help struggling middle class Americans sleep at night, but how can she be sure of this?  Details of the cuts have yet to be released.  Furthermore, government spending and job growth are not as mutually inclusive as Democrats would like to believe they are.  If anyone has read the complete 600+ page legislative text of what is now referred to as the Economic Stimulus Package, they will remember seeing countless unnecessary expenditures, such as extra light bulbs for government buildings. (Anyone might be willing to bet that some of those hundreds of millions’ worth of light bulbs aren’t even the energy efficient kind that Al Gore is so fond of.)  Many, if not most, of the nation’s economists will easily confirm that jobs and economic growth are made fastest in the private sector.  The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism and the P.I.G. to the Great Depression and the New Deal by Robert Murphy, as well as the P.I.G. to American History by Thomas Woods both cite private investment as the leading factor ending the Great Depression, through job creation and economic stimulation.

Cutting of government spending is a necessary action.  It may seem painful to some, but the country has to get out of debt somehow.  Some people might say, “No! Thirty-two billion dollars is only one five hundredth of our country’s sixteen trillion dollar debt!  It will make no difference?”  The truth, however, is that it will.  Every little bit counts and one five hundredth is a start.  We need to start somewhere.

In California, many people are incredibly angered by Governor Jerry Brown’s massive cuts from the state budget.  Republicans have, for the most part, kept their complaints to themselves about this matter, and level-headed Democrats are starting to dim down their protests.  After all, everyone knows that the state is highly unlikely to magically profit by teens of billions of dollars from the smart investments of California’s brilliant state legislature.  Therefore, the only way to get California (and the rest of the country) out of debt is through fiscal responsibility. Spend less, save more!