01.28.04
More Tax Dollars at Work
NY Times: Bush Is Said to Seek More Money for Arts
“Some conservatives, like Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, vowed to oppose the increase. Even without support from the government, he said, ‘art would thrive in America… We are looking at record deficit and potential cuts in all kinds of programs,’ he said. ‘How can I tell constituents that I’ll take money away from them to pay for somebody else’s idea of good art? I have no more right to do that than to finance somebody else’s ideas about religion.’”
Tancredo’s analysis isn’t perfect–he seems to believe that these dollars need to be distributed to his constituents by government programs, just not this program. Rather than “potential cuts” in “all kinds of programs,” how about across the board cuts in every program? Lean, efficient government is what’s needed, not more bureaucracy, wealth redistribution and/or handouts.
Excuse me while I paint with the broad strokes which I usually repudiate, but President Bush seems to be an interesting combination. You have Carter (fiscal liberal, social liberal), Reagan and Bush I (fiscal conservative, social conservative), Clinton (fiscal conservative, social liberal) and now Bush II (fiscal liberal, social conservative). Is this what it means to be a “compassionate conservative?” So far in three years, we’ve had rampant social spending and accelerated growth in government’s consumption of our GDP. These have been coupled with large tax cuts, massive deficits and trade imbalance. I’m all for tax cuts, but a piece of the pie is missing. When are we going to cut (until it hurts) the ever increasing government spending?
One could argue that Bush is attempting a radical reflationary process by applying both fiscal policy tools available to him (increasing government spending and cutting taxes). These are dangerous games to play indeed, and certainly not fiscally “conservative.”
I’m betting that if President Bush is planning any budget reductions, he’ll wait until after November.
UPDATE (02/04/2004):
- Bush Budget to Scrap Programs from Art to Whaling
- Fact Check (thanks to InstaPundit for the link)
Apparently my assessment that “if President Bush is planning any budget reductions, he’ll wait until after November” is turning out to be incorrect. The pressure on the President to display some fiscal discipline appears to be having an effect.
JAT said,
February 4, 2004 at 10:01 am
Good point — this comment:
“‘How can I tell constituents that I’ll take money away from them to pay for somebody else’s idea of good art? ”
is sort of silly. The money’s already taken away from them, its only a matter of how it ends up getting spent. Unless, of course, income/sales/etc taxes are cut.
Interesting you bring up government spending and GDP in the same sentence, though, because evidently that’s one comparison where, according to some analyses (see http://www.instapundit.com/archives/013907.php), it looks as though spending isn’t out of control.
Jeff Doolittle said,
February 4, 2004 at 10:11 am
Jat,
I just ran across that InstaPundit entry today. It is instructive to use government spending as a percentage of GDP when comparing the spending policies of different administrations and timeframes. My point is that current spending levels are high for an administration that is generally referred to as “conservative.”
A Perfectly Cromulent Blog said,
February 4, 2004 at 10:37 am
Carnival of the Vanities #72
Smiles, everyone smiles…My dear guests, I am Mr. Pete, your host. Welcome to Carnival of the Vanities #72. Putting together this edition of the Carnival has been an interesting experience. I’ve been exposed to a number of blogs I don’t…