I don't think them MFers were ever truly fiscally conservative.
Even the Republican Man-God, Jelly Bean Reagan grew government and national debt.
It's all a two-card monte, farse, always has been.
Don't agree. Reagan was handcuffed by the Crook/Klansman Congress, JimWright and Robert KKKing of Pork Byrd. HW was too. Congress can cut spending. Gingrich did. It has to have will and a speaker that will fight for cuts. Newt was the last one. Every GOP House Speaker since has done nothing to cut spending. An audit of Mike Johnson's wealth and the origin of it would put him in prison really fast....
The 1980s- mid 1990s GOP was fiscally conservative. Warren Rudman, Phil Graham, Gingrich, even most of the religious ones at the time like Jesse Helms were fiscally conservative.
The 911 crowd, the "fox News Republicans" W Huck Hastert McConnell are all 180 degrees the other way. The more pro Israel the "Republican" the more it supports big spending big government.
Huck, for example, wasn't just the biggest spending GOP Gov, he was only behind 4 Dems and the only GOPer in the top 10...
if you liked George W. Bush’s brand of big-spending, big-government conservatism, you’ll love Mike Huckabee.
Most of the leading Republicans running for president show some support for Bush’s ideology, but no other candidate so completely embodies it.
As governor of Arkansas, Huckabee dramatically increased state spending. During his two-term tenure, spending increased by more than 65 percent — at three times the rate of inflation.
The number of government workers increased by 20 percent, and the state’s debt services increased by nearly $1 billion. Huckabee financed his spending binge with higher taxes. Under his leadership, the average Arkansan’s tax burden increased 47 percent, according to the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, including increases in the state’s gas, sales, income, and cigarette taxes. He raised taxes on everything from groceries to nursing home beds.
Huckabee answers these complaints by pointing out that he “cut taxes 94 times” while governor. True. But most of those tax cuts were tiny, like exempting residential lawn care from the sales tax. Some cuts reduced overall state revenues by as little as $15,000. On net, Huckabee increased state taxes by more than $500 million. In fact, Huckabee increased taxes in the state by more than Bill Clinton did.
On its annual governor’s report card, Cato gave Huckabee an “F” for fiscal policy during his final term, and an overall two-term grade of “D.” Only four governors had worse scores, and 15 Democratic governors got higher grades, including well-known liberals like Ted Kulongoski of Oregon, Rod Blagojevich of Illinois, and Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania.
But Huckabee doesn’t just embrace big government in the form of big taxes. He truly appears to believe that if something is a good idea it should be a federal government program.
For example, having become health conscious while losing more than 120 pounds (a remarkable feat), he now calls for a national smoking ban. Because he believes that “art and music are as important as math and science” in public schools, he wants these programs funded — and thus, directed and administered — federally.
Huckabee is, incidentally, the only Republican candidate for president who opposes school choice.
