Are we conservatives guilty of going to excess sometimes in our use of words? For example, here in Colorado there are three ballot proposals to try to cut government spending. One is Amendment 61. It has provisions to prohibit state borrowing and limit local governments to borrowing for only ten years and only with voter approval. This amendment, say opponents, would disallow the state to replace structurally deficient bridges, and we won't be able to build modern facilities at our colleges.
To do that construction work, the state issues bonds. Not once is the word bonding used in the wording of the ammendment; however seven times it uses the word "borrowing." Another example of the choice of words to manipulate us; this time, though, it is coming from the right, not the left. As an independent American, I don't want to be manipulated by either side.
I am glad I have not been prohibited from borrowing. I certainly would not b e living in this home, or the one before this, or the one beofre that. why should I expect the state to pay cash for big ticket items, when I don't? Sounds kind of hypocritical.
Bob, good post. This blends nicely with my inflation/deflation posts in that there are hard choices being made by cities/states/countries right now. 80+ years of Keynesian economics has gotten us into an impossible hole. We now have, as John Mauldin has hammered for years, "no good choices left". Every choice made is hard one with big pain. This is only the beginning of decades of hard choices. Continue to next
ReplyDeleteI side with the austerity camp which requires everyone including governments to live within their means. Yet, if we go full bore this direction, will mean a decade of depression, literally. No leader is willing to do this. So we must walk an incredibly fine line between overspending (Keynesian) and living within our means (Austrian/Bible/Christian). I am willing to overspend some, but only in so far as Central governments would be stripped of much of their overbearing power they have right now. Liberals believe in making rules protecting the Government from the people. I am a true Conservative in that I want to make laws protecting individuals from the Government.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I am a conservative. I know I am and want to continue to be independent in my thinking and actions. I am a registered Republican, because I want to be able to participate in all phases of the electoral process, and have not voted for a Democrat since Jimmy Carter walked down Pennsylvania Ave., promising to be a man of the people.
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