More Services AND Lower Taxes

I think I am learning something important about Democratic and Republican behavior in response to the public’s desire for more services AND lower taxes.

Democrats, when running for office, tell the country they are going to increase services while pretending that they are also going to be able to cut taxes.

Republicans, when running for office, tell the country they are going to cut taxes while pretending that they are also going to be able to provide services.

The point is that as a voter you should know which things a candidate says are real priorities. Despite giving lip service to both things constituents demand, they will only really be able to provide one. A president that tries to do both will end up running large deficits, as Bush did and as Obama right now is planning to do for at least the next few years.


Speaking of Obama's budget, it seems that he is moving away from some of the absurd gimmicks of the Bush years (ie not including war spending in the budget but asking for supplemental appropriations, which should only be used for unplanned expenses and after a year or two, the wars were no longer unplanned). Transparency is a beautiful thing, and it makes this budget analyst almost tear up to see our president moving in that direction.