Is your first instinct fiscal irresponsibility?
On the way in to work I was listening to some commentary on what the new Democratic NH government will do, courtesy of NHPR. (The scientist and I were sort of discussing the same thing last night) A professor from St. Anselm’s commented that the democrats need to make sure they do not follow their first instinct of fiscal irresponsibility while trying to resolve the education issue. I don’t understand this. In my experience the main offenders of fiscal irresponsibility have been the republicans (though I suppose they have been in power my entire political life). They started a war and cut taxes for god’s sake! He did echo some of the scientist’s comments from last night, in that the NH population has not become more democratic but that the republican party has become less New Hampshire-esque (i.e. pandering to social conservatives who should get their big fat heads out of our bedrooms). So I guess he wasn’t all bad, but can someone explain why republicans are supposed to be more fiscally responsible? Is it because they believe in lower taxes? I hear that ‘Goldwater‘ Republicans believe that if you raise spending on one thing you have to cut equally from another (which just makes sense, though it leaves out raising taxes), but are there any ‘Goldwater’ Republicans left? Because if there were, I think that the election on Tuesday might have been different. What does anyone else think? This is, of course, assuming that we can have a fair election and that big money does not own our representatives.
So what will the democrats do? Here’s what I think:
- Raise taxes
- Force our children to have sex with strangers
- Force our children to have abortions
Oops… that’s what Fox news thinks. Let’s try that again.
- Education, as a state, what do we need to do? how much will it cost? can we pay for it?
- Tax (optional), change them if item 1 requires.
- Increase NH energy independence
- Increase environmental conservation measures (clean air, more money for state parks)
What do you think?
Why do we worry about paying more for better education? It’s not like it grows on trees.
I think we should pretty much pay as much as it takes to fix the education crisis and then worry about how to pay for it after.
If we can do it with war, we can do it with something productive, nay?
tizz
Comment by tizzom — Thursday, November 9, 2006 @ 10:17 am
I agree that we should not worry about how much education costs (within reason of course… there always needs to be accountability). It will be worthwhile.
I disagree with the pay for it later mentality. I don’t think NH should spend what it doesn’t have. For one thing, people think that Democrats are fiscally irresponsible and if they run up a deficit they may not stay in office. This is even if it is for education and even if they have a clear plan for the future. And I think that the Dems will need to be in office for more than 2 years to get the education thing resolved (or at least to show that it is working so that the republicans do repeal everything).
We need reasonable, well thought out government.
Comment by Z.Monkey — Thursday, November 9, 2006 @ 10:56 am
I missed two big ones. The smoking ban and health care. Lynch lays out his agenda.
Comment by Z.Monkey — Thursday, November 9, 2006 @ 4:13 pm
“Fiscal irresponsibility” sounds like a term coined by the Republican party to negatively frame the spending habits of the Democrats. You know them “liberals,” all “liberal” with their money, always wanting to give it to poor people and schools and shit, instead of letting the wealthy simply hoard it.
On another note, what`s with the little icons after every one of your links? Is that so we know they`re links and not just blue underlined text?
Comment by dan — Thursday, November 9, 2006 @ 10:24 pm
I find it interesting that people (republicans) seem to be ignoring what I like to call “facts” when it comes to the whole fical responsibility issue. Fact: when Clinton left office there was a budget surplus, now, there is a deficit again. Seems to me there is no level of taxes, higher or lower, that can make that fiscally responsible. Also, when doing some quick research I came across this site. I haven’t had time to read all of it, but I thought it was interesting.
http://www.eriposte.com/politics/bush/bush.htm
–D14
Comment by D14 — Friday, November 10, 2006 @ 9:23 am