Fiscal conservatism, RIP

TO BE shocked by the Republicans’ latest enthusiasm for deficit spending, you would have to have taken seriously their former disdain—nay, horror!—for it. Back when Barack Obama was in charge, Mitch McConnell said the deficit was America’s “most serious long-term problem”. The Republican National Committee (RNC) warned darkly that the Democratic president’s profligacy was putting “America’s future in the balance”. But this was a charade, of course. Republican congressmen have long preached the virtues of prudence in opposition, then let borrowing rip in power. This week Mr McConnell duly corralled support among his fellow Republican senators for a budget bill designed to facilitate a tax cut that, if passed, might add over $2trn to America’s $20trn national debt. The RNC has said it considers this an opportunity for hardworking Americans to “get their time and money back”. The deficit is “a great talking point when you have an administration that’s Democrat-led,” Mark Walker, a Republican congressman from North Carolina, conceded to the New York Times, “It’s a little different now that Republicans have both houses and the administration.”

The key to understanding this dismal cycle is that not many Republican voters do take the public finances, or their party’s professed concern for them, seriously. Most want balanced budgets. But they are more concerned about terrorism, security and the economy, all potential reasons to postpone deficit reduction. And that suits Republican politicians well, because the same voters who worry about the national debt also tend to be unwilling to lose access to entitlements—including health care and pensions for seniors—that are primarily responsible for it. Both parties have capitulated to these voters, but the one ostensibly dedicated to fiscal conservatism has been the most profligate. Between 1960 and 2010, according to Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute, entitlement spending grew 8% faster under Republican presidents than Democrats.