And let’s not forget that President Bush oversaw the expansion of Medicare. Meanwhile, President Trump never pretended he cared about fiscal responsibility, which freed most Republicans from pretending they cared. He also continues to argue that Republicans shouldn’t touch Social Security and Medicare.
That said, the Biden administration and its Democratic Congress win the fiscal-nonsense prize by refusing to scale back pandemic spending — doubling down, even — once the pandemic was over and passing a regressive, unpaid-for, and likely unconstitutional student-loan-forgiveness nightmare. Nasty.
Tankersley also correctly points out that few legislators have taken steps to reduce the deficit they have produced with their legislative action. In recent years, they haven’t even talked.
I am sorry, but it is worth repeating that Republicans systematically fail to talk about fiscal responsibility when they are in the majority but suddenly remember that deficits matter when in the minority. As Chris Chocola, former head of the Club for Growth, once asked, “What good is a majority if you aren’t going to use it? What good is being part of a team, if the team is the problem?” Good question. Moreover, when Republicans stand up for fiscal responsibility, their efforts tend to fail because they are heavy on unrealistic promises (like balancing the budget in ten years without touching defense and entitlements) and gimmicks.
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