Is this really the sort of Democrat we need?
In Ossipee, [Richardson] bragged about his support for a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution, a rigid straitjacket on spending that Bill Clinton and most leading Democrats opposed in the 1990s. And, presumably contrasting himself with Edwards, who is running as an economic populist, Richardson declared, "I'm also a Democrat who does not believe in class warfare. I'm not going to rail against rich persons. That's not me. I believe that we should have a pro-growth economy."
A balanced budget amendment. I didn't even know serious people believed in such horseshit. The idea that you'd bar the federal government from deficit spending during recessions is nuts. Here's why: In a recession, unemployment increases, total incomes drop, and thus people don't pay as much in taxes. This pushes down government revenues. At the same time, the need for government programs and the reliance of government subsidies increases, as more Americans qualify for everything from Medicaid to subsidized school lunches to the State Children's Health Insurance Program to unemployment benefits. So just as revenues soften, the need for enhanced government spending to smooth out the hard times increases.
This is what Bill Richardson would like to keep the United State government from doing. This is what he brags about keeping the United States government from doing. And this guy is running for president with a D after his name. It's absolutely bizarre. Richardson is a real fiscal conservative. And not in the imprecise way that the term is sometimes bandied about to mean "fiscally responsible." The guy is actually a conservative. Oh, and he also likes to talk about being a "tax-cut Democrat," which means Richardson wants to bar deficit spending when revenues are at a notable low (because of the Bush tax cuts) and deficit spending is all that's keeping us afloat. It would be nice if some enterprising reporter would ask Richardson just which programs he'd cut to make up the difference.
Original image here.
