There’s a conspiracy theory in liberal circles that conservatives secretly subscribe to the teachings of John Maynard Keynes — that the writers and editors of the Washington Examiner and National Review and the Wall Street Journal editorial page all believe that massively larger federal spending is good for the economy and that the Right is lying when they talk about fiscal conservatism.
As the theory goes, conservatives only pretend to think overspending is bad because they want to hurt the economy when Democrats are in charge.
This has nothing at all to do with the world of conservative agitprop (where the economy sucked until Jan 20, 2017, then suddenly became amazing). It has to do with austerity policies conservatives and Republican lawmakers used their power to impose on people until…Jan 20, 2017. https://t.co/lQVD2fjTcd
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) August 20, 2019
There’s a simpler explanation, here, which isn’t very flattering to Republicans either: Republicans believe in fiscal conservatism, or at least play to a conservative commentariat that does, but in practice, they lack the continence to restrain spending, and they see the political benefits of handing goodies out to special interests.
Make no mistake, more federal spending is better for lawmakers, lobbyists, and especially the lawmakers who become lobbyists.
That explanation doesn’t excite the Left very much because (1) it only blames most Republican lawmakers, leaving many conservatives unscathed, (2) it doesn’t accuse the other side of being lying liars who lie, and (3) it doesn’t flatly assert that leftist economics is objectively true.
Yet somehow, the conspiracy theory has taken hold. So when the Washington Examiner published an editorial today warning that Joe Biden’s agenda was an irresponsible spending fest, it was unsurprising how commentators on the Left responded.
oh hell yeah baby here we go https://t.co/AjljwHVqFG
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) July 22, 2020
And:
Amazing. https://t.co/avkaDlJtHi
— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) July 22, 2020
Plus:
Spending binge… are you delusional.
Trump ran up trillion dollar annual debts & deficits before there was even a pandemic?
When was the last time we had a surplus?
Clinton… a Democrat.Tac the rich and corporations.
Invest in rebuilding the middle class & small businesses. https://t.co/XwHyLgDwaL— Billy Baldwin (@BillyBaldwin) July 22, 2020
These left-wing or pro-Biden tweeters are deeply misleading because they imply that the Washington Examiner didn’t care about debt and deficits under President Trump. But the editorial in question explicitly chides Trump. “President Trump chose to cut taxes and boost military spending without offsetting the deficit effects, which he could have done by addressing these long-term problems.”
And has the Washington Examiner editorial page been silent on debt, deficit, and federal spending levels under Trump? Hardly.
Here are some of our editorials in the Trump Era:
· “Trump’s budget fails to address spending problem”
· “Coronavirus provides a warning shot on our unsustainable debt”
· “Trump budget another lost opportunity on entitlement reform”
· “Coronavirus debt is a looming disaster”
· “Close those executive branch slush funds”
· “Get a grip on spending before it’s too late”
· “Congress’ regular spending fiasco”
· Here’s one that says, “Beltway Republicans should reverse course and cut federal spending.”
· And here’s one that says, “The bill appropriates $1.4 trillion for this year. That’s a 16% increase from 2016, the year Donald Trump ran for president, after you adjust for inflation. This isn’t anywhere close to spending restraint.”
· “Trump makes Republicans big spenders again”
That last one includes this passage:
“When will the real dealmaker show up? After the GOP wins the next election?
“Please. We’ve heard that one before”
Again, that’s only our unsigned, institutional editorials. Our opinion page editor Phil Klein published a book in 2019 titled Fear Your Future with a scary national debt chart on the front. The opinion pieces and magazine pieces we’ve published include, “Trump ignores mounting debt in US and worldwide,” “Trump budget calls for adding almost as much to the debt as Obama did,” “Trump’s apathy doesn’t make our debt crisis any less terrifying,” and plenty more like it.
So what are these lefties or Biden-backers objecting to? Some of them probably just don’t read us. Some might just assume that everyone right of Rick Wilson looks the same and so they blame us for Trump’s sins. Others, though, clearly believe the conspiracy theory. They don’t think anyone believes the government spends more money than is helpful — and so we must be full of it when we warn against Biden overspending. In that way, our critics are simultaneously incapable of entertaining conflicting opinions and guilty of assigning bad motives.
Congrats!
