Sunday 26 October 2008

Liberal or Conservative, the same rules apply

All this partisan talk from the right about Barack Obama being a "socialist" who wants to "spread the wealth around" ignores some basic commonsense principles. I don't believe the ground rules change whether a government is "liberal" or "conservative". And this is nothing specific to the US. It applies equally to any country.

Advice to the liberals:
Tax and spend all you want, but maintain a balanced budget. Don't spend more than you can earn.

Advice to the conservatives:
Cut taxes and cut spending all you want, but maintain a balanced budget. Don't give up more in tax cuts than you give up in spending.

Fiscal responsibility is the watchword. You could call it "true conservatism" if you want. I'm a true fiscal conservative, because I abhor budget deficits. They borrow from the future, provoke inflation and reduce our future wealth.

(Somehow, I think Barack Obama will be fiscally conservative, not irresponsible. It will of course take any future US administration years to recover from the trillion dollar deficit created by George W Bush, but I believe Obama will make things better, not worse.)

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