re: #98 sagehen

Bush the Elder was fiscally conservative.

Which is why the base abandoned him and he wasn’t re-elected… a lesson well-learned by all R candidates since.

Yeah. He actually realized that tax increases are sometimes necessary. That’s something Ford realized too. What annoys me is people who think “fiscally conservative” oppose all taxes at all times. True fiscal conservatives know that tax increases on the wealthy are sometimes needed. True fiscal conservatives know you can’t just cut social spending and true ones don’t refuse to cut the defense budget. What the GOP has isn’t “fiscal conservatism”, I don’t know the exact phrasing for it but they’re not fiscally conservative at all.