Fiscal Conservatism?

TW: If Obama is to be a great POTUS, one of the attributes will need to be navigating the swirling fiscal currents which integrate the realities of our economic situation with the frequently contradictory realities of our political system. The public is always left with its head spinning. Should one care about deficits? "Deficits don't matter" said VP Dick Cheney, when the wealthy were being showered with tax cuts, $ poured into Iraq and Medicare prescription drug benefits doled out like crack. "The country is headed into a fiscal hell" says most every Republican now that some $ is being spent on stimulus and financial stabilization.

When should Obama shift to fiscal conservatism? That is a question, another would be whether Americans could actually accept fiscal conservatism. Taxes? Spending cuts not on someone else but on something that impact YOU? I obviously wish him well.

From Andrew Sullivan at Atlantic:
"...I've been arguing that the Obama administration needs to pivot swiftly from health insurance reform to fiscal responsibility in the coming months. The recession made deficit cutting in the here and now imprudent in his first year; but now addressing the long-term debt is itself necessary for stabilizing the economy - and reassuring independent voters that he, unlike his predecessor, gives a damn about fiscal health. Well: the good news is that he's going to do exactly that:

'President Barack Obama plans to announce in next year's State of the Union address that he wants to focus extensively on cutting the federal deficit in 2010 – and will downplay other new domestic spending beyond jobs programs...'

This classic Politico piece..fails to mention a few things about Obama's spending in his first year.

Item one: the recession.
To treat the stimulus package as if it were something he just felt like doing - because he's a big government maniac - is a lie, a piece of propaganda that has seeped into the lazy Beltway desire to describe everything - even now - into the big government/small government, red-blue paradigm.

Item two: The health insurance reform almost painfully tries to pay for itself - something that Bush's Medicare entitlement didn't even pretend to do.

Item three: there's a big big difference between spending on green and infrastructure investment and slashing taxes or increasing Medicare entitlements.

The way in which cynical and amnesiac Republicans have tried to portray this as classic big government liberalism is a lie. You can debate the merits of each initiative, but this is obviously not an administration as fiscally reckless as the last one. Mercifully, they have a chance to show it in earnest next year. And to call the bluff of those Republicans yelling about spending while having absolutely no plans or ideas for cutting it."
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/11/obama-deficit-hawk.html#more