21st Century Conservatism

I am a first a fiscal conservative and secondly a social conservative ... both are clearly moral in nature with the fiscal spin just a bit more identifiable. I read the following last week in one of the daily papers:

"The White House now says it will need another $80 billion in extra funding, most of it for Iraq. The new spending would make this year's federal budget deficit $427 billion, the largest in history."

I find it interesting that, in some sense, all issues are fiscal because it takes money to do about anything. It takes money to fund social programs, to wage a war, to support Tsunami victims, to rebuild a foreign nation - you get the idea. I think there are two issues that arise when we start to talk about money. The first is where the money is spent and the second is whether (and how much) we go into debt to pay the bills. I think that we must determine the second before we deal with the first - and this is where the rubber meets the road.

For every expenditure we must ask the difficult question "Is it worth going in debt for?" Once we have asked that question then we will have a better handle on how we should spend our money. This is where I see our nation falling short. Even those who advocate a strong conservative view seem to be for spending money we don't have - things that we have to go into national debt for. These same conservatives criticize 'liberals' who see tax cuts as revenue short falls. It is like these 21st Century Conservatives want to cut our national income but not our national expenditures.

I think that our country can do much better than a $427 billion federal deficit ... but it will take courageous leadership to do it!