View source for Myths/liberal policies put us more in debt

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{{hdr/myth|Liberal fiscal policies create more debt.}}
==Myth==
Liberal policies cause more debt, while [[disconservatism|"conservative"]] policies reduce it.
==Reality==
This is the opposite of the truth. From a fiscal viewpoint, liberal policies tend to do two things:
* Engage in common-good investment that:
** improves the economy over the long term (and often in the short term as well, e.g. stimulus spending)
** disproportionately benefits those with the most need
* Where spending is increased, taxes -- especially on those with the most surplus, i.e. the rich -- are increased to pay for the spending.
* Liberal policies and laws frequently provide more overall benefit without actually being more expensive than existing policies and laws.
** {{l/ip|Obamacare}}, for example, was projected to be deficit-neutral (despite repeated right-wing claims that we "can't afford it") and is actually turning out to save more money than expected.

[[File:405875 2404492924164 601932573 n Tax-and-Spend liberal.jpg|thumb|Spot the Tax-And-Spend Liberal]]
The anti-liberal {{l/ip|mainstream media}} tends to dishonestly {{l/ip|interpretive framing|frame}} such responsible, forward-looking policies as "tax-and-spend" -- leaving many people with the image of personally being drained by taxation in order to pay for heedless liberal indulgence; an equally honest phrase for [[disconservatism|"conservative"]] policies would be "'''borrow'''-and-spend", since that has been the historical pattern for Republican/"conservative" administrations since the Reagan era.

"Conservative" &ndash; a misnomer for "Republican" &ndash; policies have been largely responsible for the deficit-growth [[Myths/federal debt is now at an all-time high|that "conservatives" like to complain about]].
==Claim Examples==
"Soon, I fear, this nation will become bankrupt and it we will be turned over to the communists/Marxists/socialists/liberal/progressives that have been weighing down our spending by encouraging deadbeats to go on welfare and suck this nation dry." - [https://plus.google.com/u/0/102282887764745350285/posts/YrifdxFWGCy Google+, 2014-02-08]