Myths/liberal policies put us more in debt

Budget Crisis Propaganda balance the budget federal debt at all-time high liberal policies worsen debt Obama spending out of control

Claim: Liberal policies cause more debt, while "conservative" policies reduce it.

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
• Increase taxes -- especially on those with the most surplus, i.e. the rich -- to pay for these investments.

The anti-liberal mainstream media tends to dishonestly 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 "conservative" policies would be "borrow-and-spend", since that has been the historical pattern for Republican/"conservative" administrations since the Reagan era.

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." - Google+, 2014-02-08

"a record natl debt (obuma has added $8 TRILLION to the natl debt and his annual budget adds $1/2 TRILLION TO IT EVERY YEAR. OH BY THE WAY...THIS IS FAR LEFT RADICAL REGRESSIVE SOCIALIST LIBERAL DEMOCRAT ECONOMIC POLICY. SO UNDER THE DEMOCRATS WE DONT HAVE AN ECONOMY WE HAVE GOVT SLAVERY." - Google+, 2014-12-03