A Conservative Case for Voting Democratic

God, I love that title. From Fortune.com courtesy of my old pal, Matt:

Republicans have long claimed to be fiscal tightwads and railed against deficit spending. But this year big-spending George W. Bush and the GOP Congress turned a budget surplus into a $477 billion deficit. There are few programs at which they have not thrown money: massive farm subsidies, an expensive new Medicare drug benefit, thousands of pork-barrel projects, dubious homeland-security grants, expansion of Bill Clinton's AmeriCorps, even new foreign-aid programs. Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation reports that in 2003 "government spending exceeded $20,000 per household for the first time since World War II."

Complaints about Republican profligacy have led the White House to promise to mend its ways. But Bush's latest budget combines accounting flim-flam with unenforceable promises. So how do we put Uncle Sam on a sounder fiscal basis?

Vote Democratic.

Democrats obviously are no pikers when it comes to spending. But the biggest impetus for higher spending is partisan uniformity, not partisan identity. Give either party complete control of government, and the Treasury vaults are quickly emptied. Neither Congress nor the President wants to tell the other no. Both are desperate to prove they can "govern"—which means creating new programs and spending more money. But share power between parties, and out of principle or malice they check each other. Even if a President Kerry proposed more spending than would a President Bush, a GOP Congress would appropriate less. That's one reason the Founders believed in the separation of powers.

Wow.

Clearly, this is yet more evidence that Bush's administration is so awful, so out of control, that even conservatives want him out. Sure, the essay comes up with a nice argument based on history and sound reasoning, but it's still fascinating that the column's writer, Doug Bandow, a former visiting fellow at the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, is calling for the election of a Democrat.

On the other hand, it may only be validating my firmly held belief that there's really not much difference between Republicans and Democrats: one is the corporate pro-life party; the other is the corporate pro-choice party. Bandow must be feeling nostalgic for the man who Michael Moore has called "the best Republican president we've ever had," Bill Clinton.

Actually, this essay just makes my voting for Kerry all the more depressing.

Click here.

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