The Republican Party has made what it calls the tax-and-spend policies of the Democratic Party a call to arms for more than 30 years. The battle cry for conservatives and their Tea Party compatriots is that the Democratic liberal wing has failed to solve problems from economic stagnation to lifting people out of poverty. In their thinking, imposing big government with its bureaucracy and corresponding big spending has been a monumental failure. Whoever survives the Republican primaries and becomes the standard bearer to run for president will paint a grim economic picture of this country should a "free spending" Democrat win the presidency. Save one, the Republicans have yet to win the White House on a platform of cutting taxes and cutting spending. And these self-contradictory planks have kept the Republican-led Congress from governing since 2010.
Ronald Reagan, who bucked the trend by running on an economically conservative agenda and won, found talking the talk was far easier than walking the walk of fiscal austerity. (President Reagan raised taxes 11 times and saw the national debt rise from $700 billion dollars to three trillion.)
In our political paradigm the words "budget deficit" and "national debt" have oftentimes taken center stage. On one level this is quite understandable as many of us are taught early to live within our means and when the government doesn't it appears to be irresponsible.