Conservative Principles Can Help Save the Economy

Written by Campaign News on August 09, 2010, 11:49 AM

Republican governors Mitch Daniels and Chris Christie are demonstrating that a firm fiscal hand coupled with pro-growth policies can go a long way toward bringing sanity back to state budgets. In a very short period of time, Christie has rescued New Jersey from the brink of insolvency by cutting billions of dollars in unnecessary spending. Mitch Daniels has managed Indiana to an $830 million budget surplus this past year after being handed the keys to a bankrupt state only five plus years ago. There was no magic involved. Daniels simply cut wasteful spending and put in place a climate that has made Indiana an extremely attractive place for businesses to deploy capital and create jobs. To quote Governor Daniels on his spending cuts, “You’d really be amazed at how much government you’d never miss.”

Compare and contrast their performances with that of Jason Altmire and his Democrat colleagues. Their votes for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and a slew of other spending indicatives, are symptomatic of the discredited Liberal, Big Government belief that government can spend the country out of a recession. History has shown over and over again that economies are reignited by allowing people to take home more of their hard-earned money, and by incenting entrepreneurs and those who control capital to invest in business creation and expansion. Kennedy and Reagan did so and ushered in eras of great optimism, vitality, and growth; whereas Carter plunged the country into a deep malaise by layering on scores of unnecessary regulations and dramatically expanding government (e.g. he created the Departments of Education and Energy). As a result, his policies triggered the steepest economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Altmire and the Democrats are following the Carter playbook and then some, to the country’s great detriment. Let’s put an end to their havoc this November.