Now is our chance

As new candidates begin to pop up for our districts, I'm very thankful that I just might be voting for someone who's closer to my position than the same old" fiscal conservative" nonsense, I've been hearing for many years. We have finally have some grass root Democrats running, but they need some vetting, so if they say they are fiscal conservatives, you know they're just Republicans in sheep's clothing.

There is a time for fiscal conservatism, but it's not an economic principle conducive to growing our city and state or nation. The time for fiscal conservatism is during boom times, making sure we put some aside for the rainy days, that is sure to come. Fiscal conservatives will cut property taxes in a New York minute because their anti-government and survival of the fittest mindset is just a justification for selflessness. They have the luxury of being against government because the Federal highway system is in place, their kids are in private school, and the public libraries and other services have been paid for. No, we need government but the argument should always be how big and how much, and we shouldn't settle for one just answer, as being a truth certain.

You need to watch out for the anti-government fiscal conservatives because they will only present one side of the ledger. You need to ask those candidates what we got in return for those taxes because fiscal conservatives are just worried about their home-improvement project and not about a "bike and walk trail" that will benefit local citizens. It's always about their checkbook because they think they are the only ones paying taxes. I may not be interested in the arts, but I certainly don't mind if our city allocates a small portion of taxpayer money for those projects because we're all taxpayers. Like any other profit and loss statement, a loss this year doesn't necessarily mean higher taxes in the next year because projects will be paid off, new revenues might be coming and whatnot. As I've said before, fiscal conservatives cannot see beyond a spreadsheet in front of them.

I saw where Jared stated that every dollar that goes to the government does not go to the market. That's a simplistic statement to create a “us vs. them" environment. For the past 30 years, a lot of those dollars went to the top 1%, offshore accounts and surely did not create a trickle-down effect. You cannot find an equilibrium if the ideas come from a single source. You do know that every dollar that goes into a savings account does not go into consumption, keeping inventories on the self and prevents companies from hiring.

It the same way with government jobs, and the solution is not privatizing everything because that's the key ingredient for crony capitalism or worse plutocracy. In the last three years the biggest job cuts have come in the public sector, so now those people are not consuming and are on the public dole. About the only thing conservatives and liberals agree on, is infrastructure repair. The ideologues within the Republican Party of today won’t even allow that. The very idea that every person that goes into government, takes that person out of the free market is ludicrous. Some companies are choosing not to hire but instead making employees do more for less and a lot of government employees get their expertise from the government and then acquire lucrative contracts in the private sector.
The government can create the environment for jobs such as funding NASA and reaping the rewards of discovery, infrastructure projects, grants to entrepreneurs, trade talks, and monitoring unsafe practices and legislating tax reform. The United States of America will never adopt a laissez-faire economy, and so as Bill Clinton famously said, “We can only fix what is bad with America with what is good with America."

In closing remember liberals, Democrats, left-of-center of center voters, and moderates, we have our chance for an alternative, but as they say in politics "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." Focus, look what the GOP fiscal conservative governors did in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio; they went after the unions, they cut taxes and public services but gave lucrative tax breaks to corporations. Be fair, check those states out and see how they compare to the rest of the nation. They won't stop there; check those states that overreached on the social issues. A voice is a wonderful thing to have but many times it starts with baby steps like local elections. I'm guilty of being apathetic, but if we get some different candidates, I'll definitely get off my butt. I have no intentions for voting anyone in my precinct’s City Council race because it’s between two "flip of the coin" fiscal conservatives.