Well said

It's not often that I'll see fit to quote Ross Douthat - and there's plenty not to like about his preferred outcome when it comes to the options available to governments in handling their budgets. But his column today is right on target with his critique of Republican money mismanagement - and the point applies equally well at home if one substitutes "Conservative" for "Republican":

Officially, the Republican Party stands for low taxes and limited government. But save during the gridlocked 1990s, Republican majorities and Republican presidents have tended to pass tax cuts while putting off spending cuts till a tomorrow that never comes.

Conservatives have justified this failure with two incompatible theories. One is the “starve the beast” conceit, which holds that cutting taxes will force government spending downward. The other is the happy idea that tax cuts actually increase government revenue, making deficit anxieties irrelevant.

The real world hasn’t been kind to either notion.