Fiscal Conservatism Is A Political

Fiscal Conservatism is a political-economic ideology that promotes low taxes and reduced
government spending. This ideology is a continuation of classical liberalism because apart for
advocating for lower taxes it also called for for deregulations, privatization and free trade. According
to the source Reagan suggested that the U.S problem was the inadequacy of taxation but the
overspending of the government. In other words, the government economy can effectively improve
if it cuts its spending rather than taxing the citizens more. Overall, the decision to determine the
extent to which the fiscal conservatism ideology should be adopted depends with economic
situation of a country.
Based on the source, it was prudent for Americans to go adopt fiscal conservatism because the
country was going through a rough patch of recession and stagflation between 1981-1982. The
appropriate solutions to these problems were to reduce both income taxes and capital gain taxes
and reduce government spending. President Reagan fronted these solutions because he believed
that the problem of stagflation and recession did not emanate from low taxation but rather the
increasing government spending. The idea was to increase the growth of the economy by increasing
individual’s disposable income to encourage saving and investment and reducing government
expenditure to reduce money supply and curb inflation. Even though each of these policy objectives
were delivered, still they did not materialize to the expectations of the government and the citizens.
Despite being a brilliant ideology, fiscal policy never materialized hence forcing a
need to revise it to correct the inefficiencies in the policies. One of the notable problems was
that Reagan’s tax cut was too huge and failed to pay for itself. As a result, they ended up
cutting the spending more to minimize the deficit. As projections revealed that the deficits
could worsen, Reagan retracted and increase the taxes to avoid blowing up the deficits. The
ideology may not work today as it worked in the 1980s because the economics patterns have
changed. For example, tax cuts would be impractical today since the economy is growing
rapidly. Thus, the tax should match the economy growth and low taxes will decrease
government’s revenue instead. On the other hand, cutting taxes only increase government
revenue up to a point and once the taxes drop too low, revenue will start declining. This
illustrates that governments can only embrace an ideology based on its efficiency.
Today, fiscal conservatism has become inappropriate because governments and

citizens no longer care about debts, deficits and the rate of government spending
at all. Application of fiscal conservatism has posited long-term consequences to
an extent of jeopardizing Americans’ collective liberty. The recent shift in
Americans’ political priorities away from tightened conservatism principles has
rendered fiscal conservatism redundant as many Americans view financial
disciplines and restraints as unrealistic and unnecessary. For example, tax cuts
and stimulus are perceived as the same thing even if they emanate from different
ideologies. Additional, still there are some conversations about reducing
government spending but no one believes is sacred of the national debt level.
However, but debt and poor financial decisions always
have tragic consequences in an economy.
In conclusion, the degree of embracing fiscal conservatism as an ideology depends

on the economic circumstances, its efficiency and changes in the political and
economic patterns. A society will hold on to an ideology up to an extend where it
ceases to deliver its objectives. An ideology adopted during recession would not
be the one applicable during economic boom. As for the case of fiscal
conservatism, President Reagan had to reverse his tax cuts policy once it became
ineffective to prevent blowing up the deficits. This explains why governments
have been changing ideologies over time to match with the dynamism of modern
world politics and economic situations.

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Fiscal Conservatism is a political-economic ideology that promotes low taxes and reduced

Today, fiscal conservatism has become inappropriate because governments and

In conclusion, the degree of embracing fiscal conservatism as an ideology depends

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