One thing that raises anxiety levels in most Americans--because most Americans are not multi-, multi-millionaires--is a commonly emphasized phrase used primarily by self-described "fiscal conservatives", or "pocketbook Republicans". That phrase is "tax and spend." The phrase is commonly used with the pejorative "Democrat" immediately after it, and its usage rises in direct proportion to the closeness of an election. Or so it seems. Republican candidates are not averse to pointing a mighty finger at their Democratic opponent--as if to declare the king has no clothes--and shout before a debate audience: "You are a tax and spend Democrat!" Many people with different political affiliations would agree that the tax-and-spend tag has been successful historically for Republicans precisely because, as I've said, it's a phrase that raises our anxieties about our personal, future economic well-being. It suggests, as so-called pocketbook Republicans have repeatedly claimed, hedonistic, gratuitous consumerism.
What I would like readers to consider is this: anytime you hear politicians or pundits deride "tax and spend", I want you to substitute that phrase for "cash and carry." Ask anyone, particularly elderly folks who grew up in an era when purchasing goods and services on credit was rarely if ever an option, and they will tell you that paying for something in its entirety at the point of sale is the most prudent, fiscally conservative way of managing one's life. Buying on credit--which is not really buying at all, but rather purchasing something on loan usually at a high interest rate--on the other hand typically results in future fiscal problems: there are the expenses of the moment that need to be paid for, as well as the past debts. At its least destructive, carrying debt only makes the debtor poorer (or less rich) while making the creditor wealthier and thus more powerful. We know this as individuals. If we ourselves are not stuck in a quagmire of credit card debt, chances are we probably know at least one person who is.
Those who ridicule paying at the point of sale for governmental goods and services rely on credit, or bonds. By definition a bond is a certificate of debt issued by a government (or corporation) guaranteeing payment of the original investment plus interest by a specified future date. When citizens of a country cannot afford to purchase its own country's bonds, they are purchased by other countries. The result of this is that future generations of the foreign country wind up with the interest paid to them by the bond issuing government, instead of the people of the country who issued the bonds. It's simple: your children do not get to see the money you paid as interest to credit card companies. The children whose parents own the credit card companies get that money.
So, almost always when a politician is railing against taxing and spending, they are asking you and your children to go into the governmental equivalent of massive amounts of credit card debt. Nothing could be LESS fiscally conservative (or responsible) than this. Nothing. And nothing ought to make an American taxpayer more economically jittery. Take Iraqi war expenditures for example. One recent report points to a price tag of over two trillion dollars for the United States' creation of the Iraqi Civil War. In 2004, one non-partisan, not-for-profit group showed that California ALONE would be paying $19.5 billion dollars for the Iraqi Civil War (South Carolina's cost: $1.3 billion dollars). Of course those 2004 numbers pale in comparison to more current figures. And, given President Bush's adamant stance to "stay there until we get the job done"--never minding what "the job" is and when we will know it is "done"---the United States' involvement in the Iraqi Civil War will dramatically economically weaken each and every current and future citizen of the United States. It is something to consider thinking about when you consider going to the polls in 2006 and in 2008, whether you affiliate yourself with the Republican, Democrat, or Rainbow party. Imagine receiving a credit card billing statement in the mail for $1,000,000,000,000 (that's what a trillion dollars looks like; it's equal to four million cars each costing $25K). It's enough to make you anxious about your future and the future of your children.