That is a question that I never, ever want to hear asked of a democrat. I don’t want to hear a reporter ask it, I don’t want to hear a democratic primary opponent ask it, and I don’t want to hear a democratic voter ask it.
This question stopped being asked of republicans decades ago, when Reagan started the practice of not giving a shit about how to pay for things. Every republican president and congress since Reagan has had no shits to give about how they’re going to pay for tax cuts or their beloved rampant military toy spending.
I’m tired of democrats being held to that standard, and I don’t want to hear it anymore. I’m particularly perplexed by democratic voters who ask this question. Please stop. You’re helping to perpetuate the double standard by accepting it.
The only acceptable answer to this question is, “I’m going to pay for it by employing every fiscally conservative practice that republicans have employed for the past 40 years.” Full stop.
Democrats have put themselves in this ridiculous position of lowering republican deficits while they’re in office, thereby rendering themselves incapable of executing on their own stated agendas. And in return, the public and media has continued to label republicans as the party of fiscal responsibility.
Part of this is by design, since democrats are funded by the same corporations and billionaires that republicans are funded by so the money is always going to flow to them.
But why is the democratic electorate going along with this? Have you not been paying attention to history? Once a sweeping universal social program like Medicare is enacted, dismantling it becomes nearly impossible because the people won’t stand for it. So let’s stop trying to set up road blocks to making things like child care, free college, Medicare For All, and paid family leave happen.
Our freaking treasury is going to be emptied out in perpetuity no matter who we elect, so let’s empty it out onto the working class instead of the billionaire class.
And for fuck’s sake, please stop helping republicans by referring to those things as “free stuff”. Pooling taxpayer money to provide essential services is the most efficient and cost effective way to provide those things. Far more efficient than subsidizing private industry. This is true all over the world, so stop with the ill-informed talking point designed to fuck you out of your money so that it can get sent to Blue Cross to provide you with health care. Stop it!
This is a ridiculous cycle that we need to break once and for all.
