Nice try, Andy

Andy Clem has decided the Republican Party can washout low-tax folks like us. He came up with this revelation upon reading this section in the party creed: "That fiscal responsibility and budgetary restraints must be exercised at all levels of government" (RPV).

Andy then waxes philosophical (emphasis in original):

Fiscal responsibility -- i.e., making sure you've got enough money to pay the bills -- does not mean cutting taxes, the fad which Scott Sayre and many on the Right espouse these days. Indeed, it could be construed as justifying tax increases when necessary.

It all sounds perfectly reasonable; doesn't it? Unfortunately for Andy, he forgot (or ignored) the other part of the creed plank: budgetary restraints. That means holding the line on spending and cutting unnecessary waste. Now, it does not include stopping the government from doing things it should not do. That is covered in the first plank of the Virginia Republican Creed: "That the free enterprise system is the most productive supplier of human needs and economic justice." In other words, the less that government does, the better.

Of course, Andy's real target in all this is our buddy Chris Green, who mistakenly believed low taxes were written by name into the platform. Chris may have had his syntax wrong, but it is abundantly clear upon reading the entire creed in context that its thrust is limited government, minimal spending, and lower taxes.

Chris didn't remember the exact words of the VRC. Andy twisted the creed to claim it says something it doesn't. I'll take the honest mistake over the intellectually dishonest half-truth any day.

Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal