Richardcyoung.com

  • Home
  • Debbie Young
  • Jimmy Buffett
  • Key West
  • Your Survival Guy
  • How We Are Different
  • Paris
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • The Swiss Way
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • Dick Young
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool
  • Anti-Gun Control
  • Anti-Digital Currency
  • Joel Salatin & Alfie Oakes
  • World Gold Mine Production
  • Fidelity & Wellington Since 1971
  • Hillsdale College
  • Babson College
  • Contact Us

Fiscal Restraint and GOP Candidates

January 27, 2016 By Debbie Young

Originally posted February 11, 2015.

Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner writes, “With our national debt now passing the $18 trillion mark, and rising at the rate of $40 to $50 billion per month, it is worth taking a look at where the putative Republican presidential candidates stand on the question.”

From Jeb Bush to Rick Perry, Mr. Tanner lists the potential candidates and explains the clues and hints each has given as to where the national debt stands in their priorities and what they might do about it. Read more here.

Here is a sample:

Jeb Bush: Bush is a prime example of a candidate who has not yet put together specific budget and debt proposals.So far, he has been vague, but generally said the right things, arguing that our current entitlement programs are “unsustainable.” Among the changes he suggests are “raising the retirement age to reflect the life-expectancy increase that’s been dramatic, means-testing some of the entitlement programs over time. We have to reform health care underneath the entitlement system as well, so that the cost curve is dealt with, which means we should move toward catastrophic coverage as the form of insurance.” On the other hand, he has suggested that he would be open to tax hikes in exchange for spending cuts. “If you could bring to me a majority of people to say that we’re going to have $10 in spending cuts for $1 of revenue enhancement — put me in, coach,” Bush told the House Budget Committee in 2012. However, Bush’s tenure as governor raised some concerns. Although he generally earned A’s and B’s on Cato’s fiscal scorecard for governors, he had fallen to a C by the end of his second term. Chris Edwards, Cato’s fiscal analyst, has noted that “Jeb Bush was a prolific tax cutter, but he let spending rise quickly toward the end of his tenure. . . . Jeb was good on taxes, but apparently not so good on spending.”

Rand Paul: Although Paul has attracted more publicity about his libertarian positions on civil liberties and foreign policy, he has actually been among the Senate’s biggest deficit hawks, warning, “I truly believe that the number-one threat to our national security is our debt.” He opposed the Ryan budget, claiming it did not go far enough. Instead, he introduced his own budget proposal, which would have balanced in just five years, and which entailed massive spending cuts. That budget illustrated both the promise and the perils of a Paul candidacy. It was a true fiscally conservative road map toward less spending and smaller government, perhaps the most aggressive such proposal in decades, but it attracted just 18 votes in the Senate. Paul backs a premium-support plan for Medicare and the block-granting of Medicaid to the states. Surprisingly, however, he has not backed personal accounts for Social Security, calling instead for more traditional benefit reductions such as means testing and raising the retirement age.

Related video:

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • GOP Plays Fiscal Wargames
  • Imperfect Candidates
  • Most GOP Candidates: “Brave New Interventions and Wars”
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Debbie Young
Debbie Young
Debbie, our chief political writer of Richardcyoung.com, is also our chief domestic affairs writer, a contributing writer on Eastern Europe and Paris and Burgundy, France. She has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over five decades. Debbie lives in Key West, Florida, and Newport, Rhode Island, and travels extensively in Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, driving through Vermont and Maine, and practicing yoga. Debbie has completed the 200-hour Krama Yoga teacher training program taught by Master Instructor Ruslan Kleytman. Debbie is a strong supporting member of the NRA.
Debbie Young
Latest posts by Debbie Young (see all)
  • What Makes America Great - July 8, 2025
  • “People Will Die” - July 7, 2025
  • Sending Capitalists to the Gulag - July 3, 2025

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • You’re Ready to “Make It a Good Month”
  • Paris, The Palace Hotels: Part I
  • When Is the Best Time for You to Do This?
  • What Would Kennan Say about Ukraine/Russia?
  • When the Black Swan Swoops In for You
  • ACTRESS: “Liberal Politicians Are Ruining Cities”
  • Your Cash Swept into Your Broker’s Bank Account!
  • The Butterfly Effect and Chaotic Markets
  • WAR HAS BEGUN: What Advice Are You Giving Your Loved Ones?
  • Your Survival Guy: “Life on Main Street Hasn’t Been This Hard in a While”

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Your Survival Guy: “You Wouldn’t Have Liked It”
  • DOE Unveils Plan to Quadruple U.S. Nuclear Power by 2050
  • How China Weaponized Rare Earths to Shift U.S. Trade Policy
  • Trump Administration Moves to Curb Foreign Ownership of U.S. Farmland
  • We Finally Got on the Boat
  • Trump Flexes Tariff Power Ahead of August 1 Deadline
  • America Remained a Net Energy Exporter as Domestic Output Soars
  • Copper Prices Surge as Global Supplies Tighten
  • Happy Independence Day!
  • Survival Guy: An All-Weather Balanced Portfolio

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • Your Survival Guy: “You Wouldn’t Have Liked It”
  • ESG Doesn’t Stand Up to Scrutiny
  • How to Dock a Boat with Helm Master EX
  • We Finally Got on the Boat
  • The Big Beautiful Bill: Good, Bad, and Ugly
  • WARNING: Your Survival Guy and Gal in the Fog
  • Happy Independence Day!
  • Survival Guy: An All-Weather Balanced Portfolio
  • A Bazooka Fired at Private Equity
  • NYC, Crypto, ESG, the Haves and the Have-Yachts

US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

My Key West Garden Office

Your Retirement Life: Traveling the Efficient Frontier

Live a Long Life

Your Survival Guy’s Mt. Rushmore of Investing Legends

“Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”

Copyright © 2025 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives