# Which party is more fiscally conservative, Republicans or Democrats?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-party-is-more-fiscally-conservative-republicans-or-democrats/235417>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 20, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-party-is-more-fiscally-conservative-republicans-or-democrats/235417 "2004-03-20T17:18:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-party-is-more-fiscally-conservative-republicans-or-democrats/235417/21 "2004-03-21T23:34:08Z")

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By the way, **Sam** , just for reference, national defense alone is ~4% of the GDP and I seem to recall you blasting candidates who had the gall to vote for any of various cuts in programs for that.

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**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2004, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-party-is-more-fiscally-conservative-republicans-or-democrats/235417/22 "2004-03-22T09:15:57Z")

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> [@AZCowboy](#):
>
> because I was using the term in the broader “smaller federal government” meaning than in the “opposition to significant debt”.

But by any definition of ‘smaller federal government’ that I can think of, the Democrats still win, don’t they? When Republicans talk about smaller government, it seems that they _really_ mean fewer social programs and more military spending. So the only way they would fit the bill would be if one doesn’t consider the military as part of the government.

> [@](#):
>
> But what really puzzles me is how the Republicans have continued to hold the reputation for “fiscal conservatism” (insert either definition here). If you compare and contrast the “tax and spend” Democrats with the “borrow and spend” Republicans, the “tax and spend” philosophy is much more in line with fiscal conservatism. So how can the Republican’s continue to claim the mantle of fiscal conservatism, yet still paint Democrats with the derogatory slur of “tax and spend”?

It puzzles me, too. It’s obviously not true.

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