The central tenet of Republican fiscal policy is to cut taxes and starve the beast to reduce government spending, putting more money into peoples pockets. This is a policy that I guarantee will never work but will continue to earn Republicans votes.

If you want to reduce consumption of a good you raise the price, conversely if you want to increase the consumption of a good you lower the price. Cutting taxes will always encourage people to demand more government services than they would have at the lower price. Lower taxes = increase demand for government services.

No one likes paying taxes so if you lower peoples taxes you get votes. People like consuming government services so the more you provide at a lower price the more votes you get. The Republicans get a two for one in electoral benefit when they lower taxes. The deficit doesn't get any lower but who cares, it's all about the votes.

Increasing taxes in an effort to balance the budget and lower demand for government services would have a greater impact on Republicans than it would Democrats. "Red States" receive significantly more in return for their tax dollars on average than "Blue States" do. Raise taxes, watch demand for government services go down nationally and watch red states, who have a better seat at the trough, suffer significantly more pain.

It would also hurt the precious defense budget and farm subsidies which are calculated into the increased benefits that red states get from the government on average but are the kind of issues that would give Republicans a swift kick in the balls.

There are lots of very smart Republicans who I think are very aware of this dynamic (at least I hope so). It's central to the idea that price should be established by markets, which Republicans pretend to care about. It's a vile way to manipulate voters but that's what you get in a corrupt system.

I can't give the Democrats a pass in any way. If the Democrats have a coherent fiscal policy let me know because I haven't noticed it yet.

We could talk about many other problems with Republican policy that are bat shit crazy and ill informed but I think the one I listed above is the central lie to their guiding ethos. I've not yet met a republican who doesn't think that I'm an idiot and tells me that I don't understand how markets really work but oh well, I still think that the most essential function of the market is to establish a price at which goods can be exchanged and that the less that price is obfuscated and manipulated the closer we will get to a desired level of consumption. I think there are loads of ways the government could direct it's money to stimulate the economy and encourage the public welfare and happiness but I don't think there is much risk of many of them happening.