You guys are lucky in the US that you can vote Democrat and still have a fiscally conservative government.
Here in Australia if I want to vote for the socially progressive party I also have to accept a big hike in my taxes. Always.
That's pretty funny.
The myth that the Liberals are fiscally conservative is one of the best bits of political brainwashing ever. The Liberals outspend Labour just about every time they are in government.
Compare the two parties' platforms for the last election. Labor was promising to spend big on:
- Free dental
- Free childcare
- Mandating wage rises for certain workers
- blah blah blah
And to pay for this Labor would have had to:
- Raise the top tax bracket
- Repudiate the stage 2 and stage 3 tax cuts
This would have led to an earner on $200,000 a year being $11k a year worse off under Labor than Liberal. I'd say that's a big difference.
Even at state level, state Labor just hiked the stamp duty on vehicles above $150k from 5% to 9%
So it's not just about raw taxing and spending figures. It's also about how much of that taxing and spending goes straight to redistributive policies.