Mary Burke, the Democratic candidate trying to unseat Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, has described herself as a fiscal conservative. Asked in an interview with Real Clear Politics to elucidate what she means by that, “Burke did not back off of that characterization,” explaining that “I don’t think we should spend a dollar, unless a dollar needs to be spent.”
Wow! And who says no Democrats these days has the courage to stand athwart their party’s orthodoxy?
Nevertheless, Burke’s defiant proclamation of her own fiscal conservatism, however idiosyncratic her definition of the concept alien to most Democrats may be, is quite interesting. It confirms the view held by the rest of us that Democrats (and Republicans) who are not fiscal conservatives believe in spending dollars that don’t need to be spent. And it also reveals that, as a practical matter, there is absolutely no difference between a self-described Democratic “fiscal conservative” and more conventional Democrats, since even they never admit to spending a dollar (or several trillion dollars) “unless a dollar needs to be spent.”
