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@LadyDragonfly@universeodon.com2024 is an election year, so be prepared to start seeing the phrase "socially liberal, fiscally conservative" creep back into conversation.
This is your gentle reminder that this is an impossible position. You cannot be socially liberal and then refuse to pay for the socially liberal programs.
@LadyDragonfly Is "socially liberal, audit all the things to reduce fraud and waste" still an acceptable position?
Would the audits disproportionately target programs that benefit the poor and minority groups? I'm all for audits that target the people that can actually pay the penalties and shift their lifestyle as a result of program loss.
@vees @LadyDragonfly Not if you expect audits to make any major fiscal difference. Personally I believe that most governments have a lot of potential savings by reducing bureaucracy, particularly by changing badly written laws to something that is easier to administrate. But realistically it is going to take a lot of time to make all the changes. So if you want more welfare now you can't finance it with a wish for less bureaucracy, fraud mitigation or whatever.
@LadyDragonfly "Socially liberal, fiscally conservative" means "I think people should be paid poverty wages, but they're free to do what they like in their time off."
@LadyDragonfly I assumed that phrase met "I'm okay with gay marriage" but otherwise conservative.
@LadyDragonfly yes and 'murica gives way too much money to the prison and military industrial complexes.
@LadyDragonfly ...unless you TAX THE RICH !
@LadyDragonfly
It always seems like the fiscally conservative thing to do is to actually fund the socially liberal programs. Like having lower health insurance premiums by funding universal healthcare sounds fiscally conservative to me. Not having toxic chemical spills to clean up by paying for infrastructure and regulatory auditors. Etc.
@LadyDragonfly I guess all those liberal parties in Europe that call themselves liberal in the European meaning don't actually exist 
@LadyDragonfly There are at least some people who mean this not in a "I don't want to pay for it" way, but in a "I want government to reduce its deficits and be efficient and effective" way.
For those people, it isn't an impossible position at all. They just need to know that the Republican party, despite its branding, hasn't been "fiscally conservative" in this sense for more than 50 years. The BOTH "socially liberal" and "fiscally conservative" party in the US is Democrats.