In the 1950s and 1960s, federal deficits were relatively small compared to the size of the economy, but even during those flush years, Republican leadership was reluctant to advocate tax cuts. In 1953, for example, Dwight Eisenhower said the country "cannot afford to reduce taxes, reduce income, until we have in sight a program of expenditures that shows that the factors of income and of outgo will be balanced." And when his successor, John F. Kennedy, proposed sharp tax cuts in 1963, the more conservative Republicans in Congress initially opposed them because the cuts would expand the deficit.
--Catherine Rampell
The conservative movement and the Republican Party is so driven now by hidebound orthodoxies that it’s by and large unwelcoming to innovative thinking and creative challenge. This is unconservative, if conservatism is understood as the opposite of ideology...
--Dreher
Finally, for more on this topic, read this opinion piece by David Frum, a former George W. advisor who is repentant about his party bears most of the responsibility for driving this country in the ditch. To be fair, the Democrats had their nadir in the 1970's when it nominated the then extreme George McGovern for President, and went off to the far left. This is a center-center country!
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