Pundits, politicians, and the media are regularly fixated on whether Americans identify themselves as liberals, conservatives, Democrat, Independent, or Republican. What these ideologues fail to acknowledge and understand is that a very large segment (and growing) of the American public no longer trusts any political party to represent their interests and spend their tax dollars wisely. Everyday working people are rising up and standing against the fraud, mismanagement, and abuse in federal government spending that has been steadily fueled by the influence and corruption of politics and special interest lobbying. The resurgence of fiscal conservatism has everything to do with regular folks wanting to protect their pocketbooks and their investment in the present and future of this great country. People are sick and tired of being sick and tired about the fiscal irresponsibility and lackadaisical ways of elected officials and Washington politics, where the only concern is the next election cycle. The taxpaying public is working harder and paying more taxes, while their take home pay and discretionary funds continue to dwindle. We all want to know when will all of this end and where is the justice and fairness in our nation’s public policies. Americans have always supported fair and reasonable government intervention, but what’s going on in Washington right now is simply beyond comprehension and imagination. The anger and distrust being felt and expressed by people everywhere is leading to a wave of fiscal conservatism not seen in years, and it has nothing to do with any political party affiliation.

Americans are a generous and sensible body politic. We believe in and hope for a federal government that is effective, fair, honest, accountable, and right-sized. Across the political spectrum, most of our citizenry support public spending that leads to a strong and highly trained national defense apparatus as well as the provision of public programs that ensure a safety net for the most vulnerable members of our communities. There is indeed a general consensus across the nation that our federal government should legislate and implement policies that help our citizens, organizations, industries, and sectors learn, operate, and achieve domestically and globally. We expect our government to invest and spend in ways that enable us to produce, serve, and advocate on behalf of our customers, constituents, and target markets. What we don’t expect (and will not fund) is a federal bureaucracy that attempts to perform services and functions that are beyond the domain of government, and should be left to the private sector, communities of faith, foundations, professions, industries, and various other nongovernmental entities. Our government can be an effective partner or liaison in a number of areas, but its mandate is not to interfere in or be the provider of goods and services in every sphere of our lives. People know for sure that they want more control over their own hard earned dollars and don’t want to subsidize a bloated and ineffective federal bureaucracy. People don’t trust irresponsible, lazy, and corrupt politicians who don’t even read the volumes of pages included in a legislative proposal, but vote on the bills anyway, and pass legislation that promises to claim more of our earnings as income taxes. We all deserve a government that represents our mainstream needs and interests, not those paid for by special interests and political favorites. The resurgence of fiscal conservatism across this nation will ensure that the voices and concerns of everyday people will be heard and applied in the public policy agendas of this nation and its states.