If Cruz is the nominee, he would be the most fiscally conservative nominee since

[Saint Milei]

Goldwater I believe. Reagan didn't have the follow through so he is immediately disqualified.

[Lyin' Steve]

Cruz won't have the follow-through either.  You can't dramatically cut taxes, fight ISIS, and balance the budget at the same time.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Cruz would be most conservative since Calvin Coolidge

[Orser67]

Relative to their respective time periods, I would say Goldwater. Goldwater campaigned on an extreme small government platform at a time when "big government" wasn't a dirty word for most people. The year after Goldwater campaigned on making Social Security voluntary, Medicare and Medicaid were enacted. By contrast, Cruz's fiscal policies aren't all that different from the apparently mainstream proposals of Paul Ryan.

[Wisconsin+17]

Cruz is probably the most conservative candidate (fiscal and social), since Coolidge. But I don't see much daylight between him, Reagan and Dubya.

Goldwater wasn't all that conservative.

[Torie]

If he gets the nomination, Cruz strikes me as the most inflexible hard right nominee ever.  That is just the way that he is wired. And he seems to be invigorated by conflict, playing the tractor game (two guys in tractors drive towards each other at top speed, and the guy who veers away from the potentially deadly crash first loses), and pushing things to crisis to get his way. He has this Manichean zero sum game mentality that I find most disturbing. I like compromisers and leaders who try to give the other side something when possible in the spirit of comity. Maybe I am just getting to be a patsy in my old age. Maybe it is Hudson, where we have such conflicts, that I find unnecessary, stupid and counterproductive, that I am working rather hard at trying to mitigate these days.

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

I always thought this was a good summary (even though Reich talks more about social issues than fiscal):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W5e7AwqksU

[100% pro-life no matter what]

He would be the most conservative candidate and President ever

[Phony Moderate]

Cruz isn't a conservative, he's a reactionary. The most conservative candidate in this race is Kasich.

[Famous Mortimer]

Have you not figured this out? Republicans only care about cutting taxes. They don't actually care about balancing the budget, balancing the budget is just an excuse to cut taxes.

[EliteLX]

Cruz isn't a conservative, he's a reactionary. The most conservative candidate in this race is Kasich.

^ It's just fire and brimstone economic chatter, not real applied conservative solution.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Cruz would be most conservative since Calvin Coolidge

This

[Arthur]

There's no way he gets half the stuff he wants done through Congress short of a Senate with 100 Republicans.

[136or142]

Based on his willingness to shutdown government to try and get spending reduced (although it may just have been a stunt) I'd say he could be the most genuinely concerned about balancing the budget since Bill Clinton.  Of course, as has been written above, it's easy for him to promise to increase spending on the military, 'take the fight to ISIL' and cut taxes at the same time as balancing the budget since he doesn't actually have to do those things yet.

[Coolface Sock #42069]

Based on his willingness to shutdown government to try and get spending reduced (although it may just have been a stunt) I'd say he could be the most genuinely concerned about balancing the budget since Bill Clinton.  Of course, as has been written above, it's easy for him to promise to increase spending on the military, 'take the fight to ISIL' and cut taxes at the same time as balancing the budget since he doesn't actually have to do those things yet.

I think it's interesting that Republicans only seem to care about excessive spending when there is a Democrat in the White House.

[136or142]

Based on his willingness to shutdown government to try and get spending reduced (although it may just have been a stunt) I'd say he could be the most genuinely concerned about balancing the budget since Bill Clinton.  Of course, as has been written above, it's easy for him to promise to increase spending on the military, 'take the fight to ISIL' and cut taxes at the same time as balancing the budget since he doesn't actually have to do those things yet.

I think it's interesting that Republicans only seem to care about excessive spending when there is a Democrat in the White House.

At the state level there have been some Republican governors who have genuinely taken a meat cleaver to government spending. The popularity ratings of these governors suggests that many voters like talk of 'cutting spending' in the abstract but don't like it if it's actually done.  

Here in Canada, we seem to have the opposite.  Many politicians fear mentioning large spending cuts on the campaign trail, but frequently do it in government.  The public response seems to be one of more or less genuine reluctant acceptance of most spending cuts, though some specific program cuts or complete program eliminations can remain unpopular for many years after the government is no longer in power.  This likely is nothing more than a factor that total government program spending is somewhat higher in Canada than in the United States, especially if military spending is not counted, so there is more program spending in Canada that can be cut without cutting what many voters would consider to be 'the bone.'

[PeteB]

I find it hard to accept Cruz as a fiscal conservative.  To me, the first premise of a fiscal conservative is to balance the budget and ensure stable conditions for steady economic growth,  and I can't see Cruz doing that with his tax cuts, abolishing the IRS, increasing military spending, etc.  He would be forced to drastically cut many programs to even try balancing the budget, probably fail at that, and that would cause such upheaval that the "Reactionary" label someone mentioned is closer to the truth.  And I am not even getting into the issue of his general inexperience for POTUS - he is a smart man but a little bit of a Republican Barrack Obama in that respect.

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

Have you not figured this out? Republicans only care about cutting taxes. They don't actually care about balancing the budget, balancing the budget is just an excuse to cut taxes.

There has not been a true deficit hawk Republican since... um... Ike? TR?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

>'fiscally conservative'

>kek

[OSR stands with Israel]

He would be the most conservative candidate and President ever

Calvin Coolidge