tax-and-spend, n. and a. Polit. (orig. U.S.).
Brit. /ˌtaks(ə)n(d)ˈspɛnd/, U.S. /ˈtæksənˈspɛn(d)/
[‹ to tax and spend at tax v. Additions]
A. n. A policy, usually associated with the political left, of increasing taxes (esp. income tax) in order to fund an increase in government spending, esp. public spending.
| 1956 N. A. Graebner New Isolationism iv. 94 He [sc. Eisenhower]..was committed to what they [sc. the Taftites] termed the discredited foreign policy of ‘tax and spend’. 1975 N.Y. Times 6 Sept. 18/3 Not for nothing do these anachronistic defenders of tax-and-spend, spend-and-tax embrace the jackass as their symbol. 1983 Listener 6 Jan. 4/3 When you have divided the world with Stalin and Roosevelt..it must be hard to settle to the trivia of tax-and-spend. 1998 Prospect Mar. 44/1 There were two critical issues on which we had to transform ourselves—tax-and-spend and macroeconomic stability. |
B. adj. Designating, relating to, or advocating a policy of tax-and-spend.
| 1960W. E. Stone in A. G. Heinsohn Anthol. Conservative Writing in U.S. (1962) xiv. 362 Here is powerful evidence that people get results when they go to work to get action on the ‘Proposed 23rd Amendment’ designed to solve our tax-and-spend problems of government. 1985 W. D. Snider Helms & Hunt Prol. 3 Others viewed him as an unbending right-wing warrior battling the ‘tax and spend’ liberals. 1992 Economist 9 May 58/1 The Democrats' favourite draft is one by Senator Paul Simon (as tax-and-spend a liberal as they come). He would require the government to match revenues with spending. 1998 N.Y. Times 18 Jan. i. 9/1 The goal of the strategy was not to upset the large number of voters in the center who associated Labor objectives with tax-and-spend policies. |
Derivatives. tax-and-spender n. an advocate or practitioner of a policy of tax-and-spend.
| 1984 Arkansas Democrat-Gaz. (Nexis) 4 Dec. He told reporters he thought the [Democrat] Party was getting a bum rap from Republicans. ‘They like to talk about us as *tax-and-spenders. We haven't been that way in the last eight years.’ 1994 Wall St. Jrnl. 13 May a10/3 Mr. Andrews's predecessor in his southern New Jersey district was Jim Florio, a tax-and-spender from central casting. But Mr. Andrews..voted for Penny-Kasich spending cuts. |