This is A Strategy For Fiscal Conservatives written in Canada but applicable just about anywhere. Let me start with the first two of six and you will get the idea.

#1. Never cut anything

Conservative parties take a lot of grief for being cold-hearted because they have the audacity to attempt a scaleback of government largesse. Too often the media jumps on every small spending cut with all the alarm of a nuclear war breaking out. Even when Harper tried to scale back the rate of increase to healthcare funding, it was played out like a massive cut to services.

This also instills fear among anyone working in a job associated with government funded departments. Riling up the union-class crowd isn’t worth the political capital. As Ryan Rados mentioned in his recent article, slowly cutting and threatening the CBC only leads to more aggressive bias. Why incite it?

By never cutting anything you aren’t putting yourself in the awful position of trying to explain to voters why you’re cutting what you’re cutting. The go-to-phrase with never cutting anything is, ”We haven’t cut anything!” All the leftist hyperbole is destroyed when you can honestly make a statement like that.

#2. Freeze things you actually want to cut

Inflation is your friend. If you want to make cuts, just make freezes instead. Then you can honestly say, “We haven’t cut anything!” and your critics will have to explain inflation to a population that will instantly get bored with trying to understand inflation.

A budget freeze amounts to a 1-2% cut every year that the freeze is in effect. Relatively painless and slowly, but surely, effective.

(Added bonus? Standing in front of a microphone saying, “We haven’t made cuts to anything!”)

You don’t have to do it in a single year. And my own addition is to hack into spending throughout the public service where no one votes conservative and no one else will mind.

From Small Dead Animals.