Today’s policymakers from both political parties can learn from the lessons on budget and tax policy from President Calvin Coolidge. Perhaps one of the most urgent domestic policy problems today is the federal budget and the enormous national debt that is approaching $18 trillion, and this does not include the trillions in unfunded entitlement obligations of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. President Coolidge understood, what he termed “economy in government” was essential not just for a sound economy, but was a moral and constitutional responsibility. During the 1920s President Warren G. Harding and President Coolidge made “economy in government” a centerpiece of their administrations. Economy in government meant a balanced budget, tax rates that were low and reasonable, and paying down the national debt.

The Grand Old Party (GOP) has changed tremendously since its founding in the mid-19th century in Ripon, Wisconsin. There are few issues on which the GOP has evolved more than trade policy. Today a solid majority of Republicans are supporters of free trade. This was not the case for most of the GOP’s history. In fact the principle of protectionism was a sacred pillar of the Republican Party. This philosophy was carried over from the Federalist and Whig economic programs of Alexander Hamilton and Henry Clay. Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican elected president, championed a protective tariff. A tariff was used both for revenues and to protect the American economy from Europe.