"Democrats are the new conservatives." ... better 25% on cutting deficits, 16% on controlling spending, 15% on economy, 9% on taxes, 3% on trade.

GOP Is Losing Grip On Core Business Vote | Deficit Hawks Defect As Social Issues Prevail; | 'The Party Left Me' | By JACKIE CALMES | October 2, 2007; Page A1
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... The votes of many disgruntled fiscal conservatives and other lapsed Republicans are now up for grabs, which could alter U.S. politics in the 2008 elections and beyond.

Some business leaders are drifting away from the party because of the war in Iraq, the growing federal debt and a conservative social agenda they don't share. In manufacturing sectors such as the auto industry, some Republicans want direct government help with soaring health-care costs, which Republicans in Washington have been reluctant to provide. And some business people want more government action on global warming, arguing that a bolder plan is not only inevitable, but could spur new industries.

Already, economic conservatives who favor balanced federal budgets have become a much smaller part of the party's base. That's partly because other groups, especially social conservatives, have grown more dominant. But it's also the result of defections by other fiscal conservatives angered by the growth of government spending during the six years that Republicans controlled both the White House and Congress.

... In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he [Alan Greenspan] said: "The Republican Party, which ruled the House, the Senate and the presidency, I no longer recognize."
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This year, the culturally conservative wing was roughly the same size, but economic conservatives accounted for just one in six Republicans. ...
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As for fiscal policy, Mr. Cooper contends that "Democrats are the new conservatives." Republicans "are still talking about tax cuts. It was one thing when Ronald Reagan was doing it and the top [income-tax] rate was about 80%. Now tax rates are reasonable. So what if I have to pay 5% more in taxes?"
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Yet the benefits to Democrats were evident in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll last July. When Americans were asked which party could better deal with national problems, they gave Democrats an edge of 25 percentage points over Republicans on cutting deficits, 16 points on controlling federal spending, 15 points on dealing with the economy, 9 points on taxes and 3 points on trade. "We have lost our measurable advantage on fiscal conservatism, and we have quite some ways to go to get that back," says Terry Nelson, Mr. Bush's national political director in 2004. ...