Where is the politician who has not promised to fight to the death for lower taxes- and who has not proceeded to vote for the very spending projects that make tax cuts impossible?

Goldwater is attacking a familiar pattern in democratic politics: candidates campaign as tax-cutters, but once in office they support popular spending that expands government commitments. The quote frames this as a logical contradiction—tax reductions cannot be sustained when legislators simultaneously approve new programs and projects that require revenue. Implicitly, he is also criticizing the incentives of electoral politics, where promising “lower taxes” wins votes while voting for spending wins local or interest-group support. The line reflects Goldwater’s broader fiscal-conservative emphasis on limiting federal outlays as the precondition for genuine tax relief.