"I was about to say that of the example of social Conservatives/fiscal liberals. Frankly, what those are are pre-1968 urban Democrats. Obviously, that combo is preferable than liberal all around, but there will still be enormous consequences for reckless spending... somebody will have to pay the piper."
If the spending is reckless, yes.
But quite a bit of social spending isn't reckless at all. It's expensive, but relatively cheaper than the alternatives. For example: spending the money to redouble staffs and controls in inner city schools spends a lot more on teachers' salaries and staffs, no doubt about it. But it would save quite a few kids whose only exposure to anybody rational who cares are in the schools. If the kids are saved there, by the state being their nanny through the education process (which they have to get anyway), they will end up having a foundation and being usefully insertable in society. Currently, the schools do not bear nearly enough of the parenting burden in those areas where there are no family lives and the children's live in chaotic conditions with drug-addicted mothers, etc. Institutionally, a lot of these kids could be helped, but the supervision is expensive and has to be stepped up far, far more than it is. The result? More than half of the boys end up in prison. It costs more to house, clothe and feed a prisoner for the bulk of the rest of his adult life than it does to educate and protect a child, and that doesn't count the additional costs and trauma of crime, insurance premia, blighted neighborhoods, etc. Not doing anything, or not doing enough on the expensive education side does not, in the end, save money. It costs many multiples of the money that would have been spent on strong educational institutionals that effectively raise inner-city kids.
A comparable thing is the interstate highway system. It was budgeted as a "National defnese" project, but that was subterfuge for a massive public wiork. It's free. But it's paid itself many times over in increased economic strength.
I'm going to have to part company with you on school spending. I went to inner-city public schools in Nashville in the 1980s, and that helped shape my opinion on the entire institution as a profound negative. There is too much money being dumped into this rotten institution with not only no accountability, but often the money finds its way into the pockets of crooks working the system. These are the last people I'd trust to "parent" kids. If anything, it's no wonder why so many end up in prison with these folks serving as an example.
Until this Stalinist abomination is dismantled to the last brick and wood plank, starting with the teacher unions, the overall educational system (at least those that have no choice but to go to public schools) will never improve. There's a reason why the best nation in the world has some of the worst educational facilities imaginable. As bad as it was when I went there, it's like the halcyon days of the 1950s by comparison today.