This is the first time I've clicked on this thread. The topic was of no interest to me and I couldn't figure out why it was of 19 page interest to other people.
Now I know. Infighting. Our favorite sport.
One of the legs of the Conservative stool is fiscal conservatism. I am as deficit hawkish as they come. In so much as I’m probably on of the few that actually read CBO reports on our fiscal situation. And I have found in my own surroundings that most cannot tell you what our debt is or our current debt to GDP ratio is. Any polls that tell you that people are willing to pay more for such and such are misleading. I have no doubt that when people are asked if they are willing to pay more in taxes for entitlement programs that most people answered yes. However, in the real world, without the fear of looking bad to a Pollster, they make economic decisions to avoid paying more taxes. Examples are moving out of high tax areas, and looking for every deduction.
I consider these fiscal issues the biggest issue threatening this country. I don’t care what two consenting adults do in the privacy of their own bedroom. My conservatism is along the lines of Calvin Coolidge or Barry Goldwater. And although sometimes he can be off his rocker a little bit, I like a lot of what Ron Paul has to say.
Statements like we need to raise taxes even more to pay for things or we need to get rid of fraud and waste in these programs to save them sounds good but in the real world, it’s a lot more difficult
I understand the pressure politicians are under. Getting Americans to accept meaningful and necessary reforms in entitlement programs that are currently popular is difficult, especially when you have politicians making promises that sound good but probably won’t be able to be kept. And the average persons economic ignorance doesn’t help, either. I have seen Medicare starting pay for less and less over my 30 year career. I suspect that’s going to continue