(02-07-2018 02:18 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(02-07-2018 02:12 PM)GrayBeard Wrote:  Thank you for highlighting another reason for why I left the "R" party.

Fiscal conservatism is on life support. We've got a few people who claim it who are basically anarchists and a vast number who only want to cut spending on a few things to make it possible to spend a lot more on others.

Its not so much on life support as it is untenable position in a landscape where the other party is willing to use debt to buy votes. Everyone knows and agrees that the most responsible long term course of action is to eliminate the deficit and pay down the debt. But its in everyone's short term interest to take the freebies the government is handing out. Those people getting those freebies vote. You cant win telling people we are going to make the next 10 years tougher than the last 10.

Lets say there are no cameras around. An ATM is spitting $100 bills into the street. Everyone knows where it came from. Everyone knows its not their money and that it should be returned to the bank. Still, I suspect most people will pick up a few of those bills in the breeze and walk away a few hundred dollars richer--especially if everyone else is doing it. Thats why fiscal conservativism has a tough road to hoe.