I'm referring to exactly what I said. Giving handouts to people and not making that money conditional on them bettering themselves.
Reduction of wasteful spending is a pragmatic solution that would get the support of the moderates and liberals as well. But Conservatives imagine that you can just cut the taxes and that alone will force wasteful spending to end. But that has proven to be false. Cut the income and government will just borrow money without making cuts--indeed even while increasing spending, as the Bush administration has shown. True pragmatists believe that we have to cut the wasteful spending first to reduce the expenses that must be covered with tax dollars. Those items we are not comfortable with cutting must be paid for, whether we like it or not. We must get out of deficit spending mode and being slavish to ideological partisan notions which decree that all taxes are bad and must be cut without regard to what they are paying for. It is basic irresponsibility to spend more than income can support.
Your liberal bias that you claim not to have but we all seem to see is showing again. Are you saying that only Conservatives spend money they don't have? How many trillions of dollars of non-existent money has Obama approved of spending? Blank-check politics is a universal problem; its neither conservative nor liberal.
No. But if Democrats can be characterized as "tax and spend", the republicans must be characterized as "spend and borrow". Obama proposes to pay for the health plan with taxes and budget shifts from the programs that it replaces, not to simply borrow from China. Republican will consider taxes and "pay as we go" under no circumstances apparently. It's simply irresponsible.
I would not disagree with either of those characterizations. I notice you changed labels. You were talking about conservatives and liberals in the first post I responded to, and have switched to talking about Democrats and Republicans. And I'm glad you did, because conservatism as I understand it advocates a level of personal responsibility that flies directly in the face of "spend and borrow." Its been quite some time since conservative values guided the Republican Party, IMO.
That's not even close. You may be describing what you think conservatism is but what you have outlined is not the basis of conservatism. It may be what some people who call themselves conservatives think, but it is not conservatism. I tell you what, show me a link that verifies what you are saying. Welfare gives money based off of your dependents. I'm not saying it's bad to help kids out as I think every child should have every opportunity we can give, but I'm tired of people with big screen tv's paid for by welfare checks (read "my money"). And don't say I'm generalizing because my job took me to some very bad places when I was 22 and 23 and it was a common theme. Falling over trailer, bunch of kids running around and a nicer car than me and a $5,000 tv. That's bullchit (to use a phrase you're familiar with). I'm not saying welfare is a bad program, because it is not in a lot of instances, but we need more accountability in our social programs. Why are we rewarding people for mooching off of everyone else? Why are food stamps able to be sold for cash? Why don't we set up a card system where you have to be the one buying the food. Not some piece of paper (or whatever we have now), that can be traded for money or drugs.
