Also, sign visit The Heritage Foundation and you will find more on economics and finance concerning government.

Spending never solves a recession and the government would do well to reduce and eliminate the deficit, not grow it exponentionally.

You are right, government has become about power; however, power has a curious property of increasing itself, rather than decaying. You must agree, that the process of self-preservation (negative entropy) or even expansion is a property of business (especially if you are of the consensus view of the open systems [ie biological] theory of business systems). Either way, there is really no reason to argue the fact, as we are both tapping various aspects of the multidimensional construct that is government.

I do wish to remind you (and possibly your readers) of the nature of our bicameral parliamentary system. Though the President does have a very strong influence over spending and policy, the President must also have complicity within the Congress (and, to a lesser extent, the Judicial system). GW Bush is not personally AND solely responsible. Many of the same congressmen (R’s, in particular, but also D’s) “hopped right on the trolley” during expansionist periods. Both groups profited.

When I speak of fiscal responsibility, I must admit that I am not an economist, and can only base my rationale on my own “common sense.” I have only a cursory understanding of the fractional reserve banking system, a bare-bones understanding of the effects of fiscal manipulation, and world currency exchange rates are, to me, magical–I fear that I am not alone on this one. I said all that to say, I’m not sure what fiscal responsibility means. The global economy is a startlingly complex system that even our best and brightest have yet to adequately model. How are we to understand fiscal responsibility? Seriously, if you know, please enlighten me. Should the government spend as little as possible? What are its responsibilities to the citizens and tax payers? Preventive maintenance? Advancement of society? If so, how? Quality of life? I really could go on for days asking questions. And, honestly, I believe if any solid answers did exist, they would have been made manifest by now.

So what is to guide our policy? Ideology? We both agree: that baby was thrown out a long time ago.

Party politics has been out of control for some time. I believe the 2000 election pushed hate over the top and politicians as a group got increasingly greedy.

Liberals, and this goes for the blogs too, are unable to handle a conversation; on TV they talk over the other party as a tactic to not allow a response and the Democrats are increasingly Leftist, with many moderates joining the GOP (neo-conservatives) and polluting Conservativism in that party.

These Neo-Conservatives were spendaholics and G.W.Bush has that as part of his legacy — allowing Conservative principles to take a hit. He has admitted as much and I hold him responsible for the irresponsible spending of the last eight years.

Government is NOT business, it’s all about power, favors and making a lot of money on the side or later as a lobbyist. It’s POWER and was never intended to run as a business but as a not-for-profit body required to keep the people safe and serve them and not take away their individuality. That has been changing slowly and Obama/Pelosi/Reid/Schumer/Durbin et al are Marxists with a goal of more power, more government, and less freedom for individuals.

Parties vote to their agendas, I have explained the Democrats agenda above. Republicans are learning a lesson through loss and realizing they must change their ways to survive and become fiscally responsible once again. Republicans must find their way back to Conservativism to survive.

I invite you to visit Take Back The GOP and read through the principles of a true Conservative and Classic Liberalism. There is a lot of material but you should find it worth your while. Our links page provide other avenues to join the fight against Socialism and to keep our Constitutional rights intact.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you find joining Take Back The GOP something you would find in your principles.

I’ve never read your site, and don’t know if the following views are welcome. You are free to ignore and/or delete them as this is your site. Here goes.

Government is a business. People work their way up from the ground floor (as aides or some such), learn the jive, and get promoted. But, the business of any business is staying in business. Follow me here? When my party is in control, I stick with them because there is power in numbers. (Marx, God forbid, wrote the same thing over 100 years ago). This means that the will to act (and even raison d’etre) stops being ideology and starts being blatant self-preservation and, at a more abstract level, group-preservation.

When my party is not in control, I buck and fight. The reason for this is not as apparent as the previously stated “complicity rationale.” The reason is even more psychological: in our current two party dichotomy, the populace begins to understand things by way of the contrast heuristic. IE we errantly begin to believe that there exist true dichotomies in reality. If one party votes one way, the other must vote another.

Please don’t take my use of party to be traditional R’s or D’s because it would be far too easy to find an aberration (or counter-example, if that’s more palatable). I’m merely implying any relatively superficial, or at least widely perceived, similarity between two politicians.