...or do they feel forced into it. When you're trying to get votes and gain clout to follow other marginally or unpopular policies a short term way to do that is to slather money onto people and not be responsible for pulling money from people. Also when there is a problem a president or member of congress has a limited number of options in what they can practically do, setting up a new governement something or throwing money at the problem are pretty much their only direct short term options when the public is clamoring for something.

It seems like this is where a lot of W's extra government spending comes from.

ONLY Republican that does make a big deal about it is Ron Paul. The others just play lip service.

No, the Neocons do not. The only Republican who is serious about reducing the size and scope of government spending is Ron Paul.

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Schopenhauer

I concur. The republicans (except Ron Paul), for all their lip service to conservatism, are not conservative at all. Neo-conservativism is actually just the militant, fascist left.(While the democrats are pushing a more pacifistic, diplomatic left.)

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Every generation needs a new revolution. -Thomas Jefferson

As everyone else eluded to, the way of small government and less spending is dead in the water for most Republicans. There are a few of course, like Ron Paul and other like minded people trying to run for office.

It's very sad and unfortunate.

Unfortunately I think the reason we get this lip service is because our population is on a downhill slide into socialism. They get votes from the moderates and independents with these policies and the republican base just votes against democrats.

They use several tactics like talking fiscal conservative and talking religious to shore up the base but then they don't provide.

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Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness ~Thomas Paine

Sadly I think this is true. Both parties are pandering to a nation that wants more benefits, more programs, and to top it off lower taxes. You have far too many people even in rather high paying jobs complaining about programs not helping them. People are becoming more and more ignorant, and as a result are blaming the government, the rich, and other people in general. Take a look at this article I just read off CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/perso...ily/index.html

How can anyone feel sorry for this woman? The only unfortunate part of this story is that her husband left her, and it appears he is not paying child support.

My advice to her is get out of California. The cost of living is too high and there are many jobs measurably easier to obtain elsewhere. It may be a step down in the class ladder but oppurtunities are out there. I don't agree with this concept of "70k to food bank". I've witnessed illegal immigrants do just the opposite so citizens can surely do better.

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Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness ~Thomas Paine

It sure is.

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^My First Knockout Victory!^

Fact is, people really don't like freedom, they like the word and the connotations of it, but in practise they hate freedom. People like a sense of direction in life, they like security, and I mean security in all it's forms, job security etc. They like to know that someone is looking out for them and that they are part of something bigger, and when it comes down to it they like benevolent government.