Maybe Democrats should be the Small Government Party for the next 2 years

[bluestateguy]

I don't see a whole of evidence that this Republican government has delivered, or even tried, to bring about small government in Washington for the last 6 years. They do not want, nor are they serious about, limited constitutional government. You can't have limited government alongside the totalitarian dictatorship that they aspire to. My honest conservative friends have told me this privately, in fact.

As long as the machinery of government is in the hands of these people, we should be the real advocates of small government, until such time as we can change the machinery of government. If we advocate a bigger government with wide powers, we are really advocating more powers and jurisdiction for these people as long as they are running the government, even though we may not mean to.

[Rosco T.]

1. Absolutely...

.. dismantle Homeland Security
.. put FEMA back as it's own entity (where it worked fine for so many years)
.. ditch no Child's behind Left
.. cut back on all the waste (ie. Iraq)

at the same time..

.. start the Apollo Project on energy independence
.. move the waste money back into Student Loans and/or Student Grants (my slogan.. "Maintain a 'B', Classes are Free")

[movonne]

4. Stop war, that will save billions...

[skipos]

2. And bring back fiscal responsibility too. nt

[Warren DeMontague]

3. That wouldn't be very hard. We've spent $300 Billion on Iraq so far.

According to the GAO, some $9 Billion cannot be accounted for AT ALL. ("Wow. A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money!") The ORDINARY Military-Industrial Outlay is half a trillion a year. We spend $40 Billion a year (not counting costs of incarceration) on a "drug war" aimed primarily at keeping jamband fans, cancer ridden grannies, and Willie Nelson from smoking pot out of Tommy Chong's bongs. Fully HALF of the people in our prisons are in there for non-violent drug offenses. If we brought some sanity to the Military-Industrial complex and these other areas, cut out corporate welfare and no-bid giveaways, stopped blowing money on victimless "crimes" like drugs and consenting adult porn, we could afford tax cuts AND a SPHC system, which - by bringing the 20% or so of health care costs that go to the Insurance industry down to a 2 or 3% administrative percent- would ALSO save us money.

We ARE the party of smaller, smarter government- if we've got the gumption to embrace the agenda.