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Romney lost in large part because he came across as a rich guy who didn’t understand being poor. His economic idea was to cut taxes on the rich, which I agree with as economic policy but which needs to be defended.

He lost because Republicans ask for votes 6 weeks out from an election, and don’t want to do the 4 years of voter education needed to convince a poor person to vote to give wealthier people tax cuts. It is tough enough to swim upstream. It is even tougher if you don’t start early...

His economic idea was to cut taxes on the rich, which I agree with as economic policy but which needs to be defended.

If government employee/contractor/vendor/welfare spending is not cut (welfare is almost equal to the entire deficit), then tax policy changes will not help anything.

If the changes result in less revenue, the deficit grows faster.

If the changes result in more revenue, it's just spent anyway.

Back during Reagan's terms, the relative size of government debt to Gross Domestict Product was about 40%. Now it's over 100%. The prosperity boost that lower taxes provided to the economy back then was not overshadowed by a Federal government that was insolvent on such a grand scale as it is today.

IMHO, the only way out is radical reduction of goverernment agencies. Social Security and Medicare need not be affected at all to fix this, nor should they be for those at or close to retirement. For those younger than that, they should be given the option to not participate in the program and it should be phased out for younger citizens over decades.