"Sure is a good thing a "compassionate" conservative got elected in 2000.
Bush is a worthless sack."
Yeah, I agree. Really sucked that Bush was left with a recession then had to deal with the economic realities of 9/11. Yet despite this, still has managed to reduce the deficit over the last three years, despite spending on all those worthless education and health care programs.
I knew I should have voted for Al Gore. /sarcasm
The conservative revolution of 1994 led by House Republicans is DEAD. All that is left is "Hey, we're not as bad as that other party".
If spending patterns from 94-98 remained the same, there wouldn't be any deficit to cut in half, and we could have additional tax cut rates.
Further this issue is more than a matter of deficits. The conservative revolution was supposed to be about devolving power and control away from the federal government. There is no sign of that anymore.
Conservatism does not mean having Republicans rather than Democrats running a bloated federal bureaucracy that seeks to continually exert control over every aspect of our lives. No Child Left Behind is a perfect example of that-"we're going to run education but we'll do it right because we're Republicans". Wrong. education is the purview of local control, and the trend should be toward reducing the Fed's control. That's true conservatism - not just voting against Al Gore.