You don’t sound contrary. You raise a reasonable point. The problem, as I see it, is simply one of how to unravel government deficit spending without blowing up the economy in the process. I don’t believe we can simply stop all deficit spending overnight without doing serious harm. Does that mean I oppose balancing the budget? No way! I want the budget balanced, but I think we’ll need to taper spending by careful reform of existing programs. Just shutting off the credit card without picking and choosing what needs to be cut seems like a good way to cause economic destruction.
Additionally, we have to accept that Republicans do not control the presidency or the Senate. It’s going to be very difficult if not impossible to work with this president. I don’t propose giving President Obama whatever he wants of course, but we simply aren’t going to be able to reform what we want until we have a new president and political majorities in both the House and Senate. That means compromise for the time being, but keep in mind that means the president and Harry Reid are going to have to bend, too!
A party that wants smaller, constitutional government, one that wants to reform unsustainable programs, that honors past promises but frees up younger generations to choose their own paths free from the government mandates of the past, one that believes in the rule of law? That’s a party, I think, that can win political majorities. Being anti-government in general, wanting to tear it all down now? That’s a good way to never win elections.
I agree with you about the dangers of an abrubt end to spending overnight. It will have to be tapered down. But it must be done to avoid insolvency.
The House, having power of the purse, is constitutionally empowered to regulate spending. Although Republicans do not control the Senate and the presidency, they are still in a powerful postion and in their representative/fiduciary capacity owe it to the American people to not let spending get totally out of control to the point where it severely damages the nation and causes economic destruction.
The Republicans don’t have much credibility because they rarely stand up to defend their beliefs. They need to extract some type of concessions from the Democrats and I think they are in a good position to do this if they are resolute. Their message should be one of responsible government that is based on the same list of principles you cited.