First off, let me start off with my political alignment: Liberal with a slight totalitarian twist. I believe that the government should take a bigger role in day to day operations within current constitutional means. Regardless of that, why do Republicans always want to cut taxes and shrink the government? What is the ideology behind that? I would think that by cutting taxes and shrinking the government, you are putting less money into the bank of the feds (less money, more deficit) and letting issues crop up that have got us into this mess in the first place. That is not to say that the mess we are in is a total GOP-created issue. It was a breakdown of all political systems and greedy markets.

For the Dems out there, why is spending more money and increasing the size of the government a basic fundamental party principal? A lot of people say that increasing government operations will possibly lead to a more non-american lifestyle. Are people really that afraid that we will turn into a communist, socialist or a dictatorship based country? Why is nationalizing healthcare, school systems or whatever such a bad thing? Higher taxes is of course the generic answer, but what besides that makes it so bad? Would you rather deal with private HMOs that don't really care about you and deny your parents insurance because they had a pre-existing condition? I believe that if people want nicer things (cleaner parks, better roads, better overall lifestyle), you have to pay to get them. Nicer things don't come free.

Thoughts?