During the Bush administration and republican congress they let Paygo lapse. I though Republicans were believers in small government?
They don't even pretend any more. Now the mantra is bigger government just not as big as what the democrats want. To be fair, it's not like being in favor of less government is a viable political option. Nobody wins widespread support without promising a huge basket of handouts, not in this country, not in this day and age. Voters want their freebies and they'll only pause from American Idol to vote for somebody who's shoveling out the pork like there's no tomorrow. Even democrats from a generation ago wouldn't have the guts to put on a spending show like we saw with the end of Bush. And now there's Obama spending money so fast there is no writer gifted enough to create an analogy. Hard to believe that anybody could make Bush look like a tightwad. But, it's what we voted for.
The truly conservative republicans are in favor. I'm just not sure there are any conservative republicans in Washington.
The problem is the Bush years and the republican congress spent so much it left a bad taste. They signed for Medicare D, let Paygo lapse and signed anything on the table. If republicans want to win they need to really be conservative, and also drop the bible thumping and get out of peoples bedrooms. All this means less government and more states rights.
While that would be awesome not to mention astonishing, it's not going to happen. If the GOP took a major course correction, dropping the religious platform and became a serious proponent of small government they'd shrink to 3rd party status. Look around the world. Capitalism combined with liberty is the obvious choice if you want the best economy. Yet the vast majority of the planet are willing to trade some of that prosperity for other gains, ranging from jealous eat-the-rich schemes to anti-technology. As a country climbs higher and higher on the standard of living ladder, more and more people start seeing other things they value over an increase in the standard of living. Many even see things they are happy to actually step down for. The US is the most conservative nation that has ever existed. Yet we've been doing a steady drift away from those ideals for decades. Look at the recent administrations. W was probably to the left of JFK. O is easily the biggest liberal ever to become POTUS. The liberals won. The people aren't going to wake up and say "WTF? I want my booming economy back." Instead they'll think "This is a small price to pay to get even with those rich guys" and "Gia needs our help and no price is too steep for the survival of the planet." The only thing we can do is slow it down as much as possible.
PayGo from the democrats is intended to restrict tax cutting. If they want to spend more they can raise taxes. If they want to cut taxes they need to cut programs. It is a clever trap.