True libertarians and conservatives can legitimately be for or against a war that takes out a brutal dictator. Or if there against from the position of pre-war peace, they can be for continuing once the war starts and the alternatives are to continue or lose.
As for budget deficits, in addition to the fact that they aren't really huge anymore, most libertarians and many conservatives would be against them, but except perhaps in cases when the deficit is so large that it is unsustainable and wrecks the fiscal situation of the government, the more important issue is too much federal spending. Whether money is borrowed or taxed, it is taken out of the private sector. Borrowing doesn't have the compliance costs that taxes do, and it doesn't cause as much distortion in incentives for individuals and companies, but the problem with borrowing is that it represents future taxation, because the money has to be paid back (well the debt can be rolled over but interest has to be paid on it).
The only way to avoid grabbing more money from the private sector and moving it in to government is to reduce government spending. The proper way to do that IMO, is not to try to do just as much but do a half ass job of it, but rather to reduce what the government tries to do. Which is not to say that there is no scope for greater economy and efficiency in the programs that you will keep, but I think more attention needs to be paid to eliminating programs, something that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats do very often (well the Republicans sometimes pay lip service to the idea, but lip services doesn't actually save money). |
