We didn't need those tax cuts and I think we need a far smaller, more effective military. But as a centrist, I know that these things will never happen. So I'm relegated to voting for whomever gives me the most of what I believe is good for this country, rather than hoping any candidate will attain 100% ideological purity.
Democrats tend to believe that ideological purity is possible. It's why the recent crop of Democrats have created all these ideological purity tests and have created the censor and cancel culture to go with it to pummel anyone stepping out of line into oblivion. Democrats have become so deranged by their hatred of Trump they have over-rotated into complete nihilism. The resistance has become a destructive force with no end goal other than Trump's removal from office.
I do find it rich that Democrats have suddenly found fiscal rectitude, when they loved fiscal largesse during Obama's 8 years, during which he presided over the larges increase in our national debt in history. I'm sure Trump will eclipse that record by the time he is done, but Obama is currently the reigning champion of fiscal recklessness.
Now that we have bashed the Presidents, are you interested in understanding the real truth of why our deficits and debt are out of control? If you are, then look no further than the aging Baby Boomers and the massive increase in budgetary outlays for social security, medicare, medicaid, and other age related mandatory government expenditures. It turns out that Trump's discretionary items are really just peanuts in the scheme of things.
Turns out that of the $4.1T spent in 2018 budget, $2.5T was mandatory and $1.3T was discretionary and $0.3T was in Net Interest, which is essentially mandatory as well. So $2.8T in mandatory spending. Of the discretionary portion, $623B was for military, which I think is lowballed. So if we want to blame Trump for spending too much, let's focus on military and tax cuts. That's where he has some discretion and has been priming the pump, by his own admission. But if you really want to make a dent in the deficit, then we really need to go after Entitlements, which are the majority of the $2.5T in mandatory spending.
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