Here's Where I (Sort Of) Take The Side Of The Left

Brace yourself for this historic moment, I am going to take the side of the left! While my ideal is a limited, fiscally responsible government, if we must bury ourselves in a mountain of federal debt and bureaucracy, it is better to do so in the pursuit of welfare than needless warfare. I would rather see failed efforts of nation building in the West Side of Chicago than in the West Bank. As previously documented, the debt crisis cannot be solved without significantly reforming social security, medicaid and medicare, however for political and psychological reasons, austerity measures must begin with defense spending and foreign aid. Then we must reluctantly raise taxes first on the wealthy and then on the nearly 45% of Americans we do not pay federal taxes. Only when the public sees that these politically appealing measures did little to eliminate the debt, will they be ready to focus on reforming the true fiscal behemoths of social security, medicaid and medicare. Any other approach would allow Democrats to paint fiscal conservatives as "heartless friends of the rich."