Colliding Philosphies: Does Conservatism still work

Does Conservatism still work

Limited Government

Lower Taxes

Personal Responsibility

Strong Defense

Privacy

Right to bear arms

These are the things I grew up with and believed almost to Libertarian point of view.
but name the President who actually balanced the budget in my Life time? I was born in October of '70. Bill Clinton, 5 Republican Presidents and Jimmy Carter failed to do so. Nixon did in '69 and not a gain until '97-'01. 90% of the national debt has been run up by these proclaimed conservatives. Reagan at least bankrupt the Soviet Union the other's have nothing to show for it.

so there has never been a limited government conservative

Personal responsibility and getting welfare reform in the mid 90's was a great idea but for some reason corporate welfare or subsidies have continued that's not responsible or conservative just representing a different set of constituencies.

now part of Personal Responsibility and limited government has been used to hold back the evolution of a Health care system that works and a energy policy. See that's the problem with philosophy it's in a vacuum and detached from reality like all the economic models in college that didn't take transaction costs in to play.

The problem that conservatives have with health care is they want it completely market based and hate even having Medicaid or Medicare which is great if you have never been sick and don't have a kid or a parent that needs care. The problem is that no one shops for a deal when they are sick and need care. You are not buying a care and cost don't matter as much to you. Also, emergency rooms aren't going to watch people die. Now those are social and moral reasons for a health care system but the economic reason are these

Other countries pay for it and therefore create corporate subsidies and therefore create a disadvantage and if you want to take it further if the other governments instead of paying for the health care gave the money to the companies to buy it we would view that as protectionist policy.

But I digress, my point is that a market based system or employer based system is getting crushed due to universal health care around the world. Also, with no preventative focus in our system is driving up the overall costs for those who do have insurance and eating at the bottom line of corporate America and state and federal budgets all over the country.

Energy is a similar deal, we have subsidize oil producers around the world by not driving higher mpg and using alternative fuels. Car and Oil lobby's have actually stopped the market based system that would have moved up to more efficient cars and
expectations of higher fuel costs for things we have in this country an abundance of such as coal, Natural gas, and technology to use renewables. But because of legal corruption these lobbies held this evolution so much that it caused it's own collapse with higher fuel costs for inefficient autos and a world wide recession and changes in the laws for energy producers. Conservatism demands a capitalistic approach and what we got was Oligarchy that eventually disintegrated the whole thing.

Lower taxes and defense spending this has never been a problem for conservatives because this is easy to sell. The people want more of their money and want a strong defense but don't seem to realize you can't have both all the time. Half the debt that has been added in the last 8 years has been to lower taxes that really helped mostly millionaires and not upper middle class 200-400k because of the AMT. 1 trillion more on a wasteful war that has significantly damaged our military and phsychy going forward when we may need to use the military.

Privacy and Arms - conservative have to realize that if you want the government out of your life then it has to be consistent whether it's in the bedroom between consenting adults, regulations, right to bear arms. The Patriot act or elements of it are unconstitutional and go against everything we stand for to get perceived security.

While I have become more liberal when it comes to health care, energy and education you have to realize any market based solution is contingent on the market you are competing for and what they are doing in their own markets. The industrialized world have those policies and whether you think we should or shouldn't Invest in those policies everyone else is and putting our workers, companies, and our government at a disadvantage that we cannot afford anymore.