The Blue Board

Nope, I hate white people

There's no such thing as a 'small' safety net. Entitlements *inevitably* grow to and past the point of sustainability.

Not a single government entitlement program in history has been shrunk or even stayed the same size before it began to cause enormous problems.

Are you referring to the recent uptick in beneficiaries?

I'm an American and a Liberal and damn proud of it. I support our military.

Being American isn't exclusive to one party or another.

Fairly conservative on my personal views (I believe marraige is a man & woman, etc) but pretty libertarian politically I guess. I don't give a crap if two guys want to get hitched, they're not bothering me. I find myself realizing more and more than the government screws up 98% of whatever it touches and I'm wishing more and more they would leave everybody the crap alone and stick to fixing roads and defending the borders here instead of in 100 other countries.

Libertarian, slightly to the left. I'm very liberal as far as social values. Can't say I'm entirely a fiscal conservative. While I don't believe the gov't should subsidize laziness, I do think there is a need for programs to support truly disadvantaged groups of the population.

No, there is very little I think taxpayer money should be used for. I just don't think all of government should be shut down.

It's easy to be a Libertarian in a vacuum. But just like games aren't played on paper, (they're played on tvs in our living rooms) we don't live in a vacuum.

Oh wow! Nominal beneficiaries increase over time,specifically when taken in two data points from the first to last point! Really?

I thought you were going to be tougher than this.

There a multitude of reasons for a rise in food stamp beneficiaries: economy, expansion of eligibility. Moreover, the converse is true.

However, to completely debunk your typical entitlement myth, there comes a period when economics or politics have clearly been capable of dropping the nominal number of beneficiaries (DESPITE an always growing population).

Socially liberal- gays should be able to get married, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc

Conservative on defense, crime and punishment, right to bear arms, etc

Fiscal moderate. We need to live within our means as a nation.

We need a federal government to do things no one else can (national defense, protecting the environment) as the free market doesn't provide the former and is usually at odds with the latter.

The biggest problem IMO in modern American politics is that the majority of the public wants all the benefits of entitlement programs but doesn't want to pay for them, so we end up with a massive national debt.

I would love to see a viable 3rd party emerge in this country, as think a lot of folks have similar views that are not being well-served by either party.

no candidates fall into a vacuum either.There is no one we vote for that will fulfill what we want.

LEFTRIGHT

That's an entirely different discussion. I recently read Speer's autobiography and am still shaking my head at some of the rationale. I can't help but wonder how men like Himmler or Mengele would tell their stories.