Good for you Sybill taking it on yourself and pushing the issue. I think we need more people like you individuals everywhere must call out lies and corruption because the sheer volume of the Lies, Corruption and Con Jobs accelerated like a rocket since Jan 2009 Republicans in congress have there hands full and can only focus on the biggest frauds and we all know the MSM will do more to hide this or attack anyone who uncovers the truth. Personally I was so disgusted by a story about Senator Feinstein I also took it upon my self to research it and compiled news stories along with info. I found that was public info that together proved her and her husband made a profit of more then $100 million in less then a year by pushing a government contract of $36billion to her husbands company. I had documents and dates showing her husband buying millions of shares in a single transaction just before they were awarded the contract, not just luck. But I set this package to many news outlets even Republican Lawmakers and nobody cared, I was sure $100million would get someones attention but nothing. It's disheartening but we must keep on these pack of thieves.

I agree with all that, except that Most Conservatives know that it starts at home and importance of keeping family's strong. for most conservatives Spending is the #1issue right NOW and many ask why was it not when GWB was spending.

" Christian conservatives still do not realize that the biggest problem we have now is catastrophic overspending and the expansion of government. "

Spending under Bush2 was high but relative to what is now is a different story so you can't blame Conservatives for not sounding the spending alarm under Bush2 if you think back to most of the 8years under Bush the economy was much better despite what we are told now the financial crisis did not begin until his last year up to that point most people where better off financially as was the government we didn't have a new record deficit every month of over $200billion so the urgency was not there yet Obama has changed all that and we have been at 'Emergency" status since his inauguration and it has been one crisis after the next so I say it is all relative.

" being a conservative – unless the term is stripped of any meaning and conservatives no "

the author is limiting the meaning by defining a person Conservative or no based solely on 1 criteria, Wrong!! I would agree that GWB was not "Fiscally Conservative" and yes his Dad was a progressive but Bush2 was not a progressive he was a good Christian Conservative and history will vindicate him more so then already has been.

Dan Mitchell is a great economist but may not understand what it means to be a true Conservative. There is a lot more to it then just Spending and debt, although that is an important part of it. A Conservative does not look at a graph and infer everything from it, Conservative use common sense and know analyze all the pertinent information taking to account all circumstance of the spending the purpose, the amount, the implications of spending that money versus not doing anything and consider all possible options before deciding on best way forward. To look at a graph then say "This proves once and for all Bush2 was not a Conservative is something MSNBC's Maddow would say.

This was a promise made by our government and people expect the government to meet all obligations especially with Social Security since people have been paying into it their entire working life and many plan their retirement based on that promise. Conservatives generally acknowledge that the gov. owes these people and do not want a gov that does not pay its obligations and can not be trusted. Conservatives did not create social security but feel obligated to fulfill it at the same time we Recognize this is a bad set up and needs to be changed for new people in the job market like investing part of the deducted amount as they wish like 401k

There is another factor that is an important distinction for a Conservative that may not be for a liberal mind. The fact that Social Security is essentially a promise we made to a group of people and those people trusted in that promise and agreed to start funding SS today based on our Collective promise to take care of them later. For me this is always an assumed starting point at the beginning of any SS debate, that now we are talking about a fund that people paid out of their salaries for their entire working life so some of those people are now 65+ years old and rely on SS as their only income. So as most conservatives we take a promise like that seriously and want to make sure everyone's interest is considered and treated fair.
4 of 4

If someone said ok we need to fix this and we propose a significant cut to Social Security to address our growing debt. I like many would say NO because why would you start with SS when we know for a fact there are hundreds if not thousands of other more wasteful spending and we need to start there now if 2 years from now people have seen government spending has been slashed in a meaningful way and people saw serous cutting and are convinced much of the nonsense spending programs have been eliminated but more cuts are needed then I would agree to the poll but that is just one reason many said NO to SS cuts.3 of 4