<and he waxes philosophic...must be something he ate>
The older I get, I notice the more I move the "the left" politically. If I were not such a staunch conservative Christian, I probably would never vote Republican again. Why? The older I get, the more I see managements' shenanigans toward employees, so that moves me toward more allegiance to unions. The older I get, the more crap I see coming out of "managed" healthcare, so the more "national healthcare" I endorse. The more I see Government spending much more money than it has and doesn't do anything but continue this practice, the more I move smallish government and leaving it to the states, whatever "it" may mean.
I have somewhat analyzed these and other similar trends, and my initial conclusion is that experience allows you the rarity of seeing more of Life and vagrancies, illogical acts and just plain viciousness of "the haves" toward the "have nots". So, I will be one of the few votes to yearn for a true conservative of old, ala William Buckley, or a right ("Heaven's forbid" Democrat. However, I fear that the Democrats only see those to the far Left and the Republicans only see privilege and station and power, surely those three were the ones in the robe of the Ghost of Children Present.
Let me propose this. Let's get the Federal Budget as it stood at the end of Bill Clinton's term. Why there? Because it was closer to reality, financially, than others recently. (Or, go ahead, pick another time if it pleases you).
Then, let's freeze it for a longish and fixed period of time (10 years?) five years. No increases. If you want to move monies around, then fine, but the total outlay cannot be more. Then after the five years, you analyze it again with a bipartisan committee and set another budget for another long timeframe and you do it again. Oh, and you have to not play games. SS and Medicare have to be part of the budget.
<heavy sigh>