The Left Says

Deficits are OK if they come from ensuring necessary services like healthcare & education, because those are vital to the health of our nation.

The Right Says

Deficits are OK if they come from tax breaks for the job-producers, because that stimulates the economy.

The Solution

Deficits are not OK. I can’t spend money that I don’t have, and the government shouldn’t, either. Scrap the entire, corrupt, process of authorizations and appropriations. Scrap the involuted notion of private banks owning the central bank that fabricates money and then charges us to loan it to the government¹. Instead, take all of the expenditures from this year and figure the percent of the total for each (by department). Next year’s budget is just that percentage of this year’s revenue. Each department is also mandated to build an emergency fund equal to 100% of their annual costs. To incentivize cost-savings, peg bonuses to those departments that get their emergency funds built the quickest. If the Navy wants a new aircraft carrier, they might have to save up for a year or two, then pay for it in cash. If congress wants to increase funding in one area, they have to reduce it in another by the same percentage. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are separate funds, not part of the overall Federal budget; they are separate taxes, going to separate buckets (see Social Security). Government borrowing (or deficit spending) would be eliminated ².

The Left Says

Human-caused climate change is real and catastrophic. Every effort should be made to curb greenhouse gas emissions, and reverse the warming of the planet.

The Right Says

The amount of greenhouse gasses that humans have added to the atmosphere since the industrial revolution pales in comparison to what volcanoes have done many times in the past. The earth will deal with it like it always does. There is no reason to stifle economic development by imposing artificial and unnecessarily expensive restrictions.

The Left Says

Greedy corporatists! They’ve misled the religious right and convinced them to vote against their own economic interests by equating unregulated business with social conservatism.

The Right Says

Bleeding-heart, snowflake liberals! They think that more government, and more taxes are the solution to every problem.

The Solution

Well for one, this website is a solution. Cultural Polarization is a key impetus in its creation. So start by focusing on practical solutions, rather than castigating those who are disagreeable in their disagreement. When we talk about what people on the Left and Right say, those things generally stem from some really fundamental world-views around the role of government, our duty to others, and the specific ethos in America that describes who we are, and what is important. Let’s look at these a little more deeply.