Bowser, you have to understand that you're confronting an article of religious faith among Rightists--it's called "supply-side economics", AKA dribble-down*--help a rich guy get richer, and you'll get a tip.

Democrats: "Tax & spend"

Republicans: "Cut taxes & spend anyway"

You and I have to arrange our personal finances so that our expenditures don't exceed our income, and clearly Democrats agree with that philosophy. But not Republicans, those self-styled "fiscally responsible" politicians. Go figure.

Actually, here's what I figure: Republicans hate government more than they hate deficits, relatively speaking; and so they're willing to abandon the lesser principle to hamstring government so that it can't do what Democrats and their constituency want it to do. In other words, even though Republicans have lost past votes that set up programs they don't like, they get a second chance to nuke those programs if they can starve them for funding by nobly "attacking the deficit". In the future, when Democrats propose a program Republicans don't like (everything but the military budget), they get to respond "sorry, the cupboard's bare, deficits, you know".

See, it's not that difficult.

--Robert

*--and we all know what flows downhill.