The greatest thing they could possibly do to thwart socialism would be to eliminate deficit spending.
@Hoodat As far back as 1978, George F. Will isolated a pretty point:
Today's conservative has reached into his heart of hearts, prayed hard, and decided it was high time that the government cut his neighbour's
benefits.
That said, for long enough since Republicans have told Democrats, essentially, "
You can't run up the debt and the deficit---only
we can run up the debt and the deficit![/i]"
But standing athwart socialism requires far more than yelling "Stop!" to deficits. It requires yelling "Stop!" to government as a public nuisance, the inevitable consequence of the long-entrenched national faith that life begins with the State, instead of the should-be afterthought of a properly construed
government restricted only such business (and such implicit Constitutional restriction) as is required to 1) protect and defend people against a) enemies actual or
provably iminent from abroad and b) predators at home (
real predators, not mere vicemongers); and, 2) bar one from obstructing or abrogating another's equivalent rights.
Which is, I admit, a fancy way of saying the country and everyone living here do not need to be "governed"; they (we) need to be left alone until or unless anyone commits an actual crime against anyone else. But I grant that that is expressing thoughts that have been light years above the State's pay grade---from the president (the last several presidents) to Congress and even to too many of the states.
