ThatOwlWoman
Not Nice
Hello Bull&Terrier,
Any risk which can be reduced in a justified way should be.
The difference between conservatives and liberals on this issue is that conservatives are more likely to weigh money concerns more heavily and liberals are more likely to weigh human life more heavily. I favor the liberal position. It is logical to me. If an individual is alive but has less money, that is a preferable condition to being dead, but having died with plenty of money.
Conservatives are concerned that by engaging in federal spending to help people financially displaced by shut down measures that it will run the federal debt up which will translate into higher taxes in the future. That's a real concern, but it shouldn't be for most people because most people are on such a thin budget that only the rich possess the wealth to be able to collectively reduce the debt load.
The answer is obvious. We spend what we need to now to get us through, and then later we tax the rich more. The greedy will always complain about any level of taxing, but the lifestyles of the rich are rarely impacted by aggressive taxing. It's merely their bottom line which is affected, and that should not be a big concern for the country because taxing is applied to all in a bracket, so nobody loses out compared to their peers. The poor and middle can't be taxed much more without directly affecting their lifestyles, so that should be avoided. America has the wealth to deal with this crisis. We will be fine, and we can save thousands of lives by taking the COVID precautions seriously and reducing social contact until it is safe.
I agree with all of this. I can understand and appreciate those conservatives who truly are concerned about the national debt. It's essential to keep it under control. But... from what I have seen of today's conservatives, it's not the debt that they care about at all. They are mostly concerned that someone, somewhere, is getting something that they are not. Whether that's food stamps, extended unemployment benefits, low-cost health care, relief from a student loan -- if someone else is getting it, they are furious. "We're all in this together" does not compute for them.