Republicans are one-trick ponies. OK, maybe two trick. They are convinced (by decades of programming, which I remind readers that I was once a Republican) that there is massive waste/fraud, and that we have to cut taxes to spur growth (and increase revenues...the Laffer Curve bullshit). Both notions are incredibly wrong. Sure, there is a bit of waste/fraud (though DOGE didn't find much, and cost us more to determine that), and the Laffer Curve is laughable (way too simplistic).

I managed to get myself deprogrammed in the early 2000s. But sooooo many still believe in that nonsense, and will refuse to accept the actual facts they you just presented.

Liberals are also wrong that cutting the military will solve our problems. Spending is significant, certainly. But you could zero out the Pentagon, and you still wouldn't eliminate the deficit. I repeat myself, but we have a taxation problem. Not a spending problem. For a nation of this size, we're probably about as lean as we can be. Too, lean. We should be funding science a lot more, as well as parks, and other stuff (like healthcare, but that isn't as simple as opening the funding spigot...some reform is needed).