Republicans: we are now against spending cuts, they're unpopular and won't work

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

It's an unfortunate truth that while cutting government spending, when phrased in the most general terms, polls very well, specific and significant spending cuts always poll terribly because everything has a large constituency. We won't get real spending cuts in the areas where we need them (defense and entitlements) at the federal level until politicians come together and stop caring about the next election and instead focus 100% of their attention on balancing our budget. And unfortunately, I don't think that happens anytime soon, regardless of who succeeds Trump.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

It's also important to note that when Reagan entered the presidency, the top tax rate was 70%, which is a lot easier to sell as "utterly ridiculous" than the modern top tax rate of 40%.