Amen!

A big problem as I see it is the continued practice of politicians leading people to believe they can have these government provided or subsidized services for free.

Between money printing, borrowing and slight of hand accounting coupled with coercive tax collection methods (witholding) the proposals for spending are rarely presented to the taxpayer as an invoice. The service is decoupled from the cost.

Emotional do-goodism is often replaced by fiscal prudence when folks are asked to pay when services are rendered.

If I hear one more politician say "the question is not can we afford to fund (insert program name here) ... the question is can we afford NOT to" ... I am going to puke ... again. ;-)