This is why I hate the whole "starve the beast" idea. Even Cato Institute (which I disagree with on so many issues) agrees that starve the beast was a resounding failure. If we want to cut federal spending, we need to cut federal spending. We can't cut income and hope that this cuts spending. http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/po...

Of course, in reality, nobody is a real conservative. Everybody only wants to cut spending on things they disagree with but I doubt there's anyone who will advocate spending cuts across the board, even if they benefit from such spending (and therefore the spending cut would hurt them).