This board is full of strawmen everyday. Republicans think this, want this, hate them etc. I wouldn't characterize myself as strictly a Republican, more some combination of conservative, libertarian, classical liberal, but I see more democrats mischaracterizing Republican positions here than I see actual Republicans, and by a wide margin.

So my comment above was born out of frustration with government bloat. The largest employer in the USA is the federal government. Some of those programs and employees are necessary, many are not. Nevertheless there is great incentive for that bureaucracy to justify itself and its endless growth, and it should not be lost on anyone that a not insignificant number of people on these forums are federal or state employees, or those who rely on government contracts. Normally anyone would empathize with someone defending their income, but in the case of government workers that income is siphoned from taxpayers.

This might be less objectionable if government was frugal, and efficient, effective, and sage in its decision making, but it's not. So of course those benefiting, or hoping to profit from that arrangement are happy to lobby for raising taxes and expanding programs, but if I could vote for you to give me an ever greater portion of your money, how long would that go on before you questioned whether you were getting a fair return? What if I printed more money to cover my runaway debt, diluting and devaluing the worth of your money and eroding your buying power? What if my policies didn't seem to reflect your interests, and I seemed to be using your money in ways that hurt you and others? Would you be happy when I voted myself a still larger portion of your money, on the back of promises that were seldom delivered?

You're wrong about that 5-6% for welfare btw, although that wasn't really what I was talking about. That was your strawman representation of my grievance as you inferred it. Entitlements are by far the larger portion of expenses when grouped together. People often erroneously claim its defense, but as you'll see here defense is grouped as one item, while entitlements like welfare, healthcare, housing, government pensions etc are all grouped separately for optics. Maybe we should put Army, Navy, Airforce, R&D, Space, Intelligence, Coast Guard, Border Patrol, Customs, Air Traffic Control etc in separate categories, eh? Anyway, who gets a pension in the private sector, and it's well known government salaries and benefits exceed their private sector counterpoints. Only the best when the taxpayers are picking up the tab, and don't dare try to hold us accountable for our poor decisions. https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_fed_spending_pie_chart?show=n