"I am a libertarian socially, I think the government should have a balanced budget and be as small as possible, but that we should also help the poor and downtrodden."
If you want to spend your money to help the poor and downtrodden, you should absolutely feel free. It's when you want to spend my money to "help" the poor and downtrodden that I begin to have an issue. I'll spend my own money to help the poor as I see fit, thank you very much.
The last thirty-some years of the "War on Poverty" should make it crystal clear that small, balanced budgets and government-run programs for the poor are mutually exclusive goals.
You want to know why "The West Wing" can indignantly proclaim the need for Democrat-run government poverty programs by saying "20% of the nation lives in poverty?" Because the DEFINITION of "poverty" is "the bottom-most quintile of the national income distribution."
Nevermind that such people live like kings compared to about 80% of the rest of the world's poor, and have about the same standard of living as the poor in high-tax, big-government, socialist nations.
