Why do conservatives want bigger government in certain areas but not in others?

Godless Heathen: Why do conservatives want bigger government in certain areas but not in others?
Okay so you don’t want the government to regulate heathcare and create a public option.

But you want the government to regulate marriage (gay marriage) and what you can do with your own body(abortion)?

So do you only want big government when it comes to the things you want?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Darth Bama
enforcing the law and creating new programs are two different things.

I don’t see how ‘regulating marriage’ creates a bigger govt. Saying the words “gay people can’t marry” does not require taxpayers to spend a trillion dollars…or one extra dollar for that matter.

Abortion should be common sense…don’t kill your kids..use condoms..they’re free at the health dept!

Answer by Obama, Pelosi & Reid Oh My!
I don’t see how having a law or an amendment defining marriage and reversing roe v. wade would be considered “big government.” Does Roe v. Wade currently have a department in the government to ensure it is upheld?

Yanno…this is one of the dumbest questions I’ve ever heard on answers website. Use the brain God gave you, would ya?

Answer by Shovel Ready
The Constitution spells out the responsibilities of the Federal government, and therefore most conservatives want the government to focus on those areas, notably national defense.

Answer by Mrs. G
“Conservatives” are lying hypocrites !

They are in favor of whatever benefits THEM !

Answer by El Tecolote
Okay, so you think it’s somehow okay for government to meddle in private business affairs…

And you blame conservatives for striking down gay marriage when it’s blue states that gay marriage is being voted down in… to the tune of 31 of them. And as far as Abortion goes, liberals accuse conservatives of going after it when it’s actually the Religious Right you should be focusing on. The Religious Right claim to be conservatives, but they really aren’t.

You have major identity issues, don’t you…?

Answer by robot_hooker5
Actually, conservatives want government to stay out of the marriage issue. Liberals are the ones asking for government involvement. As for abortion, conservatives would again be happy if it was decided on a state by state vote rather than having the federal government (in the form of the Supreme Court) get involved. We’d also be happy to cut off federal funding to groups such as Planned Parenthood.

Where conservatives favor big government is in the military.

Answer by Lena Jaspers
It’s not bigger government. It’s just making murder and perversion illegal. Those are things sane people reject.

Answer by kathleen O
Hypocrites. Most have been divorced, so why not allow gays to go through that same misery. And as far as abortion, they could care less what happens to a child after it’s left the womb.

Answer by Herald
How does the size of government pertain to either of these issues? Existing laws suffice in the marriage issue … laws under attack by those who seek to expand or corrupt them. In the case of abortion, it should be the states’ right to decide, as should marriage. It is the courts carrying the water for activists who seek to use the bench to overturn the will of the people that is the problem in both.

Answer by Aleksey
You’re mixing fiscal and social policies. Conservatives oppose expansions of government programs because that results in higher costs. As for social restrictions (which I oppose, by the way, so it sucks to defend them), such as gay marriage and abortions, there is no additional expenditures involved. Social restrictions do not expand the government. As a result those two views aren’t actually in opposition with each other.

Answer by Jo
I’m conservative and quite frankly, I don’t give a hoot if two men or women get married.
I am personally against abortion but until I’ve walked a mile in someone else’s shoes, I wouldn’t pretend to know their reasoning-I just don’t want to pay for it!
By the way-Conservatives DO NOT want bigger government-where ever did you get that idea?

Answer by lidiana
Because the are not against big government, they are against government that doesn’t push their agenda. When government is used to push their views on others, they are a o.k. with it.

Answer by D-Jam
I always ask why it’s ok to spend loads of money on wars but somehow “waste” to spend it on the interior of the country.

Answer by Mark D
For state governments to *continue* banning gay marriage — which they always did ban in every single state in the country until the judicial activism by the Mass. state sup. ct. — does not make the state governments any bigger or more powerful than they were before. Actually, state governments have LOST power to regulate gay rights because of the US Supreme Court MISinterpreting the US Constitution. On the other hand, conservatives wanting the federal government to not create a large, expensive new federal program means that conservatives are being consistent with their basic philosophy.

Do we will really need to remind you that conservatives want to CONSERVE the things that government traditionally does? State governments traditionally banned gay marriage, just like they traditionally banned “sodomy,” and just like state governments traditionally banned incest, incestuous marriage, prostitution, polygamy, and so on. To CONSERVE laws does not make the government BIGGER than before, idiot.

Answer by Ryde-On
Leaving an existing law as it is does not create numerous new bureaucracies.

Answer by renaisance festival
“conservatives” as you call them, want a big military, so they can threaten other countries, get them to do what they want, and promote their business interests. they also want lots of cops on the street to keep people in line, and act as security guards for rich people. and as the word conservative implies they want to conserve the past, and in the past, people did not get abortions or have gay marraiges.

Answer by Liberal AssKicker
Cutting taxes shrinks the overall size of the government by definition.

Answer by 60 min man
wrong. we do not want a baby being killed by a mother who couldn’t say no to sex.
we do not want to change the definition as decided on by bill clinton, because it opens the doors to multiple marriages and an anything goes mentality. you see, it is perspective. you do not think an unborn baby is alive, you think it is just a tumor,you think gay marriage is acceptable and no state has voted for it in 33 tries, it has been forced by the court.

Answer by Peace through blinding force
Government was created by people (not the other way around as all liberal policy must assume to be justifiable) for certain specific purposes.
Conservatives like for it to do THOSE things.
As it relates to the government of The United States:
> It is lawfully forbidden to regulate heath care.
> It is lawfully forbidden to create a public option.
> It is lawfully forbidden to regulate marriage.
> It is lawfully forbidden to regulate what you can do with your own body.
Conservatives therefore want the Federal government to keep it’s nose OUT of those things rather than unlawfully usurp power and do them.

BTW, most of us are content to allow you to DELIVER at any time you choose and if it’s “too early” you can call it an abortion if that makes you feel better. Do you care to explain from whence you perceive a “right” to mutilate a tiny human to death in utero in the name of “controlling your own body?”

Answer by Tiff
The way I see abortion is that its murdering an unborn child. Abortion is murder, that is what I beleive. So you woudn’t want the government allowing murder. Get it? I’m just trying to explain my point of view.

Marriage, well I am not so conservative on this issue. I beleive that it should be up to individual state’s and the people of those states should vote on the issue of marriage.

I don’t see how that equals big government.

Answer by W J
Gay marriage is a paradox but that issue should be left up to the states, not to the federal government.

I fully support abortion, but it is also an issue that should be left up to the states.

Why do liberals want to use the federal government for EVERYTHING they want?

Answer by Earth Needs Oil
Same reason liberals to: To control the other side.

Answer by Jacob W
It seems that you must be young so, let me get you up to speed. You must be careful not to confuse Federal Government with State or Local Government. The US Constitution only limits the power of the Federal Government. When Conservatives speak about not wanting bigger government they are referring to Federal Government. Marriage is a State issue. Gay marriage is not a Federal issue, but it is gay marriage activists that seek to bring the issue to the Federal Courts and force it upon everyone else, not the other way around. The Conservatives are fine with marriage the way it is. That does not translate into bigger government. We want the Federal Government to stay out of it.

Abortion, again was traditionally a State issue. Before Roe vs. Wade, abortion was not illegal in America. It was regulated at the State level. Some States did not permit abortion unless the mother’s life was at risk. Some allowed it on demand up to a certain point in the pregnancy. Others had even more liberal abortion laws. But, a bunch of Liberal Activists concocted a phony lawsuit and a Liberal Activist Supreme Court fast tracked that case to the front of the line just for the purpose of making up a Constitutional Right to abortion which actually was Big Government imposing its will on the States and the People. Once again, the Conservative position was to leave it alone and let the States decide.

For the record, the Conservative position is as close to the original Founders as practicable. We do not want the Federal Government to do anything the Constitution does not say it should.

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Answer by water_skipper
The same reason Democrats do. They both cater to special interest groups, just different ones.

Answer by Cogito Ergo Sum
I feel like a broken record: I’ve been preaching for years that I am neither a liberal nor a conservative. My observation down through a lot of years has been that liberals want government’s hand in our wallets but, conversely, want government’s nose out of our bedrooms; and that conservatives want just the opposite: they want government’s hand out of our wallets but want its nose in our bedrooms.

I identify myself as an independent as a voter and a libertarian in my political philosophy. My philosophy is that government should keep its hand out of our wallets and its nose out of our bedrooms, which in my opinion is the only consistent position of the three and, as a result, is the only principled position of the three.

It seems to me that you have conceded implicitly in the text of your question that both liberals and conservatives espouse positions that are internally inconsistent. The libertarian position is internally consistent.

Neither conservatives nor liberals have ever evidenced any inclination apparent to me to justify the internal inconsistency of each of their respective positions; and since the libertarian position is the only internally consistent, principled position, I feel that I have no obligation to justify my position to conservatives or liberals.