How far right are today's conservatives?

President Obama made this comment to newspaper editors.

"Think about that. Ronald Reagan, who, as I recall, is not accused of being a tax-and-spend socialist, understood repeatedly that when the deficit started to get out of control, that for him to make a deal he would have to propose both spending cuts and tax increases. Did it multiple times. He could not get through a Republican primary today."

Today's conservatives as exemplified by today's Republicans are so far right that they would favor raising taxes on poor and middle class rather than the rich. And trust me, that's what they mean by "broadening the tax base." It means the poor and middle class must pay more. This all comes from the Congressman Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget plan. The plan would cut taxes for the rich from 35 % to 25 %. Now to balance the budget the plan calls for massive spending cuts. It has to. You can't reduce revenue and expect to cure the federal budge deficit by simple tax cuts. And the conservatives have to find a way to get working Americans to pay more to get the Ryan budget to work. Now, you may hear from conservatives that middle class people don't pay income taxes. Okay. But they pay social security taxes. That's something conservatives leave out of the conversation. And yet under Ryan's budget plan, the big rich get the breaks. That's mutual sacrifice?

Today, Ed Schultz did a couple pieces on this for his show. Videos below. Feel free to call him a loud liberal. But the conservatives don't argue against the facts. The rich have gotten richer and the rest, the so called 99 per cent have stayed the same. Another thing you hear in the piece is that Ryan and Mitt Romney, Republican presidential candidate, don't fight the facts that Obama uses to point out that it's so far right, it makes "The Contract with America" look like the New Deal Heck, Obama even points out that Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich once called the Ryan plan "right-wing social engineering."

So could Ronald Reagan win in a Republican primary? I think President Obama is right. Because Reagan would be blasted by the Tea Party nuts for raising taxes to reduce the deficits. I know one conservative who would not win a Republican primary in today's climate. The father of conservatism, Senator Barry Goldwater. (R-Arizona) Goldwater supported a woman's right to choose and gay rights. Any Republican who supports those ideas would be dead in the water.

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