Warning: I'm About to Get Political

With apologies in advance to my conservative friends (yes, I do have and love them), I just have to vent politically for a bit.
Apparently our education system (albeit a liberal agenda item) has failed horribly. I grew up in a conservative house hold (Army Catholic)and I was fortunate that my Department of Defense Dependent School education is one of the best (oh irony of ironies). However the rest of the nation was not so lucky. Conservatives today cannot do math. There I said it. The majority of the self-identifying conservatives who are outraged at Obama's "tax and spend" agenda and are participating in the "Tea Parties" just received the largest tax cut ever and will have more spending money in their take home pay then ever before. Simple math. Yes, the deficit is increasing, but the amount in question is mathematically negligible compared to the deficits we had under both Bushes and Reagan. It took a tax and spend Clinton to generate a surplus - and yes, he did it through increasing the taxes on the middle class. As someone who paid those taxes and lived through the years of inflation, I understood the need.
The term "fiscal conservative" is one that I actually embrace. However, the majority of people who think they are "fiscal conservatives," well to quote Inigo Montoya, "I do not think the word means what you think it means." Fiscal conservatives want spending to be wise and frugal. This is not something we had in the "conservative" Bush years - either of them. Going from a surplus to a deficit is inexcusable. But what horrifies me is that none of that money spent was an investment in our future; none of it would result even theoretically in future growth. Where were the conservatives the last 8 years when this mess started? Not throwing tea parties.
Yes, Obama is increasing the taxes on those who make over $250K a year. Yet, his increases still mean that a person making over 250K pays LESS in taxes than the did under both Reagan and Bush. My brother (who did not receive the same DoDDs education I did) represents what I assume to be the majority of lower and middle class conservatives. He does not want taxes to increase on the wealthy because one day he might make over 250K. Again, it comes back to that pesky inability to do math. The chances of a person without logical reasoning skills and a college degree making over 250K a year legally are not statically probable.
There. I vented. But I don't feel any better. And I will continue to giggle every time I hear of someone "tea bagging."