Which of the following options best describes how Republicans and Democrats differ in their preferred approaches to reducing the national debt? 1. Republicans want to reduce taxes while drastically reducing federal government spending, whereas2. Democrats want to raise taxes (at least on the wealthy) while moderately reducing federal government spending. 3. Republicans want to increase taxes and reduce government spending, whereas Democrats want to reduce taxes and increase government spending. 4. Republicans want to raise taxes while drastically reducing federal government spending, whereas Democrats want to moderately reduce both taxes and federal government spending.

1. Republicans want to reduce taxes while drastically reducing federal government spending, whereas

2. Democrats want to raise taxes (at least on the wealthy) while moderately reducing federal government spending.

Explanation:

The main difference between Republicans and Democrats in this area revolved around how much Government intervention they deemed as 'ideal 'within the economy.

The Republican tends to favor less government intervention. They want the government to be less involved in wealth/welfare distribution. Republicans generally believe that people's welfare will be based on direct competition in the market. They tend to oppose high taxes and large government spending in welfare since they believe it will only increase the national debt.

The Democrat tends to favor more government intervention. They want the government to create a lot of programs for increasing people's general welfare. This is why they favor high taxes. High taxes is an efficient method to distribute the wealth from the ultra wealthy for the good of the less wealthy,.