Here is a quote for you:

“It would be refreshing to be accused of being heartless and frugal, rather than getting in a bidding war on spending with the Democrats like we have lately,” says Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee. Ryan is one of the architects of the strategy to restore the image of Republicans as true fiscal conservatives.

The quote is found in “Uncompassionate Conservatives” by Fred Barnes in the Weekly Standard.
I know Paul Ryan and he is a tremendously good man. He honestly thinks the best way to run government is to have it be as lean, trim, and unobtrusive as possible. I agree. It just comes down to this question of what it means to be lean and trim. For me, it has to mean a radical approach to caring about the poor. That does NOT mean just throwing money at the poor but rather funding those small, community-based secular and faith-based programs that tend to be so successful. It also means using positions of political leadership to draw attention to issues of poverty, hunger, and disease domestically and internationally. Doing that is just a matter of conscience. That is why I am a conscience conservative.