The thread about Obama's victory got me thinking of my own biases as a 'deficit hawk', a flawed political ideology that will be proven wrong in 10 years. I got a burst of inspiration, let see what flaws are in this baby.
There are two new elements added to the game, the Economy, and the National Debt. The Economy can be either in a great depression or grow very very fast. The National Debt is moderate, and can either go down to Nonexistant to Exteremly Dangerous. Also, I'm adding in a new issue: Government Spending/"Social Investment". Very low and the government is very stingy. Very high, and it turns out that there is such a thing as a free lunch.
Arch-Conservatives and Elite Liberals love having a high economy, but each political ideology have different views on how it would work. Arch-Conservatives want to have low government spending (so as to curb the national debt and prevent the US from becoming 'socialist') and low taxation (because of trickle-down Reganomics, and the belief that the people are the best deciders of how to use their money). Elite Liberals want high government spending (stimulate the economy via Kenseyianism) and high taxation (so as to curb the national debt and punish the wealthy).
Essentially, "low tax and low spend" and "high tax and high spend" would, for the most part, not affect the National Debt that much, but it could, if the RNG is Liberal enough. Having liberal Government Spending means that you spend lots of money, and having liberal Taxation laws mean you make a lot of money, so if the RNG works well, you could decrease the National Debt. If the RNG is conservative, it might increase the National Debt.
Now, low taxation and high government spending are both two ways that could also stimulate the economy, making the economy great and awesome. But they might backfire. The best way to stimulate the economy is to have the best of both Liberalism and Conservativism, have the Liberal nanny state and have no taxation. But this would increase the National Debt heavily, so it is like eating your cake and having it too.
For the most part, High Taxation will dampen the effects of High Government Spending on the economy, but not by much to render the Government Spending meaningless. Low Government Spending would dampen the effects of Low Taxation, but not by much to render Low Taxation meaningless either.
Random events can also affect the economy as well, either postive or negative.
Aside from other effects the economy have on raids (say, if times are good, you get more donations, and vice versa)...a good economy (above 'normal') helps the incumbent President (and/or his political party) win the election. A bad economy (below 'normal') helps the incumbent President (and/or his political party) loses the election. A bad economy can help you overthrow the Conservative Presidency during the 2008 election, but if the economy is still bad, you could get kicked out and the Conservative Party can come back into power (not a Conservative President, it could be a Moderate President running under the Conservative Party's banner).
You're going to have to think about how to improve the economy, while at the same time moving towards an Elite Liberal utopia. You may be okay with having high government spending and low taxation, at least to spend yourself out of a recession, but then once the economy is at firm footing, move in to increase taxation. If I implement politicans, I can have LCS Politicans decide to do 'support economic stimulus' actions that support the economy but hurt the national debt, or 'collect taxation/elimante waste' that help the national debt but hurt the economy.
I can't really think of a negative problem for the National Debt, since most people really don't care about the National Debt, it's an "inside-the-beltway" issue. The only thing I could think of is that if the National Debt reaches a very high level, the US will go bankrupt and be bought out by China Inc.
EDIT: I'd like to point out in this simulation that I ignore social security and medicare, which many defict hawks hate with a passion. I prefer to ignore them though, to make it easier to code and give the LCS a chance to actually have a low National Debt.