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Bush Was a Big-Government Disaster (Bush Legacy Must Read)
Wall Street Journal ^ | January 24, 2009 | Nick Gillespie

Posted on 01/24/2009 4:03:45 AM PST by Zakeet

Now that George W. Bush has finally left office, here's a challenge to a nation famous for its proud tradition of invention: Can somebody invent a machine capable of fully measuring the disaster that was the Bush presidency?

[Snip]

In a way that was inconceivable when he took office, Mr. Bush -- the advance man for the "ownership society," smaller and more trustworthy government, and a humble foreign policy -- increased the size and scope of the federal government to unprecedented levels. At the same time, he constantly flashed signs of secrecy, duplicity, ineffectiveness and outright incompetence.

Think for a moment about the thousands of Transportation Security Administration screeners -- newly minted government employees all -- who continue to confiscate contact-lens solution and nail clippers while, according to nearly every field test, somehow failing to notice simulated bombs in passenger luggage.

Or schoolchildren struggling under No Child Left Behind, which federalized K-12 education to an unprecedented degree with nothing to show for it other than greater spending tabs. Or the bizarrely structured Medicare prescription-drug benefit, the largest entitlement program created since LBJ. Or the simple reality that taxpayers now guarantee some $8 trillion in inscrutable loans to a financial sector that collapsed from inscrutable loans.

Such programs were not in any way foisted on Mr. Bush, the way that welfare reform had been on Bill Clinton; they were signature projects, designed to create a legacy every bit as monumental and inspiring as Laura Bush's global literacy campaign.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bds; biggovernment; bush; bushlegacy; conservatism; government; heisgone; morebds; presidency; sickofit
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Many more disturbing facts in the article -- especially concerning government spending and regulations.

1 posted on 01/24/2009 4:03:47 AM PST by Zakeet
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To: Zakeet

Big Government Republicanism. This is something that all who are pushing Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana need to know about. I live here and know the man well. He too is a Big Government Republican.

He’s been in office only a year and we conservatives have already had a couple of run-ins with him. Tax cuts and a legislative pay raise.


2 posted on 01/24/2009 4:08:07 AM PST by abb ("What ISN'T in the news is often more important than what IS." Ed Biersmith, 1942 -)
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To: Zakeet
I know Pres. Bush's failings. I don't need someone who first wrote "Suck" magazine and now edits the misnamed "Reason" magazine to tell me this.

Would a Libertarian such as Gillespe run the country any better? We would be suffering terrorist attacks every week, but I guess we wouldn't notice it as we will all be able to take legalized heroin and marijuana.

3 posted on 01/24/2009 4:10:02 AM PST by Stepan12 (Palin & Bolton in 2012)
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To: Zakeet

How could anyone have understood Compassionate Conservatism to mean anything but more government intrusion in the lives of the citizenry? Bush was for big government and relaxed immigration in 2000. Those were my two biggest fears about the man then and they were born out during his terms.


4 posted on 01/24/2009 4:10:37 AM PST by steveyp
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To: Zakeet

Jorge pretty much destroyed the republicrat party.


5 posted on 01/24/2009 4:10:39 AM PST by 43north (11.04.08: the day America committed voluntary suicide)
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To: Zakeet

There is truth to this.

And yet, anyone who has studied business should know that bureaucracies are very difficult power structures to break down. They feed off cash, and are incentivized to grow.

They are like AIDS - no one has every thought of a cure for bureaucracy. The conservative solution is to not make more of it. GREAT. And yet doesn’t that just doom us to be dominated by the lib structures that cannot be torn down?


6 posted on 01/24/2009 4:15:32 AM PST by chuck_the_tv_out
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To: Zakeet

hmmm...sounds like something I and a few others have been SCREAMING about back stabbing Bush. But it doesn’t matter. The RINO loving Freepers will still cling to Bush and defend this big gov blue dog DEMOCRAT as a success even though he thoroughly ripped up and crapped on conservatives. The Republican Party is responsible for what we have today because they jettisoned their principles to cater to the the Bush.


7 posted on 01/24/2009 4:15:38 AM PST by MAD-AS-HELL (How does one win over terrorists? KILL them with UNKINDNESS)
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To: Zakeet

good job of summarizing Bush presidency without a reference to the single biggest historical event, (guess what?) Plus the moldy left wing blather about Katrina. An article that you can run over and post on KOS to high applause and acclaim.


8 posted on 01/24/2009 4:24:33 AM PST by gusopol3
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To: gusopol3

***good job of summarizing Bush presidency without a reference to the single biggest historical event, (guess what?) Plus the moldy left wing blather about Katrina. An article that you can run over and post on KOS to high applause and acclaim.***

My thoughts, exactly. And it’s not just Zakeet. Wonder what “nom de plumes” they use over at DU.


9 posted on 01/24/2009 4:31:08 AM PST by kitkat (THE DAY WE LOSE OUR WILL TO FIGHT WILL BE THE DAY WE LOSE OUR FREEDOM.)
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To: chuck_the_tv_out

had he not held the line on global warming, that federal registry of regulations would have increased by far and above 71k pages/year.


10 posted on 01/24/2009 4:33:05 AM PST by gusopol3
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To: Zakeet
How long will conservatives who hold to the conservative platform cling to the liberal run, liberal owned and neo lib GOP refuse to understand that the GOP and RNC are like cancer in the body of conservatism. The only hope we conservatives have is to start a new conservative party for conservatives only that will run only true conservatives for any and all political offices. Liberals need not apply.
Or just try and pretend that the GOP can be cleaned up. That is a joke and historically impossible. The disease is too deep and the rino politicians to entrenched to ever clean up the neo lib GOP which is much closer to the Marxist run democrat party than to conservatives in their corrupted structure now.
11 posted on 01/24/2009 4:42:01 AM PST by kindred (Conservatives have 4 years to start a new conservative party or lose more elections.)
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To: Zakeet

If you wondered what the US would have been like under gore or kerry, just watch, we now have zero. Even plugs said something big would happen.


12 posted on 01/24/2009 4:47:15 AM PST by CPOSharky (I don't care about the country as long as I'm in charge. Forever.)
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To: kindred

I tell you right off the bat, there are so many Bush Bashing liberals on thread this morning!

Come and get me, Im ready!

bULLFROG


13 posted on 01/24/2009 4:48:08 AM PST by Bullfrogg
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To: gusopol3
"good job of summarizing Bush presidency without a reference to the single biggest historical event, (guess what?) Plus the moldy left wing blather about Katrina. An article that you can run over and post on KOS to high applause and acclaim.

Well said, gus. Bush had big government on the brain, but it doesn't tell the whole story of the man and his presidency.

HE STAYED THE COURSE in the face of brutal fire from the anti-American mainstream and world media, and in staying the course he kept us safe. For that I will always be grateful.

14 posted on 01/24/2009 4:52:33 AM PST by StatenIsland
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To: gusopol3
good job of summarizing Bush presidency without a reference to the single biggest historical event,

So what? This is not the point! Bush has ruined the conservative republican party. I give him plenty of credit for keeping us safe, but he was just another moderate who mollycoddled democrats. Bush spent way too much on gov't, and pursued an estrangement from conservative principles!

15 posted on 01/24/2009 4:52:33 AM PST by sirchtruth (Gravity Of The Situation...)
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To: Stepan12

Thank you. nuff said.


16 posted on 01/24/2009 4:57:28 AM PST by Recovering Ex-hippie (FREE BLAGO !!! LET HIM SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER !!!)
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To: Zakeet

C’mon you BushBots, not a one of you has screamed that ‘BDS’ mee-mee and we’re already past a dozen posts in this thread.


17 posted on 01/24/2009 4:58:50 AM PST by mkjessup (All *HAIL* the illegal regime of TKU ("The Kenyan Usurper"))
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To: kitkat

wow..the Bush haters will have a field day whining over how Bush was awful....the Libs and Lefties love this when they throw red meat to conservative websites.

that way the conservatives just keep spinning their wheels.


18 posted on 01/24/2009 4:59:30 AM PST by Recovering Ex-hippie (FREE BLAGO !!! LET HIM SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER !!!)
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To: Bullfrogg

****Bush Bashing liberals *****

That would be “Bush Bashing CONSERVATIVES”

I don’t know why liberals don’t like him. He gave them everything they wanted except a couple supreme court picks and a tax cut that will expire.


19 posted on 01/24/2009 4:59:55 AM PST by liliesgrandpa (Just out of curiosity, is there any possible GOP candidate that is too repugnant for you to support?)
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To: Zakeet

bttt


20 posted on 01/24/2009 5:01:12 AM PST by Chuck54 ("There is no reason for anyone to have a computer in their home." Ken Olson '77 Digital Equip. Corp.)
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