Bush Was a Big-Government Disaster (Bush Legacy Must Read)

Wall Street Journal ^ | January 24, 2009 | Nick Gillespie

[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.

[wgflyer]

Thanks for that head’s up. I can’t vote for any big government Republican any more. And I won’t, because it just keeps getting worse when we do.

[wgflyer]

I couldn’t have said it better. I hope that, before I die, there is a conservative leader on the ballot.

[abb]

http://forgotston.com/

Despite a “hiring freeze” for the first 6 months of Bobby Jindal’s term as governor, as of December 1, 2008, the number of state employees (not positions, but bodies) INCREASED by 2,778. Source: LA Department of Civil Service.

On December 1, 2008, Bobby instituted another “hiring freeze.”

In an article (see here) in Sunday’s Baton Rouge we learned that the current number of state employees is 103,775.

In less than 2 months of the latest “hiring freeze” the number of state employees has INCREASED by 1,424.

Thus, in one year and two “hiring freezes” the total number of state employees has INCREASED by 4,202 or 4.2%.

We don’t have a “freeze.” What we have is a “snow job.”