HOW CONSERVATIVE IS PRESIDENT BUSH?

The Cato Institute ^ | August 3, 2002 | By Veronique de Rugy

[Uncle Bill]

How Conservative Is President Bush?

The Cato Institute
By Veronique de Rugy
August 3, 2002
Source

Veronique de Rugy is a fiscal policy analyst at the Cato Institute.

President Bush may be repeating the sins of his father. Although elected on a Reaganesque, tax-cutting platform, the White House has veered to the left. President Bush has signed a bill to regulate political speech, issued protectionist taxes on imported steel and lumber, backed big-spending education and farm bills, and endorsed massive new entitlements for mental health care and prescription drugs. When the numbers are added up, in fact, it looks like President Bush is less conservative than President Clinton.

It makes little sense to discourage one's core supporters prior to a mid-term election. Yet that is the result when a Republican president expands government, which Bush is doing. Also, academic research on voting patterns shows that a president is most likely to get re-elected if voters are enjoying an increase in disposable income. Yet making government bigger is not a recipe for economic growth. After all, there is a reason why Hong Kong grows so fast and France is an economic basket case. But you can't tell that to the Bush administration.

Administration officials privately admit that much of the legislation moving through Congress represents bad public policy. Yet they argue either that everything must take a back seat to the war on terror (much as the first Bush administration treated the war against Iraq) or that compromises are necessary to neutralize issues such as education. But motives and rationalizations do not repeal the laws of economics.

In less than two years, President Bush has presided over more government expansion than took place during eight years of Bill Clinton. For instance:

• The education bill expands federal involvement in education. The administration originally argued that the new spending was a necessary price to get vouchers and other reforms. Yet the final bill boosted spending and was stripped of almost all reform initiatives. And there is every reason to believe that this new spending will be counter-productive, like most other federal money spent on education in the past 40 years. Children and taxpayers are the big losers.

• The farm bill is best characterized as a bipartisan orgy of special interest politics. Making a mockery of the Freedom to Farm Act, the new legislation boosts farm spending to record levels. Old subsidies have been increased and new subsidies created. Perhaps worst of all, the administration no longer has the moral credibility to pressure the European Union to reform its socialized agricultural policies. Taxpayers and consumers are the big losers.

• The protectionist decisions on steel and lumber imports make free traders wish Bill Clinton were still president. These restrictions on world commerce have undermined the productivity of U.S. manufacturers by boosting input prices and creating massive ill will in the international community. American products already have been targeted for reciprocal treatment. Consumers and manufacturers are the big losers.

• The campaign finance law is an effort to protect the interests of incumbent politicians by limiting free speech rights during elections. The administration openly acknowledged that the legislation is unconstitutional, yet was unwilling to make a principled argument for the Bill of Rights and fair elections. Voters and the Constitution are the big losers.

• New health care entitlements are akin to throwing gasoline on a fire. Medicare and Medicaid already are consuming enormous resources, and the burden of these programs will become even larger when the baby boom generation retires. Adding a new prescription drug benefit will probably boost spending by $1 trillion over 10 years. A mandate for mental health coverage will drive up medical costs, making insurance too expensive for many more families.

Those policy decisions make government bigger and more expensive. They also slow the economy and hurt financial markets -- read the headlines lately? For all his flaws, President Clinton's major policy mistake was the 1993 tax increase. Other changes, such as the welfare reform bill, NAFTA, GATT, farm deregulation, telecommunications deregulation, and financial services deregulation, moved policy in a market-oriented direction.

Perhaps most importantly, there was a substantial reduction in federal spending as a share of gross domestic product during the Clinton years. Using the growth of domestic spending as a benchmark, Clinton was the second most conservative president of the post-World War II era, trailing only Ronald Reagan.

To be sure, much of the credit for Clinton's good policy probably belongs to the Republican Congress, but that is not an excuse for bad policy today. And on one positive note, President Bush has "promised" to fight for partial privatization of Social Security. Yet, so far, President Bush has not vetoed a single piece of legislation. Needless to say, this means it will be rather difficult to blame "big-spending" Democrats if the economy continues to sputter.

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Compassionate Conservatism Means Big Government

No To 'Compassionate Conservatism'
"Marvin Olasky, the former Marxist journalism professor who coined the term. But he and George W. Bush are barking up the wrong tree if they think "compassionate conservatism" is going to rally popular support necessary to effect the real change needed to turn this country around."

President Highlights Compassionate Conservative Agenda for Inner Cities

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If You Want Increasing Huge Government, Vote Bush

BUSH SPENDING BILL LARGEST EVER

U.S. quietly OKs fetal stem cell work - Bush allows funding despite federal limits on embryo use

Bush Signs Largest Family Planning Bill In U.S. History

Un El día En El la vida de Jorge W. La arbusto

OPEN BORDERS

Bush's 'open door' slammed

"I told the Congress that I want to make sure that the Mexican citizen here is well-respected," Bush said. "And one way to do that is to pass 245I."

CFR - "I Believe In Free Speech"

Meanwhile, Back On The Farm

Bush Urges Congress To Deliver on Prescription Drugs For Medicare

• AARP Likes Bush's Prescription Drug Plan

GOP Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Advances in House - Another Trillion Dollars

Pig Book - 2002

Orgy At Federal Trough

Bush and House Republicans Push Legislation For Full Drug Subsidies For Low-Income Elderly

Bush Prepares 'Big-Time' Response To African Famine

Government Spending - War Against The Stock Market

Bush signs debt-limit increase

Bush Pushes Minority Homeownership

Bush's Food Stamp Plan Called Ethnic Pandering

Bush Wants Food Stamps For Non-Citizens

Worse Than Drunken Sailors!

Senate Clears Way For Trade Bill - More Spending

BUSH AND THE BIG GOVERNMENT GOP

Security Bill Loaded With Wasteful PORK

Senate Ok's $31.5 Billion Anti-Terror Bill Loaded With Pork

How Bad Can Things Get?

George W. Bush and Gun Control

Bush Pushes Gore Plan For Orwellian Government

Bush Backs Down From Immunity Demand - Caves Again

Bush administration has been "as bad, if not worse" than the Clinton administration when it comes to the transfer of sensitive technologies to the People's Republic of China

BUSH, G7 to pay $20 billion to get rid of Russian nuke stockpiles

George W. Bush - The Global Warming Sell-Out

• George W. Bush Told Americans Before Elected That He Was A Global Warming Wacko

• Conservatives Angered by Environmental Provision [Bush pulls another Al Gore]

Dubya's New Deal - The New FDR

• Roosevelt -- Man Of The Century?

Bush Won't Label Arafat A Terrorist

George W. Bush's Terrorist Buddy

"When peoplelose faith in their institutions they trust to enforce the law, justice is no longer possible."

Bush Caves On Airport Screeners

Bush's Latest Srategic Mistake

BUSH: NINE FORMER PRESIDENTS WRONG; CLINTON RIGHT!

CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS? GEORGE BUSH'S NEVER-ENDING DOMESTIC BUDGET BUILD-UP - Father Like Son

Bush Appoints Four More Homosexuals

Dr. James Dobson Criticizes Bush Appointment to the CDC

Bush Pushes $500 Million HIV/Aids Funding For Africa

Bush to Propose Another $100 Million Over Five Years for Education in Africa

Are You Fat? No Problem, George W. Bush Will Help

House Conservatives Budge on Arts Spending

Bush Cheers Government Support For Art

Bush to Name Justice Dept. BUILDING After Kennedy

GOP Right In Iowa Fear Purge

GOP Leaders Spurn Right in Key Races

Laura Ingraham's analysis of yet another Bush betrayal

Bush decisions rankle conservatives

BUSH PROPOSES LARGEST EXPANSION OF GOVERNMENT SINCE TRUMAN

Bush's Record Calls into Question His Conservative Label

Conservatives Question Dubya's Direction

Conservatives not satisfied with Bush's record

Bush, Ashcroft Run Roughshod Over Bill Of Rights, Study Says

Republicans: Big Government Addicts

A Few Questions For Die-Hard Bush Supporters

Are Republicans losing their constituency?

Ann Coulter: BUSH PAYS HOMAGE TO THE FETISHISTIC RITUALS OF LIBERALISM

Compassionate conservatism is about socialism, not Americanism

Bush is jettisoning his principles for what?

Bush: stop the runaway federal spending and regulating!

Mark Levin Hammers Bushbots

Was Clinton More Conservative Than Bush? - Fox News

Bush: A Democrat in Republican clothing?

Bush continues Clinton Agenda

GEORGE W. BUSH: CLINTON'S THIRD TERM ©

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Bush's Court Jester

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"Another way to make sure that we foster growth and restore confidence is to hold people accountable for misdeeds in the public sector."
George W. Bush - University of Alabama at Birmingham Alys Stephens Center - July 15, 2002.

NOTE: Do As I Say, Not As I Do.

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A Bush administration insider has privately leaked word that a deal was struck between Democratic congressional leaders and the Bush White House not to prosecute Bill and/or Hillary Clinton

Bush Administration Lawyers Defending Hillary - Gratis

Bush and Ashcroft Justice Dept. Hamstringing Pardongate Probers.

Bill Clinton broke the law and the Republicans let him off the hook.

What we need is the tough Newt Gingrich back.

"As far back as April 7, 1998, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich was asked on NBC’s Today if he were going to press for impeachment. His response: "No, we don’t have any evidence."
Source.

Al Gore Broke The Law and the Republicans let him off the hook.

"I don’t care if you have proof that he raped a woman, stood up and shot her dead, you’re still not going to get 67 votes."

Bush Says He Wants to Let Clinton 'Move On'
"Listen, here's my view: I think it's time to get all of this business behind us. I think it's time ... to allow the president to finish his term, and let him move on and enjoy life and become an active participant in the American system. And I think we've had enough focus on the past. It's time to move forward." - George W. Bush.

Bush Won't Dwell On Clinton Affair, "We're Moving Forward"
"B/S, Mr Bush. Clinton is a criminal and a traitor. We demand a thorough investigation and prosecution. Our Republic is dead and our liberty is at stake if the next administration does not clean up this mess for now and forever more. Corrupt politicians must pay the price for subverting our Constitution and using their offices for personal gain."
4 Posted on 01/20/2000 14:17:56 PST by Jim Robinson

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A Republic If We Can Keep It - Bush Trashing The Constitution

It's About The Republic, Not The Republican

How Big Is The Government's Debt? - $33.1 TRILLION

There Must Be Some Way Out Of Here

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"Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes,"
George W. Bush - SOURCE.

[terilyn]

Yeah, and the JW threads get pulled for "flame wars". LOL...go figure.

[Texasforever]

You're pissing into the wind and only serving to contaminate your own pool. Hahaha!

Yes and every psychotic thinks he is always right too. Drugged out "free thinkers" think they are so "intelligent" that no one can possibly understand them, Black Helicopter sighting conspiracy nuts think that only THEY know the truth, and self-centered arrested development adults think that they are oppressed because life has bitch slapped them into acting like adults.. . So the hell what?

[GmbyMan]

>>> If we ALL vote for third, it will win. There are many of us. We don't buy Demo and apparently we can no longer buy Republican either. They have left us, and not we who have left them. <<<

If every single person who either posts on or is a lurker or is inclined to sympathize with a poster/lurker here at FR were to vote for, say, Howard Phillips, he might get 2% of the vote. In 2000, that would have meant that AlGore would now be President of the United States. That would also take every single person here at FR to actually agree that voting for Phillips is smarter than, say, voting for Pat Buchanan or Harry Browne or some other pathetic loser (in the political sense, that is). No thanks. I have no regrets about voting for President Bush.

I knew going in that he was going to spend more money on Education and try to creat a new Prescription Drug Entitlement. I don't think these are good ideas. AlGore would have spent more. He would have signed the Farm Bill. He probably would have enacted the Steel Tariffs (which, I'm afraid, was a naked political calculation by President Bush). He might have pushed for an even stronger CFR bill (so that he would have more laws to break). All the while, Howard Phillips or whoever would be sitting there with 2% of the vote. We would now have a genuinely bad Patients Bill of Rights (aka, Lawyers Bill of Rights or Patients Bill of Goods) signed into law. We would not have any tax cuts. We would probably have tax increases. The events of 9/11 would have resulted in our having to "understand" why the terrorists hate us.... or Gore would have gone into Kabul with both guns blazing on 9/12 or 9/13 when we weren't ready to fight the comprehensive war against Afghanistan.

All the while, everyone who posts here get to be very happy with their principles in tact. No thanks. I'll take results. Even if I don't agree with them some of the time!

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

You see after that post he posted was pulled you know the one with all the info about another freeper, he then stalked her to another thread and started again.

Exactly right.

[Texasforever]

call boys boys. You have a problem with that, boy? Have another drink. Have two

You also have a real problem.

[Twodees]

Is there some reason you feel the need to refer to others, including people that are obviously female, as "boy". It doesn't help your argument and only makes you appear to be a racist. Unless of course you're trying to do a bad Jackie Gleason impression of Smokey and the Bandit?

I apologize to any ladies I may have called boy. That isn't my usual practice. As a Southerner, the use of "boy" to another man isn't even an insult, just a manner of speaking. It's good for smoking out yankees and liberals though, both of whom will immedately feign offense at the first utterance of the term.

Jackie Gleason said "sumb***h" more than he said "boy". If he said "boy" he's the one doing an imitation of Southerners, not me.

[TLBSHOW]

do you have a keyboard? I asked where your link is for your rat hole?

[Texasforever]

I don't know, have you read them?

[Joe Hadenuf]

Actually I have gone to, and read a lot of the links Uncle Bill has posted. Have you? And if so, do you feel they are all lies?

[2Trievers]

And you are going to single-handedly save the Republic by the fine work you are doing here tonight? You have no valuable contention ... haha

La bonne nuit mon cher. La bonne chance parce que vous allez avoir besoin d'il. &;-)

[Twodees]

Well in Texas when an adult male calls another adult male a "boy" in an argument someone is going to get a mud hole stopped in them. It is almost always the "boy" doing the stomping.

Malarkey, boy. I lived in Longview for a few years and the men I worked and partied with called me "boy" as often as I called them "boy, which was every day. The only time any mudholes got stomped in anybody's butts were when some body intentionally started a fight. That was almost never accomplished with words. You're from Illinois, ain't you? How do you like Houston?

BTW, I'm not a Southern party member and I love this country. Try to keep your lies to a minimum before you pass out. Boy.

[Texasforever]

Just to give you an example. I directed you to a link that showed local Law enforcement resistance helping the feds to arrest illegals. That is YOUR pet issue, there is a Thread running at this EXACT moment using that link as saying that it is NOT the job of the locals at all and that the Feds are wrong in asking them to do it. That my friend is deliberate damned if you do/damned if you don't agenda politics. I am fed up with it I am angry and I am going to point it out until I am banned from this site.

[terilyn]

Jackie Gleason used the term when talking to his son in the movie.

As far as using it to "smoke out yankees and liberals", well I guess you found me out. I'm a Yankee.

And I'm not feigning, it is offensive and as you stated in your post, (in not so direct words), meant to intimidate.

I'm sure Dr. Keyes would be impressed...

[TLBSHOW]

Uncle Bill Clinton posted them you mean.

[Mo1]

. It's good for smoking out yankees and liberals though

Hello .. not all Yankees are liberals

We may have lousy BBQ up here .. but please don't think we are all liberals

[TLBSHOW]

Ok little boy. Humm you like that word boy Huh? So I"ll play your bs game little boy.....

[F16Fighter]

"The President is less conservative than most of us would like, and is more conservative than many of us expected."

The first part of your posit is an understatement, and the last part rings hollow if we are to examine the evidence.

The truth of the matter is Dubya is now impersonating a moderate Democrat as President, while having enacted the policies of...A Moderate Democrat.

Sorry people -- George W. Bush is NOT very conservative at all.

[Texasforever]

Malarkey, boy. I lived in Longview for a few years and the men I worked and partied with called me "boy" as often as I called them "boy, which was every day. The only time any mudholes got stomped in anybody's butts were when some body intentionally started a fight. That was almost never accomplished with words. You're from Illinois, ain't you? How do you like Houston?

You wouldn’t have survived two days in Texas. You mouth would have put you in the bone yard so fast you wouldn't know where to leave a forwarding address. You are a keyboard bad ass that would cry like a girl if a man called you out. No I am NOT from Illinois. Now go play with your civil war dolls like a good little........BOY.

[Joe Hadenuf]

And as I told you, I had seen that link before. Actually, it's my position that the fedgov and the local level police agencies are not doing the job.

However, the problem originates at the fedgov level. They dropped the ball, and completely failed to do their job to secure our borders and maintain our sovereignty.....That is why I have nothing but comtempt for them, regarding this specific issue.

[Twodees]

Er, Elizabeth Dole is a public figure. "Howlin" is not.

And this would be relevant because.....? Ma'am, I typed in Dole's name because it's the first name of someone in NC which popped into my head. To repeat, there was no live link in the search result giving any home address or DOB.

Therefore, if that site Miz terrilynn linked me to was the one Registered inported to the thread, someone is mistaken about there being any more info on Howlin than was contained on her profile page.

You seem to be deternmined to ignore my point. I hope I'm wrong in that assumption, but this should clear up my position for any lurkers. For anyone who beleives what you're saying, I invite them to click on the link provided as evidence in the earlier post. The search doesn't display a home address or DOB. Sorry to bust your bubble.