Free Republic

The Republican Party is uneasy as it shambles toward the crucial 2006 congressional elections. Many of its supporters claim to feel demoralized, if not seduced and abandoned, by the conservative president they thought they elected in 2004. With President Bush's Nixonian economic policies and unwillingness to curtail federal spending, and the Republican faithful as confused as everyone else about the Iraq War, this is a good time to gain some political perspective from two veteran architects of the Reagan Revolution. In the midst of another difficult political predicament, Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, once said he had finally found...

With George W. Bush's popularity down to just 33 percent in the latest Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, liberals like Paul Krugman are starting to salivate at the possibility of bringing down not only the Republican Party, but conservative ideas, as well. Conservatives, too, are becoming concerned about the prospect, and some now are looking to distance themselves from the looming Republican crack-up.Those most concerned about this are conservatives old enough to remember when the conservative movement's attachment to the Republican Party was much more circumspect than it is today. They remember too well the viciousness of the Republican establishment's attacks...

In every administration, there is always one journalist that the White House trusts above the others to represent its point of view. In this administration, it is Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard magazine.Whenever you read one of Barnes' columns, you know that you are getting an inside perspective. You are, in effect, reading what the White House itself is thinking on any given day on any given subject.This is an arrangement that suits everyone. Barnes is regularly able to scoop other reporters viewed as hostile to this administration, while the White House has a conduit through which it can...

On Feb. 21, Doubleday will publish the book that cost me my job: "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy." The germination began when I heard about the extraordinary efforts made by the White House to ram the Medicare drug benefit through the House of Representatives during the night. Until that point, I had given President Bush the benefit of the doubt—even on things with which I was uncomfortable. For example, I had reluctantly concluded the Iraq War was justified on the basis of what I knew at the time it began. I don't normally...

... By my count, there have been 70 different members of the House who have been investigated for serious offenses over the last 30 years, including many involving actual criminality and jail time. Of these, only 15 involved Republicans, with the remaining 55 involving Democrats. ...

President George W. Bush took office to the sustained applause of America’s conservative movement. In 2000, he defeated the liberal environmentalist Al Gore, abruptly terminated the legacy of the even more hated Bill Clinton, and gave Republicans control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. A few cynics were suspicious of Bush’s understanding of and commitment to conservative principles, but most on the Right welcomed his inauguration. Five years later, the traditional conservative agenda lies in ruins. Government is bigger, spending is higher, and Washington is more powerful. The national government has intruded further into state and local concerns. Federal officials...

RONALD REAGAN’S Eleventh Commandment famously ordered his party: Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican. For ambitious and bitchy politicians, it was always a demanding precept and in practice they have obeyed it about as assiduously as they’ve kept the seventh (or for that matter the sixth) of the decalogue of Moses. But the great unwieldy and shifting coalition of the Republican Party has somehow managed to hold itself together rather better than the infamously feuding Democrats, whose favourite form of assembly has long been the circular firing squad. Not any more. Republicans are falling out among themselves...

Bruce Bartlett, a former advisor in the Reagan White House and economist has written a new blockbuster book titled: Impostor : How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy What is so disappointing to me is the way he has carried on in the publicity of his book. He claims that he is trying to send a wakeup call to the Republican Party, that we run the risk of losing the White House or congress or both unless we get control of the reckless spending, a spending Bartlett contends, breaks from the great traditions of Ronald Reagan....

President Bush is not only dealing with angry liberals who blame him for everything, including natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. But even some conservatives are breaking ranks against the president. No matter that Bush revived an economy that was set to tailspin into recession or worse after the dot-com bubble. Nor is there much praise for Bush for keeping the country safe. Since Sept. 11, America has suffered no major terror attacks on U.S. soil. "If Bush wins, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party starting on Nov. 3.” Bruce Bartlett, a Reaganite economist, wrote that in...

Last week, I published a new book, "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy." A lot of my friends are not happy with me for writing it, and I have been embraced by a number of people on the left whom I would ordinarily consider my political enemies. Both are mistaken about why I wrote the book and what I hope to accomplish with it.Some of my former friends on the right have attacked me as an opportunist who sold out his party and his president to get a best-seller. They would not think so...

Last week, I published a new book, Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy. A lot of my friends are not happy with me for writing it and I have been embraced by a number of people on the left whom I would ordinarily consider my political enemies. Both are mistaken about why I wrote the book and what I hope to accomplish with it. Some of my former friends on the right have attacked me as an opportunist who sold out his party and his president to get a best-seller. They would not think...

by Mark Finkelstein February 21, 2006 Conservative author? Want to be invited on MSM shows and given deferential treatment? No problema! Just be willing to take serious shots at a Republican president. Case in point: on tonight's Hardball, Chris Matthews rolled out the red-carpet for author Bruce Bartlett, who had worked in the Reagan and Bush, Sr. administrations. Title of Bartlett's book? "Impostor : How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy". Bingo! Highlights: Matthews: "If you had to narrow it down to the biggest offense, as you see it, that Bush is not conservative, what is...

What happens if you're a Republican commentator and you write a book critical of President George W. Bush that gets you fired from your job at a conservative think tank? For starters, no other conservative institution rushes in with an offer for your superb analytical skills. "Nobody will touch me," said Bruce Bartlett, the author of the forthcoming "Impostor: Why George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy." He added, "I think I'm just kind of radioactive at the moment." Bartlett, a domestic policy aide at the White House in the Reagan administration and a deputy assistant Treasury...

With no real issues to promote, Democrats are putting all their eggs into the basket of corruption to restore their political fortunes. They and their friends in the mainstream media are working overtime to connect everyone and everything on the right side of the political spectrum to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to multiple felonies. One channel that Democrats and liberals are working is tying conservative think tanks to the Abramoff scandal. They know that these think tanks have been one of the most effective forces in Washington over the last 30 years in advancing a...

One of the unstated causes of the unfolding lobbying scandal swirling around Jack Abramoff is the extensive changes to the nature of both the membership and staffing of Congress over the last 30 years and a breakdown of longstanding legislative procedures. These days, most congressional aides -- and even some of the members -- look like they are barely out of college. And although they may be smart and well educated, they have no depth of experience and no commitment to the Congress as an institution. They are simply there to get a line on their resume before going off...

December 13, 2005Sealed White House Needs Outside AdviceBy Bruce Bartlett In its latest issue, Newsweek magazine has a disturbing portrait of George W. Bush as an aloof, out-of-touch president, isolated by his own governing style. Because of his intolerance for dissent, he has effectively surrounded himself with yes-men (and women) fearful of telling the president anything he doesn't want to hear. Written by veteran reporters Evan Thomas and Richard Wolffe, the Newsweek story confirms reports we have heard for the last five years about Bush's disinterest in the policy process or even the day-to-day politicking that ordinarily goes with the...

A few weeks ago, the Internal Revenue Service released data on tax year 2003. They show that the top 1 percent of taxpayers, ranked by adjusted gross income, paid 34.3 percent of all federal income taxes that year. The top 5 percent paid 54.4 percent, the top 10 percent paid 65.8 percent, and the top quarter of taxpayers paid 83.9 percent. Not only are these data interesting on their own, but looking at them over time shows that the share of total income taxes paid by the wealthy has risen even as statutory tax rates have fallen sharply. A growing...

Who pays the taxes Dec 6, 2005 by Bruce Bartlett ( bio | archive | contact ) Email to a friend Print this page Text size: A A A few weeks ago, the Internal Revenue Service released data on tax year 2003. They show that the top 1 percent of taxpayers, ranked by adjusted gross income, paid 34.3 percent of all federal income taxes that year. The top 5 percent paid 54.4 percent, the top 10 percent paid 65.8 percent, and the top quarter of taxpayers paid 83.9 percent. Not only are these data interesting on their own, but looking...

Tax Cuts for the Wealthy: Appearances v. Reality By Bruce Bartlett A few weeks ago, the Internal Revenue Service released data on tax year 2003. They show that the top 1 percent of taxpayers, ranked by adjusted gross income, paid 34.3 percent of all federal income taxes that year. The top 5 percent paid 54.4 percent, the top 10 percent paid 65.8 percent, and the top quarter of taxpayers paid 83.9 percent. Not only are these data interesting on their own, but looking at them over time shows that the share of total income taxes paid by the wealthy has...

One of the most important political developments in America is the creeping corruption of the Republican Party. Increasingly, there is little meaningful difference between Republicans in Congress and the Democrats they replaced a little more than 10 years ago. Unless they clean up their act fast, Republicans will suffer major losses in next year's congressional elections. There is no question Democrats became deeply corrupt in the 40 years after 1954 when they controlled the House of Representatives continuously. Everyone knew it, just as everyone knows the truth of Lord Acton's famous maxim: "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts...