Posted on 10/11/2005 7:09:03 PM PDT by Conservative Firster
Though widely viewed as an arch conservative in the major media, Bruce Bartlett increasingly finds himself alienated from the president of his party. Bush's policies, he warns, have been anything but conservative.
Bartlett faults Bush for moving away from free trade, adopting Keynesian economic theories, increasing government regulation and doing an extremely poor job of developing and selling conservative initiatives, such as Social Security reform. As such, George W. Bush, he says, has been a disaster for conservatism. Criticism of Bush from the right has largely been confined to fringe elements outside the mainstream of the conservative movement. Bartlett is the first from within the conservative mainstream to make the case that Bush is not "one of us" and does not deserve conservatives' support. As the next presidential election looms, Bartlett warns, a new standard bearer must be found who will correct the many errors of this administration and get America's fiscal house in order.
After September 11, America declared war on Islamic militancy that required huge new expenditures on defense. In the face of this, it was folly, says Bartlett, to introduce the Medicare drug benefit, a middle class entitlement program that, according to its own actuaries, burdens the American taxpayer with a new $18.2 trillion debt, an amount much larger even than the (once-) dreaded Social Security crisis. To pay for this vast new expansion of the welfare state, Bartlett warns, taxes can only go up—way up. Getting sufficient revenue out of our current tax system will be futile, making something like a European-style value added tax a near-certainty. It is noteworthy that Governor Bush once appointed a Texas tax reform commission that recommended a VAT, which he then supported.
On top of the Medicare drug benefit, Bush has rammed through huge expansions of federal education and agriculture programs. He has done nothing to restrain Congress's pork barrel spending and is the first president since James Garfield not to veto a single bill.
The administration's massive increases in government spending, Bartlett says, makes a sharp increase in taxes inevitable. There are many reasons to believe that a financial crisis may be brewing as a result. The Federal Reserve, for instance, is raising interest rates, which will put pressure on the stock and bond markets, and eventually prick the housing bubble, just as Fed tightening ultimately popped the stock market bubble of the late 1990's. When this happens, Washington policymakers who have been ignoring the budget deficit for years will suddenly see deficit reduction as the only way of restoring confidence. At this point, Bush will have to reverse course on taxes and spending.
CAFTA. You lose.
W will not raise taxes. Period.
Bush never claimed to be Reagan in the first place. How can he move away from a title he never applied to himself?
Well, at least we have a conservative Constitutional scholar Supreme Court nominee!
Bartlett is a credible writer, IMO.
No, his Presidential commission on tax fairness will take care of the tax raising ideas for him. He needs the money to pay for his spending.
I have to wonder how many accounts the DUmmies have on these boards....
LOL BUMP!!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1500686/posts
Theres the link.
steel tarriffs.
pong.
LOL! CAFTA is anti-free trade and what did Reagan do, he raised social security taxes and didn't propose any reform. BTW Reagan also granted real amnesty to illegals.
With "friends" like Bartlett, who needs enemies?
Unlike Ronald Reagan, who raised them one year after lowering them.
I wish I could say Bartlett was wrong. But I expect more of this as conservatives start to take a more realistic look at how they've been had.
A compassionate conservative, yes. This implies a difference between him and a conservative such as Reagan.
Bush was pretty open about who he is and what he wanted to do, during his 2000 campaign. He continued being honest in the 2004 campaign. People who thought Bush was another Reagan didn't pay attention.
Hope you're wearing asbestos underwear. The bushbots are already in full Captain Queeg mode over all the conservatives "jumping the shark" on the Miers nomination.
About as many as the freepers have over at DU. =)
truth bump
Bush will raise your taxes and you will still defend him.
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