Choice and Accountability: "Bush has redefined conservatism." (Barone)

U.S. News & World Report | 12/15/03 | Michael Barone

[bdeaner]

Nation & World 12/15/03
By Michael Barone
Choice and accountability

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Many conservatives are complaining that George W. Bush is a big-government conservative--or not a conservative at all. They complain about the Medicare prescription drug law he and the House and Senate Republican leadership pushed through, the first major expansion of Medicare since 1965. They call him a big spender, noting that discretionary spending has been rising more rapidly than under Bill Clinton. They complain that he pushed through the first education bill giving the federal government a role in setting standards. They complain about the farm bill he signed in 2002 and the energy bill he championed this year.

All those complaints have some substance. But for the most part Bush did not really campaign as a small-government conservative. A different theme runs through the major policies he advocated in the campaign and the major policy changes he has pushed through as president, a theme that can be summed up in two words: choice and accountability. The Bush tax cuts let you have the choice of how to spend more of your money, and you are, as always, accountable for the results. The education law forces the states to hold students and teachers accountable and gives them some choice in deciding how to do so. The Medicare prescription drug bill contains health savings accounts and competition experiments in 2010, which are attempts at providing more choice and more accountability.

Cold decisions. To be sure, Bush has made compromises. Congress was unwilling to vote for all of the tax cuts he proposed; he and the Republican leadership made cold decisions and got what they could. (House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas like to say that if you pass a bill by more than one vote, you have given away too much.) Bush gave up early on school vouchers, and it's unclear how strong the state standards will be. The Medicare prescription drug bill contains much less provision for competition than Bush wanted; DeLay at one point excluded Thomas from the conference committee to whittle the provision down. It's not clear that the bill will lead to the choice-and-accountability healthcare system that conservatives like Thomas and former Speaker Newt Gingrich want.

Bush has redefined conservatism. It is now not the process of cutting government and devolving powers; it is the process of installing choice and accountability into government even at the cost of allowing it to grow. This is an attempt to move government in the same direction as the private sector, which now offers much more in the way of choice and accountability than it did in the 1950s and 1960s, when big corporations and big unions established wage rates, when you worked for one company until age 65 and then depended on that one company and Social Security for your retirement income.

What is next on Bush's list? Social Security. In the past quarter century the private sector has moved from defined-benefit pensions to defined-contribution pensions. Defined-benefit pensions gave you little choice and no accountability: If the LTV Steel pension fund or the United Mine Workers hospital fund went belly up, you were out of luck (or lobbying Congress for a federal bailout). With defined-contribution pensions, you make the choice of how to invest the money in your 401(k), and you are accountable for the results.

Bush campaigned for Social Security individual investment accounts in 2000 but, with many congressional Republicans queasy, has not mentioned them much since. I think he is going to return to the issue next month and make Social Security a major issue in the campaign. Most proposals have talked of letting you invest 2 percent of your 12.4 percent Social Security tax in the market. But the nonpartisan chief actuary of the Social Security Administration has just costed out a proposal to let you invest 6.4 percent and concluded that it would leave the system sound "through 2077 and beyond." Bush's Social Security appointees have been keeping in close touch with the leaders of the AARP, whose support was critical in passing the Medicare bill. Individual investment accounts would move America toward more choice and accountability, away from dependence on big institutions and toward more independence and self-reliance. That is Bush's brand of conservatism, and it is in line with changes in the character of the country.

[walden]

Bump

[GulliverSwift]

"put his faith in the US military"

By leaving Beirut after our troops were attacked?

Look, Reagan was certainly a good president and a conservative one, too. But he wasn't as conservative as many on FR and elsewhere remember him as.

I think the same is true of Bush.

[bdeaner]

"How do you know?" Because in each of those instances he flip-flopped to support the side with higher poll numbers. He said he would veto CFR... was it vetoed, Mr. Deaner? I rest my case.

Actually, I'm a Ph.D., so Dr. Deaner, thanks.

Yes, he did flip-flop to the side of the higher poll numbers, but how do you know that he flipped because of the polls? I see these decisions as political strategy, not an expression of his ideology. He realized that these decisions had certain long-term political consequences that he hadn't previously considered. He wasn't just following the masses.

[bdeaner]

Look, Reagan was certainly a good president and a conservative one, too. But he wasn't as conservative as many on FR and elsewhere remember him as.

I think the same is true of Bush.

Exactly, we idealize Reagan and tend to forget the compromises he was often forced to make, given the circumstances. In the long term, the same thing will likely happen with Bush. Many of the short-term compromises he makes are usually in the service of more important, long-term goals.

[steve50]

He's got backbone, and he sticks by his word,


Forgotten about CFR already? The man's word means nothing.

[Southack]

Presidency of George W. Bush -- the first 34 months

 

Banned Partial Birth Abortion

Reversed Clinton's move to strike Reagan's anti-abortion Mexico Policy

Killed the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty

Killed U.S. involvement in the International Criminal Court

Killed Clinton's CO2 rules that were choking off all of the electricity surplus to California.

Killed Clinton's "ergonomic" rules that OSHA was about to implement; rules that would have shut down every home business in America.

Killed the U.S. - CCCP ABM Treaty that was preventing the U.S. from deploying our ABM defenses

Has CONSTRUCTION in process on the first ten ABM silos in Alaska so that America has a defense against North Korean nukes

 

Pushed through THREE raises for our military.

Increased Defense Dept funding which had deteriorated during the previous 8 years

 

Stopped foreign aid that would be used to fund abortions.

Supported and upheld the ban on abortions at military hospitals

Signed E.O. reversing Clinton's policy of not requiring parental consent for abortions under the Medical Privacy Act

Signed TWO bills into law that arm our pilots with handguns in the cockpit

Currently pushing for full immunity from lawsuits for our national gun manufacturers

Ordered Attorney-General Ashcroft to formally notify the Supreme Court that the OFFICIAL U.S. government position on the 2nd Amendment is that it supports INDIVIDUAL rights to own firearms, NOT a leftist-imagined *collective* right

Told the United Nations we weren't interested in their plans for gun control (i.e. the International Ban on Small Arms Trafficking Treaty)

Successfully executed 2 wars: Afghanistan and Iraq. 50 million people who had lived under tyrannical regimes now live in freedom

 

Executed a WAR ON TERROR by getting world-wide cooperation to track funds/terrorists (has cut off much of the terrorist's funding and captured or killed many key leaders of the al Qaeda network)

 

Brought back our EP-3 intel plane and crew from China without any bribes or bloodshed

Started withdrawing our troops from Bosnia and has announced withdrawal of our troops from Germany and the Korean DMZ.

Signed the LARGEST nuclear arms reduction in world history with Russia

Initiated comprehensive review of our military, which was completed just prior to 9/11/01, accurately reported that ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE was critical.

Changed the tone in the White House, restoring HONOR and DIGNITY to the Presidency

Reorganized bureaucracy...after 9/11, condensed 20+ overlapping agencies and their intelligence sectors into one agency: the Department of Homeland Security.

Initiated discussion on privatizing Social Security and individual investment accounts.

Improving govt. efficiency with .8 million jobs put up for bid...weakening unions and cutting undeserved pay raises. Wants merit based promotions/raises only.

Orchestrated Republican control of the White House, the House AND the Senate.

Killed the liberal ABA's role in vetting federal judges for Congress.

GWB signed an executive order enforcing the Supreme Court's Beck decision (re: union dues being used for political campaigns against individual's wishes)

Turned around an inherited economy that was in recession.

Passed tough new laws to hold corporate criminals to account as a result of corporate scandals.

Signed 2 income tax cuts ---- 1 of which was the largest Dollar value tax cut in world history

Reduced taxes on dividends and capital gains

In process of eliminating IRS marriage penalty.

Increased small business incentives to expand and to hire new people

Signed into law the No Child Left Behind legislation delivering the most dramatic education reforms in a generation (challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations)

Reorganized the INS in an attempt to safeguard the borders and ports of America and to eliminate bureaucratic redundancies and lack of accountability.

Signed trade promotion authority

Committed US funds to purchase medicine for millions of men and women and children now suffering with AIDS in Africa

Passed Medicare Reform (authorized $39.5 Billion per year for preventive medicine such as drugs and doctor visits as well as included a ten year Privatization option)

Urging federal liability reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits

Supports class action reform bill which limits lawyer fees so that more settlement money goes to victims

Submitted comprehensive Energy Plan--awaits Congressional action (works to develop cleaner technology, produce more natural gas here at home, make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, improve national grid, etc.)

Endorses and promotes The Responsibility Era ("In a compassionate society, people respect one another and take responsibility for the decisions they make in life. My hope is to change the culture from one that has said, if it feels good, do it; if you've got a problem, blame somebody else -- to one in which every single American understands that he or she are responsible for the decisions that you make; you're responsible for loving your children with all your heart and all your soul; you're responsible for being involved with the quality of the education of your children; you're responsible for making sure the community in which you live is safe; you're responsible for loving your neighbor, just like you would like to be loved yourself. " -----this quote was too good to leave out)

Started the USA Freedom Corps

Initiated review of all federal agencies with a goal to eliminate federal jobs (completed September 2003) in an effort to reduce the size of federal gov while increasing private sector jobs.

Part of coalition (Russia, Israel, EU, Palestine, USA) for Israeli/Palestinian "Roadmap to Peace"

Challenged the United Nations to live up to their responsibilities and not become The League of Nations ( in other words, completely irrelevant)

Nominated strong, conservative judges to the judiciary.

Changed parts of the Forestry Management Act to allow necessary clean-up of the national forests in order to reduce fire danger.

As part of the national forests clean-up, the President restricted judicial challenges (based on the Endangered Species Act and other challenges) and removed the need for an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) before removing fuels/logging to reduce fire danger.

Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.

[NutCrackerBoy]

CFR ... The man's word means nothing.

W didn't know the true extent of how he would have to follow Rove's "orders".

Neither did I ... Pal! (click) -George W. Bush (He didn't think he came to Washington to raise entitlements, but Rove "ordered" him to.)

The good news is...Rove continues to be the magic man.

[bdeaner]

McCain-Feingold? Short-term compromise, long-term gain. A good political strategy.

[bdeaner]

Now THAT'S a record you gotta love.

[GulliverSwift]

Nice work.

[Celtman]

The enemy is already here . . . and growing.

      True.  But that could be fixed - if Washington had the backbone to deport illegal aliens.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

OUTSTANDING summarization of GWB's sterling, courageous advancement of core, baseline conservative principles... and one leaving the tunnel visioned single-issue absolutists with absolutely z-e-r-o in the way of anything even remotely resembling credibility, in its powerful wake. Excellent!

The single, sole most vital function of government in this country -- inarguably above, beyond and more all-defining than any other -- is this: to safeguard and defend the lives and interests of United States citizens, whether at home or abroad.

This is not, as the old saying goes, rocket science. And ANY so-called "conservative" placing any mere fiscal or social issue above that primal precept -- whether in squalid sniveling over trivial, transitory matters of purse, or dithering over the propsect of confronting sodomites, in place of Saddamites -- is no true conservative, ultimately.

Not ten, twenty, even thirty years ago... and most certainly not now, in a post-9/11 world, and in the shadow of the rising tide of militant, violent Islamofascism.

The defense of this great, sovereign nation -- and the lives, happiness and welfare of its irreplacable people -- above all.

ALWAYS. FOREVER.

Increasingly, a noisy minority hereabouts sound -- a little more and more shrilly, each and every passing day -- like the rightwing equivalents of John Kerry, and Howard Dean: red-faced, spluttering, profane... and infinitely more concerned with the grossly, graspingly material than with the maintenance of the world's exemplar and exporter of democracy.

In other words: they're rapidly morphing, in all the ways that genuinely count... into unapologetic liberals.

Sad, really.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

How about allowing me to drop out of the system so I can take care of my own retirement needs? That is the not the kind of personal responsibility Bush is for.

No, but privatization is definitely the next best thing. And, depending on the limitations on how your "privatized Social Security" can be invested, pretty close to the same thing. But of course they're only talking about privatizing about half of it . . .

[Trust but Verify]

And you would know what FR is all about because you've been here a total of what? One day? Hilarious.

[The_Eaglet]

Growing the budget and creating new entitlements and increasing the existing ones is not conservatism. It may be Republicanism, but that's not the same thing any more. In fact, it's liberalism. Barone is very disingenuous in this piece. President Bush and the Republicans are buying votes, plain and simple. I still support Bush because the alternatives are so horrible, but I won't pretend that this is some new kind of conservatism.

I agree, but I'm looking for Constitutionally conservative alternatives.

Conservatism is what it is, and you don't redefine it to fit your agenda, at least not if you're honest.

[steve50]

McCain-Feingold? Short-term compromise, long-term gain. A good political strategy.


So that's neocon newspeak for a lie now is it?

[bdeaner]

That would be a good start, deporting illegal aliens, but again, I don't think that will solve the problem. This is an ideological war, and there are American Islamists who are not illegal aliens, and there are more and more of them everyday. We need Homeland Security to protect us from this growing American population.

[bdeaner]

"Lie" is too strong a word. Bush was sincere in his campaign re: campaign finance reform. A "lie" implies that Bush was intentionally deceptive, rather than implying that he later changed his mind, which is what actually happened. It is not always prudent to stay one's course when it becomes a poor political strategy to do so, despite one's campaign platform.

[bdeaner]

P.S. I don't mind being called a neocon. I'm no paleocon, that's for sure.

[steve50]

"Lie" is too strong a word.

Saying one thing and doing the opposite is about as good a definition of a lie as I can come up with. Rationalize it if you wish.