[RJCogburn]

Conservatives need to look past the Bush Administration

I respect your comments in general, but the Bush Administration has accelerated the growth of government.

[goldstategop]

The existence of the welfare state has never troubled me. I think we should keep pushing for changes in the Medicare program and Social Security. I don't have any problems with taking care of seniors both cause they worked hard all their lives and they have the right values. What the programs have in common that make them different from welfare is the beneficiaries contribute to them and they don't reward undesirable individual or social behavior. They don't encourage dependency. And if the changes we envision happen, individuals and families will have greater freedom to choose how to care for their health and plan for their retirement years.

[Owen]

>
Conservatives need to look past the Bush Administration

I respect your comments in general, but the Bush Administration has accelerated the growth of government.
>

A handful of FR extremists have been beating the drum of insurrection for weeks now, and their motivations are not clear.

The truth is that GW Bush's domestic discretionary spending as a % of GDP is LOWER than was Ronald Reagan's in the same years of their presidency.

Period. QED. Full stop. That is hard, concrete, iron fact. The CBO data is utterly incontrovertible. All other arguments can fall mute. The talk about "spending is out of control" is talk about "growth rates". They compare to Clinton's last year numbers that had dotcom inflated GDP involved. That GDP exaggeration lower the % number so that when Bush's spending number *as a % of GDP* is examined, it looks like explosive growth. It is not. It is camouflaged. The real cause of it was depressed GDP growth and the need to stimulate out of a recession that was greatly worsened by 9/11.

Forget all that. Focus on the IRON FACT of the first paragraph. GW has done a better job than Reagan. It's not about growth rates. Growth rates change with the wind. It's about absolute % of GDP. If you check the CBO data, you'll see that frankly, domestic discretionary spending as a % of GDP over DECADES of time has not changed more than about 1/2 of 1%.

Much ado about nothing.