Its good for you to choose a quotation that you think indicates substance to provide something of an actual argument target.
Schiff is clearly wrong in this paragraph.
The fiscal conservatism that you seem to demand and seems to be in Schiff’s mind was obtained when Republicans came to a congressional majority in 1994. Republicans began to lose seats again in 1998 when they pressed to shut down the federal government at the nadir of their fiscal conservatism. The demise of republicans in the late 90s laid the ground work for Bush’s compassionate conservatism.
Republicans have not governed with much of an eye for fiscal conservatism since 2001 but this is a function of being defeated in the late 1990s for seeking cuts in federal spending. Demorats easily portrayed them as hating the poor, education and almost any other social idea you can imagine.
The primary problem is the senate where the concept of RINO is powerfully entrenched and democrats stand to gain more seats in 2010.
There is simply a painful gap in idealism and practical alternatives for many fiscal conservatives.
Blaming Bush won’t get you there.
RE “Schiff is clearly wrong in this paragraph”
He is talking about YOU. To you socialism is OK if Bush is president, if a democrat does it that is horrible, That is you! Schiff has you pegged, You have no values, only loyalty.
And you have concluded that everything Bush did that backfired, he was forced to do to win elections because democrats would call him uncompassionate??? Are they not doing that ANYWAY??? 2006+2008 elections show this was a short term strategy.
Plus you leave out a most key political fact prior to the housing bubble-economy crash, Iraq. As his popularity dropped on Iraq he upped the compassion where compassion=$$$$, as where did all that compassion=$$$$ come from???