I am talking about Bush era self identified conservatives like Hannity and the mass of Bush Republican followers that claimed that even when you raise spending astronimically that tax cuts will pay for it , therefore it costs no one and is free even when deficits are rising. In fact it look like congressional Republicans are headed for that again now with that new plan.
RE :”Not true. As a function of GDP Bush's spending was not historic. High yes; nuts, no.”
??? You might be thinking of 2005 when spending was climbing at the peak of the housing bubble, but the Bush last years 2005-2008 was as historic levels climbing each year, without tax increases after Bush tax cuts,
RE :Bush had more conservative instincts than Nixon: he certainly didn't create OSHA, the EPA, or do revenue sharing or wage and price controls
He pushed the Bush-Pelosi energy bill that banned safe light bulbs. TARP, amnesty, NCLB, the first stimulus. Nixon is not a great model. Bush was more conservative than Johnson too, but they had similarities.
Please do not tell me you're trying to compare this to EPA.
TARP,
A bi-partisan cave-in, as I recall.
amnesty,
So did Reagan. The only difference was that Reagan's amnesty actually passed.
NCLB,
The jury's still out on NCLB: the teahcer's unions hate it, so it can't be all bad.
the first stimulus.
If you mean Bush's tax cuts, they were the right thing to do. If you mean the $85 bn stimulus passed by the Democrat Congress, please, that's chicken feed compared to the territory we're in now. Bush should not have agreed to it. It was not a conservative thing to do.
In any event, Bush was not a conservative. Nothing you've posted changes that assessment, in fact it all reinforces it.