George Bush's Big Government Adventure

Free Republic and Various ^ | 01-30-02 | aaabest

[AAABEST]

With Conservative Like This, Who Needs Liberals?

Let me start off by addressing those who have been bashing(and I do mean bash) me and other well intentioned and well known Freepers as being anti-Bush, Libertarians, from the reform party or whatever. 

I voted for GWB, and I can ping several freepers to this thread that met me in real life at several Bush rallies (with megaphone in hand). I was a member of the Broward County Young Republicans before moving to the West coast of Florida and I was active in Jeb Bush's campaign for Governor. 

I've been on this forum for almost 4 years and anyone that knows me is aware of my conservative views and knows that I'm not a member of the reform party, I'm not a Libertarian (large "l") or any of the other things I and others like me have been accused of.

If you have been engaging in inflammatory rhetoric, bashing long-time, well known Freepers or acting like children because not all of us are enthralled with "Georges Big Government Adventure",  please try to control yourselves, at least while posting on this thread. 

It's not my purpose (at least at this point) to get GWB un-elected, I like him, he has a beautiful wife, he's a good Commander in Chief and he seems like an honest politician. However,  if he keeps ignoring conservative principles and promoting a larger more intrusive government, I and others can no longer continue to support him....on principle. 

We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America.

Above is the Free Republic mission statement.  After his first year, would anyone say that GWB has worked towards this end? I think many conservatives suffer from some kind of Stockholm Syndrome as a result of 8 years of President Clinton, because when I ask many of them what GWB has done for conservatism lately, all I get is that he's not Clinton. 

I know he's not a corrupt, law breaking scoundrel, but is that all that's required? Can our republic survive a cycle where Republicans get into office grow government greatly, interspersed with Democrats who grow government even more greatly with little or no reduction? There are actually people on FR that think all of this growth in government spending is some grandiose 8 year plan by Mr. Bush to fool Democrats so that he can cut government later. What an absurd notion.

If any of the initiatives below originated from the Clinton administration, people on FR would have had a cow. Those "Day in the Life of President Bush" threads garner hundreds of fawning responses, while a thread on how our government is growing out of control will die after 10.

I appeal to anyone reading this to consider the below information without bias. The links will open in a separate window for you convenience.  I will be adding to this information as necessary God bless America, God bless this forum and God bless you.

Click on the Picture of the President (thinking of new ways grow government) for the corresponding article.

	Huge education spending bill (i.e. Federal Local School Board Bribery Act) which liberal Democrats love that doesn't mention a word about choice or local control.
	Food stamps for immigrants.
	Largest spending bill in American History. The first to exceed 2 trillion dollars.
	The Airport Security Bill that completely takes control of over 28,000 screening jobs. Now it seems that they don't even have to be high school graduates either. The big difference, they can't be fired.
	100 million for welfare moms.
	Hugely Expanding Clinton's Amercorps boondoggle that all conservatives railed against.
	Kowtowing to law breaking illegal immigrants by proposing amnesty. Speaking of illegal immigrants who sneak across the border; "And we've got to respect that, seems like to me, and treat those people with respect," he added. "I remind people all across our country: Family values do not stop at the border."
.	38 Billion for a new Homeland Security bureaucracy that allots a 20% increase for border control. Guess what. It goes to our problematic Canadian border, with not a dollar spent on the Mexican border. Read it for yourself
	The  Orwellian "Patriot Act" that gives Federal authorities carte blanche to rifle through all of your digital communications and essentially,  rob your house without notice.
	71.5 billion over 10 years for government health care.
	Not releasing appropriate documents on Clinton and FBI corruption.

 

[incindiary]

"I will criticize anyone of any party if they are wrong. But I don't happen to think President Bush is."

So you don't think he was wrong to support any of those things listed in the original post? What about his silence on the pro-life issue? What about the fact that he has little interest in all the corruption of the Clinton administration? I could go on, but there's a few for starters.

[RnMomof7]

Death by shotgun or a IV drip..your choice.

Do we close our eyes and let the constitution be shredded ..and big brother government grow without a word because it would have happened a little faster under Gore?

BTW I do not think it would have because the Conservatives that are currently asleep would have been yelling..

So now we have a new Americore..and more PBS money and more money for the arts..etc etc and we say nothing because it is under a Republican?? No sale my friend!

[Blood of Tyrants]

No argument from me. As far as I am concerned, voting for Republicans only slows the rush towards socialism. I haven't heard of them trying to repeal a single bad law or cut a single government agency.

Face it, the choice is between socialist party A and "we try harder" socialist party B.

[verboten]

Never, ever let these people go through your property unless you're watching them!

Good point, but how does this admonition work in regards to our homes given the Patriot Act?

As for stealing our stuff isnt that just what Bush is proposing more of when he wishes to expand the government? I dont think it is his family or Kennedy's that will be footing the bill. It will be us paying for it. And I no more volunteer my money to the government then I do to the robber who points the same gun at me to acquire my compliance.

[AUgrad]

BTW, there is a Draft Ron Paul for President movement. He's a Republican, too!

Sign me up. No, seriously.

[incindiary]

Hey you... Thanks. :-)

[rdb3]

Pleased to make your acquaintance, Triple-A.

[nononsense]

I glad I was not only one who felt that way about his speech

[Nubbin]

I'm sure this has already been discussed and I'm the last one to notice that it is missing, but what happened to the bookmark option? I wanted to bookmark this thread for later reading.

[Deb]

When I saw he chose to include in his objection to the Bush presidency "Food stamps for immigrants" instead of "illegal immigrants", it was obvious what his real agenda was. Hey, but he's not "bashing Bush"...yeah, right, he just really, really cares about the country (gag).

[editor-surveyor]

"For the VIPs."

See!! - You're no better than W, if Turd Kennedy were here you'd ping him too. :-)

[editor-surveyor]

"what happened to the bookmark option?"

It's been moved to the end of the text of the article.

[Ragin1]

I was just going over the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 10th amendments to our constitution, and can't help to think, he ran on big government. The only reason he won was because of hate people have for Bill Clinton. Gore could never have gotten half this crap through.

Our illustrious leaders have now run slipshod right over the 1st, see patriot act, the 2nd, see gun seizure's in 4 states now, the 4th, see patriot act, and the 10th, that is one they just ignore on a daily basis. I could add more, but that would be redundant at this point. That man actually stood up there and told us, I am Big Brother, and he won. Bet it happens again.

[annalex]

Kudos for the well put statement in form of a question that has been on many minds.

I voted for Bush, and will continue to vote GOP as the lesser of the two electable evils. I will do so as long as the GOP continues to be marginally better at containing the government than their electable alternative, marginally more honest, marginally better at the core government functions such as defense. I know that containing the growth of government is a losing battle. The victory, if ever, won't come about electorally in the foreseeable future. That assessment absolves Bush: he, or any other GOP politician, is dividing the electorate roughly in half, getting the half that is more conservative than it is liberal, and hoping the chad hangs on. The assessment condemns the America's better half, and most of all it condemns the system.

The system rewards politicians that expand the government and punishes (at the voting booth) politicians that contract it. That is because expanding government incurs acute joy in the recipients of the government's largesse, and diffuse pain among the rest. Reducing government incurs acute pain and diffuse joy. Guess who keeps winning, no matter who gets elected.

The solution may be cataclysmic, e.g. a war may rearrange the electorate's priorities, but most likely it will come at the point when the economic system infected by semi-socialism collapses: a Great Depression in reverse.