HOW CONSERVATIVE IS PRESIDENT BUSH?

The Cato Institute ^ | August 3, 2002 | By Veronique de Rugy

[Uncle Bill]

How Conservative Is President Bush?

The Cato Institute
By Veronique de Rugy
August 3, 2002
Source

Veronique de Rugy is a fiscal policy analyst at the Cato Institute.

President Bush may be repeating the sins of his father. Although elected on a Reaganesque, tax-cutting platform, the White House has veered to the left. President Bush has signed a bill to regulate political speech, issued protectionist taxes on imported steel and lumber, backed big-spending education and farm bills, and endorsed massive new entitlements for mental health care and prescription drugs. When the numbers are added up, in fact, it looks like President Bush is less conservative than President Clinton.

It makes little sense to discourage one's core supporters prior to a mid-term election. Yet that is the result when a Republican president expands government, which Bush is doing. Also, academic research on voting patterns shows that a president is most likely to get re-elected if voters are enjoying an increase in disposable income. Yet making government bigger is not a recipe for economic growth. After all, there is a reason why Hong Kong grows so fast and France is an economic basket case. But you can't tell that to the Bush administration.

Administration officials privately admit that much of the legislation moving through Congress represents bad public policy. Yet they argue either that everything must take a back seat to the war on terror (much as the first Bush administration treated the war against Iraq) or that compromises are necessary to neutralize issues such as education. But motives and rationalizations do not repeal the laws of economics.

In less than two years, President Bush has presided over more government expansion than took place during eight years of Bill Clinton. For instance:

• The education bill expands federal involvement in education. The administration originally argued that the new spending was a necessary price to get vouchers and other reforms. Yet the final bill boosted spending and was stripped of almost all reform initiatives. And there is every reason to believe that this new spending will be counter-productive, like most other federal money spent on education in the past 40 years. Children and taxpayers are the big losers.

• The farm bill is best characterized as a bipartisan orgy of special interest politics. Making a mockery of the Freedom to Farm Act, the new legislation boosts farm spending to record levels. Old subsidies have been increased and new subsidies created. Perhaps worst of all, the administration no longer has the moral credibility to pressure the European Union to reform its socialized agricultural policies. Taxpayers and consumers are the big losers.

• The protectionist decisions on steel and lumber imports make free traders wish Bill Clinton were still president. These restrictions on world commerce have undermined the productivity of U.S. manufacturers by boosting input prices and creating massive ill will in the international community. American products already have been targeted for reciprocal treatment. Consumers and manufacturers are the big losers.

• The campaign finance law is an effort to protect the interests of incumbent politicians by limiting free speech rights during elections. The administration openly acknowledged that the legislation is unconstitutional, yet was unwilling to make a principled argument for the Bill of Rights and fair elections. Voters and the Constitution are the big losers.

• New health care entitlements are akin to throwing gasoline on a fire. Medicare and Medicaid already are consuming enormous resources, and the burden of these programs will become even larger when the baby boom generation retires. Adding a new prescription drug benefit will probably boost spending by $1 trillion over 10 years. A mandate for mental health coverage will drive up medical costs, making insurance too expensive for many more families.

Those policy decisions make government bigger and more expensive. They also slow the economy and hurt financial markets -- read the headlines lately? For all his flaws, President Clinton's major policy mistake was the 1993 tax increase. Other changes, such as the welfare reform bill, NAFTA, GATT, farm deregulation, telecommunications deregulation, and financial services deregulation, moved policy in a market-oriented direction.

Perhaps most importantly, there was a substantial reduction in federal spending as a share of gross domestic product during the Clinton years. Using the growth of domestic spending as a benchmark, Clinton was the second most conservative president of the post-World War II era, trailing only Ronald Reagan.

To be sure, much of the credit for Clinton's good policy probably belongs to the Republican Congress, but that is not an excuse for bad policy today. And on one positive note, President Bush has "promised" to fight for partial privatization of Social Security. Yet, so far, President Bush has not vetoed a single piece of legislation. Needless to say, this means it will be rather difficult to blame "big-spending" Democrats if the economy continues to sputter.

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Compassionate Conservatism Means Big Government

No To 'Compassionate Conservatism'
"Marvin Olasky, the former Marxist journalism professor who coined the term. But he and George W. Bush are barking up the wrong tree if they think "compassionate conservatism" is going to rally popular support necessary to effect the real change needed to turn this country around."

President Highlights Compassionate Conservative Agenda for Inner Cities

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If You Want Increasing Huge Government, Vote Bush

BUSH SPENDING BILL LARGEST EVER

U.S. quietly OKs fetal stem cell work - Bush allows funding despite federal limits on embryo use

Bush Signs Largest Family Planning Bill In U.S. History

Un El día En El la vida de Jorge W. La arbusto

OPEN BORDERS

Bush's 'open door' slammed

"I told the Congress that I want to make sure that the Mexican citizen here is well-respected," Bush said. "And one way to do that is to pass 245I."

CFR - "I Believe In Free Speech"

Meanwhile, Back On The Farm

Bush Urges Congress To Deliver on Prescription Drugs For Medicare

• AARP Likes Bush's Prescription Drug Plan

GOP Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Advances in House - Another Trillion Dollars

Pig Book - 2002

Orgy At Federal Trough

Bush and House Republicans Push Legislation For Full Drug Subsidies For Low-Income Elderly

Bush Prepares 'Big-Time' Response To African Famine

Government Spending - War Against The Stock Market

Bush signs debt-limit increase

Bush Pushes Minority Homeownership

Bush's Food Stamp Plan Called Ethnic Pandering

Bush Wants Food Stamps For Non-Citizens

Worse Than Drunken Sailors!

Senate Clears Way For Trade Bill - More Spending

BUSH AND THE BIG GOVERNMENT GOP

Security Bill Loaded With Wasteful PORK

Senate Ok's $31.5 Billion Anti-Terror Bill Loaded With Pork

How Bad Can Things Get?

George W. Bush and Gun Control

Bush Pushes Gore Plan For Orwellian Government

Bush Backs Down From Immunity Demand - Caves Again

Bush administration has been "as bad, if not worse" than the Clinton administration when it comes to the transfer of sensitive technologies to the People's Republic of China

BUSH, G7 to pay $20 billion to get rid of Russian nuke stockpiles

George W. Bush - The Global Warming Sell-Out

• George W. Bush Told Americans Before Elected That He Was A Global Warming Wacko

• Conservatives Angered by Environmental Provision [Bush pulls another Al Gore]

Dubya's New Deal - The New FDR

• Roosevelt -- Man Of The Century?

Bush Won't Label Arafat A Terrorist

George W. Bush's Terrorist Buddy

"When peoplelose faith in their institutions they trust to enforce the law, justice is no longer possible."

Bush Caves On Airport Screeners

Bush's Latest Srategic Mistake

BUSH: NINE FORMER PRESIDENTS WRONG; CLINTON RIGHT!

CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS? GEORGE BUSH'S NEVER-ENDING DOMESTIC BUDGET BUILD-UP - Father Like Son

Bush Appoints Four More Homosexuals

Dr. James Dobson Criticizes Bush Appointment to the CDC

Bush Pushes $500 Million HIV/Aids Funding For Africa

Bush to Propose Another $100 Million Over Five Years for Education in Africa

Are You Fat? No Problem, George W. Bush Will Help

House Conservatives Budge on Arts Spending

Bush Cheers Government Support For Art

Bush to Name Justice Dept. BUILDING After Kennedy

GOP Right In Iowa Fear Purge

GOP Leaders Spurn Right in Key Races

Laura Ingraham's analysis of yet another Bush betrayal

Bush decisions rankle conservatives

BUSH PROPOSES LARGEST EXPANSION OF GOVERNMENT SINCE TRUMAN

Bush's Record Calls into Question His Conservative Label

Conservatives Question Dubya's Direction

Conservatives not satisfied with Bush's record

Bush, Ashcroft Run Roughshod Over Bill Of Rights, Study Says

Republicans: Big Government Addicts

A Few Questions For Die-Hard Bush Supporters

Are Republicans losing their constituency?

Ann Coulter: BUSH PAYS HOMAGE TO THE FETISHISTIC RITUALS OF LIBERALISM

Compassionate conservatism is about socialism, not Americanism

Bush is jettisoning his principles for what?

Bush: stop the runaway federal spending and regulating!

Mark Levin Hammers Bushbots

Was Clinton More Conservative Than Bush? - Fox News

Bush: A Democrat in Republican clothing?

Bush continues Clinton Agenda

GEORGE W. BUSH: CLINTON'S THIRD TERM ©

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Bush's Court Jester

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"Another way to make sure that we foster growth and restore confidence is to hold people accountable for misdeeds in the public sector."
George W. Bush - University of Alabama at Birmingham Alys Stephens Center - July 15, 2002.

NOTE: Do As I Say, Not As I Do.

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A Bush administration insider has privately leaked word that a deal was struck between Democratic congressional leaders and the Bush White House not to prosecute Bill and/or Hillary Clinton

Bush Administration Lawyers Defending Hillary - Gratis

Bush and Ashcroft Justice Dept. Hamstringing Pardongate Probers.

Bill Clinton broke the law and the Republicans let him off the hook.

What we need is the tough Newt Gingrich back.

"As far back as April 7, 1998, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich was asked on NBC’s Today if he were going to press for impeachment. His response: "No, we don’t have any evidence."
Source.

Al Gore Broke The Law and the Republicans let him off the hook.

"I don’t care if you have proof that he raped a woman, stood up and shot her dead, you’re still not going to get 67 votes."

Bush Says He Wants to Let Clinton 'Move On'
"Listen, here's my view: I think it's time to get all of this business behind us. I think it's time ... to allow the president to finish his term, and let him move on and enjoy life and become an active participant in the American system. And I think we've had enough focus on the past. It's time to move forward." - George W. Bush.

Bush Won't Dwell On Clinton Affair, "We're Moving Forward"
"B/S, Mr Bush. Clinton is a criminal and a traitor. We demand a thorough investigation and prosecution. Our Republic is dead and our liberty is at stake if the next administration does not clean up this mess for now and forever more. Corrupt politicians must pay the price for subverting our Constitution and using their offices for personal gain."
4 Posted on 01/20/2000 14:17:56 PST by Jim Robinson

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A Republic If We Can Keep It - Bush Trashing The Constitution

It's About The Republic, Not The Republican

How Big Is The Government's Debt? - $33.1 TRILLION

There Must Be Some Way Out Of Here

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"Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes,"
George W. Bush - SOURCE.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

BRAVO, terilyn. As another who witnessed everything that happened, I can say that you nailed it.

[Twodees]

Have you ever been wrong?

Having short term memory trouble? I just admitted to being wrong in a reply to you. Do you forget that easily?

[TLBSHOW]

I had a registered sighting the other day!
Registered


posted 07-30-2002 01:21 PM

The amount of porn and sexual perversion that runs rampant in America, specifically the mainstream media and the internet, is going to corrupt and pollute the minds of our children (and adults). It is going to create an atmosphere where people are no longer "valued" for being fellow citizens and humans that have been endowed by their Creator to have certain unalienable rights. People will become objects to be used and abused to fulfill some sick desire that has been created from an impure heart.
Unfortunately you cannot measure the amount of corruption being done to our souls, as we are desensitized daily to some of the most disgusting things that an evil heart can create.

When it comes to children I hear people say, "just watch your kids while they surf the internet". Well, to be frank, just how realistic is that? I've suggested that the porn be placed into its' own domain or category so people that want to dwell in the sewer can do so freely, without any squelching of their 1st Amendment rights. HAL9000 at freerepublic.com has made some great suggestions concerning the DNS system.

I'm also amazed that this is not a concern of our legislators. I've called my legislator and he says that unless he feels "grass roots" pressure he has other pressing matters to work on. I wonder if George W. Bush has accidently hit www.whitehouse.com by accident?

In the meantime, kids and adults are being subjected to things that only the mind of the devil himself could create. Some say that religion condems sex, it does not. It shows us specifically what a healthy sexual relationship is in God's mind. Between two married people, male and female. Heartache and sickness follows those that do not follow His desire for His creation.

Pray for America!

[Brimack34]

I think a lot of this had to do with Jumpin Jim. If you judge him by what passed the house he would be conservative. But he still could have vetoed something.

[mercy]

Uncle Bill ... The King of Link.

Dear GWB administration, You may dismiss the likes of us VRWC hard cases here on FR and you don't have to pay attention to hoards of conservative bloggers who call you an infidel .... But can you laugh it off when the CATO institute slaps you full in the face with a spit slathered backhand? Probably.

[Twodees]

Look, I don't even know Registered. He and I have probably posted fewer than ten words to each other. I got a copy of the thread emailed to me in a file the day he was suspended form a friend of mine who knows him and was amazed that he was suspended for posting what he did. You're saying there was a site with live links showing addresses and other info, and that is extremely hard to believe and hard for you to prove as well, since the thread is gone.

Naturally, I'm simply devastated that you are calling me a liar here. Who are you again?

[Luis Gonzalez]

You just sound 4'10"

[terilyn]

Thanks. I guess it was one of those things you had to see unfold for yourself to really believe it.

Had the discussion been about actual voting and permission been requested to post actual voting records, and then granted, it might be a different story. Although posting personal info, especially including others that aren't even on FR, is stupid.

It wasn't though. It was clearly a discussion about a JW poll and voting on it, and no amount of spin can make this right.

[Texasforever]

Nice try. In 8 years Reagan had 78 vetoes with 9 overturned. Bush the elder in 4 years had 44 vetoes with 1 overturned. Reagan was not prolific when it came to vetoes.

[Twodees]

Ta-dah!!!! So, 4'10"? I say that you are actually shorter than that.

I'll FRmail you my address and you can come see for yourself, Lu. P.S. I am still waiting for all that information you were going to post in defense of the KKK's reputation as Southern gentlemen.

Feel free to cut&paste to this thread my promise to do anything as bizarre as that. You're a liar, boy. Too bad nobody is as impressed with you as you are with yourself.

[rb22982]

Social conservatives should approve of the president's pro-life positions, his emphasis on faith, his dignified and non-vulgar behavior, and his emphasis on responsibility.

Please, Bush hasn't done hardly a thing about abortion, he has quietly cut funding to overseas groups. Thats all we've heard. His emphasis on faith is fine, and compared to Clinton he's a fine person. Blanket amnesty for millions of illegals with all our socialistic programs is not conservative however. His HUGE increase in the NEA's spending (didn't conservatives used to want to get rid of this altogether all but 20 years ago?), his huge increase in entitlements and proposed prescription drug plan (more socialism), coupled with a hefty, etc hardly makes Bush a conservative. At best he's a wishy washy moderate who you have to like on a personal level. He's not conservative. Delay is a conservative, Watt is a conservative, Ron Paul, whom is a pro-life libertarian, is much closer to conservative than Bush. Ill be voting Constitution Party in 2004, unless Republicans really run someone who is conservative and in favor of smaller government.

[TLBSHOW]

LISTEN UP TWODEES,

He posted howlins real name and address. Do you agree with that being done, how would you like to have your real name and address posted instead of twodees?

[terilyn]

Well it's true. Some states put their voting registration info online. North Carolina does. Others don't. I checked and mine doesn't.

You don't have to take my word for it. It's real simple to do a Google search with a few key words. Check out your own state and see if yours does.

You can believe what you want to but it doesn't make it true.

Oh, and I'm just a person standing up for someone I believe is right here. Just like you are.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

You're saying there was a site with live links showing addresses and other info, and that is extremely hard to believe and hard for you to prove as well, since the thread is gone.

It happened. She doesn't need to prove it. There were witnesses. Lots of them. I was one.

If you don't know Registered, then how come you're putting your own credibility on the line by carrying his water for him? He's not banned here. He can come and tell everyone his side, if he chooses.

[Texasforever]

As a percentage of GDP government was smaller than when Reagan arrived. I doubt the same will be the case when Bush leaves in '04

OH I get it you want to play that game. Then by all the facts the amount of present spending as percentage of GDP is less than when Reagan left office. But you "doubt" that it will stay that way. Well gee, that makes all the difference in the world.

[mrsmith]

Yeah, it's sad to see, they're all like 'this one'.

If the whiners left I think some good libertarians would spend time there.

[toenail]

He does what the Manhattan Institute tells him to do. If there were any justice in the world (or at least in the U.S.), he and every congresscritter that voted to jail Americans for political speech would live out the rest of their lives in an 8 x 10 in Ft. Leavenworth.

[brat]

I was about to add the social services for immigrants that he added...but I see there is a link. Also he gave the UN the lion's share of the back dues. Clinton only gave 1/3. I dispised Clinton for it...now here comes the man I voted for and gives them the whole pie!

[TLBSHOW]

throw away your vote for fantasy! LOL

[Spirited]

Passionate political naivete leaves one rather challenged.

Fascinating that President Reagan, just 10 weeks after his inauguration, had a pleschette(sp) taken from within a hair of his heart after the SS spent some twenty minutes driving him around from the Washington Hilton to GWHospital.