Why conservatives must not vote for Bush
Quite simply, the president, despite his well-choreographed posturing, does not represent traditional conservatism — a commitment to individual liberty, limited government, constitutional restraint and fiscal responsibility. Rather, Bush routinely puts power before principle…. Even Bush’s conservative sycophants have trouble finding policies to praise. Certainly it cannot be federal spending. In 2000 candidate Bush complained that Al Gore would “throw the budget out of balance.” But the big-spending Bush administration and GOP Congress have turned a 10-year budget surplus once estimated at $5.6 trillion into an estimated $5 trillion flood of red ink. This year’s deficit will run about $445 billion, according to the Office of Management and Budget….
Bush seems to aspire to be America’s moralizer in chief. He would use the federal government to micromanage education, combat the scourge of steroid use, push drug testing of high school kids, encourage character education, promote marriage, hire mentors for children of prisoners and provide coaches for ex-cons.
- Doug Bandow
Let’s say that you’re getting tired of me ranting about the profligacy and prevarications of George W. Bush. What do I know? I’m just another bleeding-heart Liberal nutcase, no? Well, would you believe an indictment of the Prevaricator-in-Chief that was penned by a committed Conservative? Try this on for size:
Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation reports that in 2003 “government spending exceeded $20,000 per household for the first time since World War II.” There are few programs at which the president has not thrown money; he has supported massive farm subsidies, an expensive new Medicare drug benefit, thousands of pork barrel projects, dubious homeland security grants, an expansion of Bill Clinton’s AmeriCorps, and new foreign aid programs. What’s more, says former conservative Republican Rep. Bob Barr, “in the midst of the war on terror and $500 billion deficits, [Bush] proposes sending spaceships to Mars.”
Unfortunately, even the official spending numbers understate the problem. The Bush administration is pushing military proposals that may understate defense costs by $500 billion over the coming decade. The administration lied about the likely cost of the Medicare drug benefit, which added $8 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Moreover, it declined to include in budget proposals any numbers for maintaining the occupation of Iraq or underwriting the war on terrorism. Those funds will come through supplemental appropriation bills. Never mind that Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz had promised that reconstruction of Iraq could be paid for with Iraqi resources. (Yet, despite the Bush administration’s generosity, it could not find the money to expeditiously equip U.S. soldiers in Iraq with body armor.)
Nor would a second Bush term likely be different. Nothing in his convention speech suggested a new willingness by Bush to make tough choices. Indeed, when discussing their domestic agenda, administration officials complained that the media had ignored their proposals, such as $250 million in aid to community colleges for job training. Not mentioned was that Washington runs a plethora of job training programs, few of which have demonstrated lasting benefits. This is the hallmark of a limited-government conservative?
Hey, when your base is questioning your qualification to represent them…well, what are the rest of us to think? I’m the last person to sympathize with Conservatives concerns about anything, but Doug Bandow is right in his assessment. Geroge W. Bush claims the mantle of Ronald Reagan’s Conservatism, but his actions put the lie to his claim. There is nothing “Conservative” about the Prevaricator-in-Chief.
Progressives have recognized for the past four years that The Emperor Has No Clothes. Perhaps it’s time that Conservative pull their anteriors out of their posteriors and come to the same realization. The horse they are backing does not share Conservative values. In fact, George W. Bush is concerned about only one thing- political power.
Hmm…Progressives despise Bush’s politics, and a growing number of Conservatives are coming to recognize that Bush talks their values, but doesn’t act on them. How is it, then, that 50% of the voting population supports him? Clearly, 50% of Americans don’t seem to be paying attention.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
