Bush’s Fiscal Sense
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in EconomyAndrew Sullivan just got back from a meeting at the CATO Institute that discussed the finer points of Bush’s spending. And even though CATO is a conservative/libretarian institution, the administration declined the invitation for somebody from the White House to speak on its behalf.
The salient question is: could a president Al Gore have managed to increase public spending as massively and as permanently as this crew? He would surely have been stopped in his tracks by a Republican Congress. Even a Democratic Congress would have felt the need to assuage the Republican grass roots and scaled back the huge growth. But not Bush. By hitching the Republican base to Christianism, and by legitimizing massive spending for a Republican, he has been able to dispense with much of what conservatism once meant. Limited government? Yeah, right. Balanced budgets? A joke. Individual liberty? Only if you’re in the Middle East. Huge tax increases? Just you wait. They’re now inevitable. A welfare state bigger and more intrusive than Ted Kennedy could dream of? That will be Bush’s legacy. It will take conservatism a generation to recover its bearings.
Or…just maybe…another party will pick up the fiscally responsible issue and claim it as their own.
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March 7th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
If Al Gore had increased the budget to such excesses, he would’ve been impeached or worse by a GOP controlled Congress.
March 7th, 2006 at 8:46 pm
With any luck the next President (either Democratic or Republican) will be more fiscally responsible than our current one. Frankly, it might be hard not to be more fiscally conservative.
March 7th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
Well, when you set the bar so high (so to speak), you make it easier for the next guy (or gal).
March 8th, 2006 at 9:48 am
We will need a Democrate to clean up this mess.
Just as Clinton did after Reagan and Bush 1.
Taxes will have to be raised and that will be
all the Democrates fault. Republicans have played
this so many times. When they say they are
fiscally responsible it is a joke. History proves
otherwise. Until they hire someone to fudge the
numbers and convince the sheep otherwise.
March 8th, 2006 at 11:38 am
This is just a sour grapes exercise on Cato’s part. Bush wasn’t a conservative when he was nominated in 2000 or when he was elected later that year. He didn’t become one when he was re-nominated in 2004 and re-elected. He will never become a conservative.
Bush was opposed within his own party by a perfectly good conservative: John McCain (check his voting record). Bush was the overwhelming nominee of his party (particularly among regular Republicans).
Although Cato does not apparently endorse candidates it’s pretty clear from searching their archives that they favored Bush over McCain.
You asked for it, you got it.
March 8th, 2006 at 11:54 am
Why is it that taxes need to be raised? The only reason that government requires so much money is because they are so damn big. Stop funding departments that are unnecessary, and you’ll reduce the deficit without increasing taxes. The government has just become one big entitlement lobby, and every day we get one step closer to “wealth redistribution”.
March 8th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
The Cato Institute’s ‘About” particularly useful in figuring out how it is to be described:
http://www.cato.org/about/about.html
To wit:
The Jeffersonian philosophy that animates Cato’s work has increasingly come to be called “libertarianism” or “market liberalism.” It combines an appreciation for entrepreneurship, the market process, and lower taxes with strict respect for civil liberties and skepticism about the benefits of both the welfare state and foreign military adventurism.
March 8th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Actually, I think Bush is most definitely a conservative. In fact, he’s a logical extension of the Christian Conservative movement that Reagan embraced and is only now bearing serious fruit.
Concerning CATO, Bush wanted tax cuts, and that’s what he ran on in 2000. In fact, that is THE thing he ran on, so I think it’s pretty consistent that CATO would think he’s a fiscal conservative and therefore back him. And what’s CATO going to do, back Kerry over Bush in 2004? Both you and I know that would never happen.
Also, CATO’s major support for Bush over McCain was 6 years ago. I think it’s perfectly reasonable for an organization to back somebody and then say, “Jeezus…that was a mistake. It is allowable, and I’m sure you’ll hear the sentiments of CATO repeated throughout the country with many fiscal conservatives.
Because we actually have to tap into our retirement fund for federal workers in order to not exceed the national debt limit of $8.2 trillion.
As far as entitlements…well, what isn’t an entitlement for you ford? ;-)
March 8th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
Again, why is it that we need to raise taxes?
Maybe if we eliminated pork instead, tapping into the a government pension would be unnecessary. Maybe we should start eliminating/slashing useles departments:
Education
Transportation
Energy
…
March 8th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
yes big goverment is a major problem.
as well as many broken systems that
can not continue to slide down the
mountain they are now headed full
tilt toward the bottom of. Healthcare,
social security, Broken boarders,
Debt never before heard of. To
think these things can be fixed under
the current tax system is nuts.
First step cut welfare for oil companys.
stop giving discounts to people who
take our jobs to other countrys.
Second step stop trying to spread
democracy under a boot heal and
fix America not some other country.
March 9th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
The same could be said of you, Justin. :)
When things are just rolling along, it would be “Things are so great right now, folks have money to spare. Can’t they just cough up a couple cents on the dollar to help their ‘less fortunate’ brothers out?”
When things are down, it would be “Now is not the time to cut taxes! We’ll starve these very important programs!”
And the only spending cut I’ve ever seen you endorse on here is…Defense, the one doggone thing that the gummint has on its plate that it really should be spending on.