Bush isn't a conservative, he's a borrow & spend fanatic

[Old Time Republican]

True conservative Republicans should not vote for Bush in 2004, not if they are actual, authentic conservative Republicans. It is an embarrassment for me to even call myself a Republican right now with Bush in office. With his profuse, incessant borrow and spend habits George W. Bush makes Jimmy Carter look like a Rockefeller Republican. It is time for real conservatives to stand up for what the Republican Party genuinely is.

This message is to anyone who identifies himself or herself with the real Republican Party. It is also to any Republican who has kids or grandkids, as I do, because when this impending deficit finally impacts us it will truly impact all of us.

[NYIndependence]

Do you support DC statehood?
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[TF]

Quote:Do you support DC statehood?

What does that have to do with what was posted ? ? ? D">

[NYIndependence]

I was just trying to see if the finger-pointers are true conservatives themselves.
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[Coho]

The Republicans are now officially what the Democrats used to be (before Bill Clinton changed the Democratic Party). George W. Bush has ushered in the "Walter Mondale" era for Republicans with Republicans now accepting, and defending, this borrow-and-spend ideology. All I can say is everyone who is moderate or conservative when it comes to government spending just vote for one of the New Democrats (New Democrat = fiscal conservatism).

[Suzie Bee]

Old Time Republican, Coho, I couldn't have said any better than you two. As a long time Republican I feel the same way. George W. Bush won't get my vote this Presidential election, not this time.

[Jacob Sullum]

Looking at the president's record during the last three years, one is hard-pressed to see any affinity between his agenda and that of conservatives who respect the Constitution and believe in limited government. In particular, Bush repeatedly has forsaken the conservative principles of fiscal restraint, free trade, and federalism.

According to the latest figures from congressional budget committees, federal discretionary spending rose by 12.5 percent in the fiscal year that ended on September 30, compared to a 1990s average of 2.4 percent. The increase during the last two fiscal years combined was about 27 percent.

Although much of the increase came in defense, it's not safe to assume that every expenditure in that category is justified. When we face real threats to our security and budget deficits approaching half a trillion dollars, for example, it's especially absurd that the U.S. still maintains troops in countries, such as South Korea, Japan, and Germany, that are perfectly capable of defending themselves.

In any case, nonmilitary discretionary spending also has risen sharply under Bush, by about 9 percent in the last fiscal year and more than 20 percent since he took office. By comparison, nonmilitary discretionary spending dropped slightly during Bill Clinton's first three years in office.

Congress passes the spending bills, of course, but Bush has not seen fit to veto a single one. And as the Cato Institute's Veronique de Rugy and Tad DeHaven point out, each of Bush's budget proposals has called for spending increases, including $43 billion for education in fiscal year 2002 and his current $400 billion request for the largest Medicare expansion in history.

"Bush has been a big spender across the board," de Rugy and DeHaven conclude. Stan Collender, a federal budget analyst at the public relations firm Flshman-Hillard, agrees, telling The Washington Post: "This is an administration that cannot possibly take up the mantle of fiscal conservatism. It's probably the l fiscally conservative in history."

Not only is Bush more of a big spender than his predecessor; he's less of a free trader. The other day, to no one's surprise, the World Trade Organization ruled that Bush's steel tariffs violate the trade rules by which the U.S. has promised to abide. Based on the WTO decision, the European Union is threatening retaliatory tariffs on products ranging from citrus fruit to motorcycles, all because Bush wanted to shore up his electoral support in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

[NYIndependence]

Quote:All I can say is everyone who is moderate or conservative when it comes to government spending just vote for one of the New Democrats (New Democrat = fiscal conservatism).
So... Howard Dean is really a conservative? How could I have been so blind, the signs were all there!

Look, if you want to vote for a candidate more conservative than Bush, be my guest, but none of the Democrats fits that profile
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