BZ
The Bush Betrayal
By David Boaz
Sunday, November 30, 2003
In 2000 George W. Bush campaigned across the country telling voters: "My opponent trusts government. I trust you."
Little wonder that some of his supporters are now wondering which candidate won that election.
Federal spending has increased by 23.7 percent since Bush took office. Education has been further federalized in the No Child Left Behind Act. Bush pulled out all the stops to get Republicans in Congress to create the biggest new entitlement program -- prescription drug coverage under Medicare -- in 40 years.
He pushed an energy bill that my colleague Jerry Taylor described as "three parts corporate welfare and one part cynical politics . . . a smorgasbord of handouts and subsidies for virtually every energy lobby in Washington."
It's a far cry from the less-government, "leave us alone" conservatism of Ronald Reagan.
Conservatives used to believe that the U.S. Constitution set up a government of strictly limited powers.
Meat of article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20247-2003Nov28?language=printer
It could happen that limited-government voters decide to stay home, or vote for an independent candidate in the mold of Ross Perot or Jesse Ventura or vote Libertarian.
They could even vote for an antiwar, anti-Patriot Act, socially tolerant Democrat.
Given a choice between big-government liberalism and big-government conservatism, the leave-us-alone voters might decide that voting isn't worth the trouble.
The writer is executive vice president of the Cato Institute and author of "Libertarianism: A Primer."
Above material is presented for nonprofit educational purposes only and constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in the US Copyright Law at Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.
By David Boaz
Sunday, November 30, 2003
In 2000 George W. Bush campaigned across the country telling voters: "My opponent trusts government. I trust you."
Little wonder that some of his supporters are now wondering which candidate won that election.
Federal spending has increased by 23.7 percent since Bush took office. Education has been further federalized in the No Child Left Behind Act. Bush pulled out all the stops to get Republicans in Congress to create the biggest new entitlement program -- prescription drug coverage under Medicare -- in 40 years.
He pushed an energy bill that my colleague Jerry Taylor described as "three parts corporate welfare and one part cynical politics . . . a smorgasbord of handouts and subsidies for virtually every energy lobby in Washington."
It's a far cry from the less-government, "leave us alone" conservatism of Ronald Reagan.
Conservatives used to believe that the U.S. Constitution set up a government of strictly limited powers.
Meat of article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20247-2003Nov28?language=printer
It could happen that limited-government voters decide to stay home, or vote for an independent candidate in the mold of Ross Perot or Jesse Ventura or vote Libertarian.
They could even vote for an antiwar, anti-Patriot Act, socially tolerant Democrat.
Given a choice between big-government liberalism and big-government conservatism, the leave-us-alone voters might decide that voting isn't worth the trouble.
The writer is executive vice president of the Cato Institute and author of "Libertarianism: A Primer."
Above material is presented for nonprofit educational purposes only and constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in the US Copyright Law at Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.