Sep 24 2008
Is George Bush Really a Conservative?
In many ways yes. Of course. I have appreciated much of what Bush has done-namely his appointment of conservative justices. But for years now I have said that however you slice it, George Bush is NOT a fiscal conservative. Statistics show that he has spent more than any other president in our nation’s history-inflation included. The “we’re at war’ argument falls flat when you look at the numbers for non-defense discretionary spending (the highest rate of growth since LBJ-who also had a war to fund). The Bush administration is 5 times larger than the 2nd Clinton Administration. His latest budget was a record-breaking size-over $3 trillion. This caused even many conservatives to raise some eyebrows. The House Republican Study Committee, made up of 100 conservative members of Congress, said in a statement that the budget “includes too much spending” and expressed concern about the increasing deficit. We have come to learn that “compassionate conservatism” really means “spending lots of money to help people (Katrina, Aids in Africa, etc).” However you slice it, George Bush is NOT a fiscal conservative.
I read a blog post today by Lincoln Mullen who was a contemporary of mine at BJU. He gives some thoughts regarding the housing crisis in light of Bush’s fiscal policies. Here’s what he had to say…
I rarely comment on politics, but these facts are worth noting. On the day President George W. Bush was inaugurated, the national debt was $5,727,776,738,304.64, or $5.7 trillion. This past Friday, the national debt was $9,727,009,619,894.34, or $9.7 trillion. In other words, in less than eight years, the national debt has increased about $4 trillion. Now, the Bush Treasury wants to buy some $700 billion dollars in bad mortgages, and it is asking Congress to raise the statutory limit on the national debt to $11.3 trillion. A trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon we’re talking about real money.
I believe that this has the potential to be the primary legacy of the Bush administration.
One response so far
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I tend to concur with your findings. Whatever one’s view of the war in Iraq or Bush’s supreme Court nominations or anything else, he and the republican congress ought to be remembered as spendthrifts. The GOP is the party that loves to give tax cuts and fight against government expansion. Though my taxes may have been reduced, the gigantic increases in spending nullify any long term benefits, putting the burden for paying for their big government programs on the backs of future taxpayers in the form of national debt.
It just doesn’t make sense.