Gary Benoit
George W. - Master of Disguise
Wed Sep 18 00:29:29 2002
208.152.73.246

George W. - Master of Disguise
by Gary Benoit

Spouting patriotic rhetoric and enjoying the support of fellow Republicans, George W.
Bush has masqueraded as a conservative while actually advancing a liberal agenda.

When Bill Clinton boasted that "the era of big
government is over," there were probably more
belly laughs than nods. After all, Clinton was
widely recognized as a big-spending liberal. He
was seen by many as a dangerous demagogue
with an insatiable appetite for power, an appetite
that might have consumed our liberties if not for
public and congressional resistance.

But with the election of supposed conservative
George W. Bush, the public vigilance that helped
keep Bill Clinton’s lust for power in check
appears to have waned. Many Republicans and
conservatives — who were quick to challenge
President Clinton’s every power grab — fail to
recognize the hypocrisy when President George
W. Bush challenges Congress, as he did with a
straight face during a radio address on August
17th, to "show spending restraint" lest the
president "enforce spending restraint." Promising
that his administration "will spend what is truly
needed, and not a dollar more," Mr. Bush zeroed
in on the Senate for "ignoring fiscal discipline": "I
requested $2.4 billion for public housing; the bill
moving through the Senate includes $300 million
more. I requested $2.2 billion for agricultural
research; again, the Senate wants to spend $300
million more." But such statements beg the question: Why is George W. Bush
requesting billions of dollars for unconstitutional welfare state activities in the first
place? How can an allegedly "conservative" president be so free with the
taxpayers’ money?

Unfortunately, although Bush enjoys the reputation of a conservative, his own
record shows that he is a liberal. In fact, his liberalism may be more dangerous
than that of his immediate predecessor. Bill Clinton, a lifelong Democrat with a
far-left pedigree, often provoked resistance from congressional Republicans and
conservatives in general. Yet Republican congressmen who refused to support
Clinton’s liberal policies have willingly supported similar policies when offered by
fellow Republican George W. Bush. Consequently, Bush has been more effective
than his predecessor, in many ways, in advancing Clintonian liberalism.

Bush’s Bloated Budget

A month after becoming president, Mr. Bush explained in a press conference
(February 22, 2001) that his budget would reduce the rate at which spending is
increasing — but without cutting spending in the absolute sense. "We’re going to
slow the rate of growth of the budget down," he said at the time. "It should come
to [sic] no surprise to anybody that my budget is going to say loud and clear that
the rate of growth of the budget, for example, from last year, was excessive. And
so we’ll be slowing the rate of growth of the budget down."

Bush, in other words, didn’t promise to shrink the size of government, but merely
to slow the rate of big-government expansion — to put the brakes on the car
speeding towards the precipice, but not to stop it, much less change its direction.
But in the end, Bush didn’t even put on the brakes, but hit the accelerator instead.
In the budget he submitted in April 2001, Bush proposed spending $1,961 billion
in fiscal 2002 as compared to an estimated $1,856 billion in 2001 — a 5.7
percent increase. That, of course, was before September 11th. In a midterm
budget summary released in July, the Bush administration estimated fiscal 2002
spending at a whopping $2,032 billion as compared to actual fiscal 2001
spending of $1,864 — a nine percent increase. The July budget document also
proposed spending $2,138 billion in fiscal 2003, a 5.2 percent increase over
2002. During the Clinton presidency, the rate of increase in the federal budget
from one year to the next never exceeded 5.1 percent (1999 to 2000), and it was
as low as 2.6 percent (1996 to 1997). The bottom line: Federal spending is
increasing at a faster rate with George W. Bush in the White House than it did
with Bill Clinton in the White House.

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