Conservative Impersonators

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Conservatives have always preached cut taxes, cut spending, make government smaller, and thus grow the economy. Everything hinges on that. That is what the conservatives that I knew used to preach. This brand of new conservatives makes me sick. I don't care what they call themselves, they are not conservatives. Let me run two statements by you and let me see who you think they are: 1. "the era of big government is over." 2. "we have a responsibility that when somebody hurts government has got to move." Have you thought of who those 2 individuals might be? The first one is Bill Clinton and the second one is George W. Bush. Let's just run through some numbers folks; by 2004, the last of the budget surplus of the '90's was over and deficits started. The federal government under George W. Bush, has had to borrow 5% of our national economy just to pay its bills. Bush has added 1.3 trillion dollars to the national debt. Federal spending averages out to $20,300 per household. Every budget during the Bush administration has included 55% for flat out pork. I know we are at war, and I know that means we have to spend more money, but what that should mean is we cut domestic spending to fund the war. In WW2, FDR cut non-war spending by 54%. During Korea, Truman cut non-war spending by 19%. The only 2 presidents in the history of America, to increase domestic spending during a war has been LBJ, and Bush. Ironically, both of them have increased it by 18% exactly. Conservatives that I know slam LBJ for his spending on the great society. You remember his slogan, "Guns and Butter." Well Bush and noodle spin Republicans up in Washington are no better. Let's compare true conservatives vs impersonators: Senator Barry Goldwater who is known as "the conscience of conservatism", declared federal aid to education unconstitutional, and warned of its inherent evils and dangers. He said, "that federal aid invariably means federal control". Reagan and the Republicans under Newt Gingrich pledge to shut down Jimmy Carter's department of education. But George W. Bush as his first act as President worked with Ted Kennedy to enact "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND" which gave more money to education. Let's look at the numbers: Under Clinton, the education budget was 35.7 billion dollars, and under Bush it is 64.3 billion dollars. It is an 80% increase. Goldwater demanded a prompt and final termination of farm subsidy and the closing down of the department of agriculture. Bush's farm bills cost the country 180 billion dollars a year, for benefits for farmers that were half the number as those that farmed during Goldwater's days. The department of agriculture has 96,400 employees, everyone of them you are paying. George W. Bush has fathered the first new entitlement program since LBJ, the 400 billion dollar prescription drug benefit program under medicare. Within months of it sighning into law, the entitlement was refigured and raised to 540 billion dollars, but as Congressman Dr. Ron Paul has said, "Independent groups estimate the true cost will be 1 trillion dollars in ten years." The only thing conservative about this new group of noodle spine republicans are tax cuts, but tax cuts are just half of the picture. For every dollar of tax cuts, there needs to be a dollar of spending cuts. This is basic economics. That is what TRUE conservatives have preached for years, and now their message is getting swept under the rug. Out of the mouth of Dick Cheney to the former secretary of treasury, Paul O'Neill, "Deficits don't matter." And the Bush administration wonders why Paul O'Neill left the administration.