NYT: Thumbing Nervously Through the Conservative Rulebook

[Rose Siding]

IN a simpler time, before they controlled the House, the Senate and the White House, conservatives knew what they believed about the federal government. It was too big, too bloated, too prone to throw money at problems in foolhardy efforts at social engineering. It was almost always wiser to trust the states and local governments - or better yet, individual initiative and local charities.

After five years in power, though, conservatives have found those first principles challenged, again and again, by the messy realities of governing. They hoped to limit government's role in Medicare; they ended up with a vast expansion of the entitlement. They hoped to pare back federal spending; they ended up with rising spending and substantial deficits. Their vision of an "ownership society," with individuals taking more responsibility (and risk) for their retirement and health savings, has proved a hard sell with the American public.

Now conservative beliefs about the proper size and role of the federal government - the limits of compassionate conservatism - are facing, perhaps, their greatest domestic test. What is the appropriate conservative response to Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it left? What role should the federal government play in the rebuilding of New Orleans? Simply rely on the magic of the private market, encouraged by big tax breaks and regulatory relief, or try to social-engineer a safer, more equitable city?
.....
Grover Norquist, a leading advocate of substantially reducing the federal government, argued that the disaster only underlined the need for more tax cuts to spur the economy......

http://nytimes.com/2005/09/11/weekinreview/11tone.html

[mzmolly]

1. Tax cuts?

That's their solution to EVERYTHING.

[LeftyDarthBrodie]

2. Interesting article

bookmarked for reading in the morning.

Here is another interesting, similar article from the L.A. Times. Misleading title though, not a return of "big" government but a return of competent, effective government with compassionate leaders who lead.

[belle]

3. "Frontal lobotomies will solve every medical problem!! MORE LOBOTOMIES!"

Heart attack? FRONTAL LOBOTOMY! Cancer? LOBOTOMY! Appendicitis! Clearly, what you need is a good LOBOTOMY! Hangnail? CLip it. Better add a partial lobotomy, just to be sure. Heck, let's make it the whole thing.

...what, you've already had a lobotomy? Um. Well, clearly, we'll just have to keep on excavating till we find the bit that's causing you trouble...oh. Apparently if you remove too much brain tissue the person dies.

...

Small side effect, we're working on the problem. Carry on with the lobotomies! LOBOTOMIES FOR EVERYONE!!

[rasputin1952]

4. Clearly, tax cuts do not work; there are several reasons for the present

fiscal insanity we are experiencing, and tax cuts are at the top of the list.

Tax cuts are worthless w/o spending cuts. While both parties are guilty of 'Pork Barrel" spending, the GOP is particularly noxious, in that they are supposed to be the "fiscally responsible" party.
Since these are not conservatives in the traditional sense of the word, the GOP has been taken over by 'neo-cons' and evangelicals that have absolutely no morality about them at all.

Tax cuts do not 'spur the economy' as the neo-cons would like us to believe. Those that are having a severe case of greed, will not 'invest' in the nation, they will profit from it where they can, and leave the rest to rust away.People with vast sums of money got those piles of cash by being cheap and greedy, not by being philanthropists.

Once the tax cuts reduced the governments revenue, the trouble really began. The idiot neo-cons are more than willing to bankrupt the nation, but they will ensure that someone who faces severe financial difficulties cannot seek bankruptcy protection. A nation goes to hell, and an individual damn near goes to debtors prison....they call this 'justice' btw.

Tax cuts during a war, no resources for a natural disaster, massive wealth redistributed to the 'privledged'......Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower are spinning in their graves....even Barry Goldwater, before his death, said the are not Conservatives, they are vandals with nothing less than the destruction of the nation on their sights.

[Inland]

5. Bumping this

The conservatives are bereft of any ideas, since there ideology is that the victims should simply die to be a lesson for future people that the government is your enemy.

[Raster]

6. norquist needs to be horsewhipped in the village square.

[MissMarple]

7. A failed vision of government, a failing government.

That is what we have here. And a few skimming fat cats who are enronning America. This is a massive moral and political disaster.

Can I possibly become any more cynical? :eyes:

[The Traveler]

8. A failed vision indeed

Ideological lunacy or deliberate attempt to undermine the security and prosperity of the American people?