Essentially Bush Just Pissed All Over Conservatism

[ruggerson]

His speech was a paean to how centralized, federal government can and should respond to national emergencies and help end the cycle of poverty. He proposed a laundry list of Great Society social programs to achieve the end of a more prosperous and fairer society.

This is all after his party has spent the LAST TWENTY FIVE YEARS ensuring that the federal government cannot do any of the above.

The audacity of a man who rode to power using a party that has derided government for so long, suddenly happily spouting a litany of big government proposals that might stop his slide in the polls is truly mind boggling.

We always knew Bush was a born again. Tonight we find out he's a born again liberal.

And I don't believe one word of it.

[bullimiami]

1. oh he wont do anything unless someone rich and powerful can benefit.

and they will.

[zoeb]

2. That $200 billion will go to rich cronies and just maybe

a little will trickle down to the poor folk.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Audit it tightly or you'll never see most of it.

[mike_c]

4. tell the rebuilding contractors to bring their own duffle bags...

...to haul the money away in. Receipts? Accounting? I don't think so. Paul Bremmer needs to be called back into government service....

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. 8 billion cash from Iraq 2003 still unaccounted for.

[Wizard777]

5. In the conservative vs liberal war. Bush has switched sides because

he has seen the liberal ass kicking comming. Now he wants to sign up for a conservative ass kicking instead.

[Zen Democrat]

8. The old rock and a hard place. Is there a squeeze play going on?

[MikeNY]

6. You have identified a larger problem

The conservatives in power today only want to expand the size and scope of the federal government. The democrats want to do the same thing, although it is often under the the reasoning of more altruistic purposes (like providing social safety nets for poor and underclass). Under the last democratic administration, alot of the social goals of the Democratic Party passed through legislation, but so did the conservative agenda of abolishing welfare and allowing for unrestricted media consolidation

Look at the big picture here, with 8+ trillion dollars worth of debt to foreign interests the federal government is going to keep expanding, and expanding, and expanding... sometimes that is NOT a good thing, especially when you can't pay for it.

The GOP isn't for smaller government, and neither are the democrats. These days its all about how you're going to re-arrange those deck chairs on the Titanic.

[ruggerson]

9. The federal gov't should be lean and mean

and efficient. Under the Republicans, it's bloated and mean, with entitlements rising and priorities totally askew. We need leaders who can streamline the government, have the courage to tackle entitlement spending, and set priorities that are for the good of the average American, not just the top 10%.

[Neshanic]

7. When did they pass out? was it the free land or the 5 grand?

God, I wish I could see the looks on some Bushistas faces when he said that.