ON THE presidential campaign trail this season, George W. Bush's gung-ho foreign policy has clearly dominated the national spotlight. But while the president's critics and supporters alike have focused heavily on the Middle East and the "war on terrorism," commentary on domestic politics has suffered by comparison. This is a shame for several reasons, but chiefly because it has detracted attention from the sad direction in which the president has steered his party in the realm of domestic policy. Under the Bush administration, the Republican Party has made a sharp departure from the Reagan-era spirit of limited and de-centralized government, opting instead to embrace both Washington bureaucracy and the empty promise of the nanny state.
The soul of Ronald Reagan's presidency is concisely captured in his famously penetrating statement, "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Reagan eloquently extolled the virtues of free markets and voluntary exchange as essential to the most humane and compassionate society at a time when creeping socialism threatened to strangle the remaining life out of the world's gasping economy. He perceived and articulated the devastating effects of coercive regulation and confiscatory taxation on both national industries and individual lives. And most importantly, he understood that in 99 problems out of 100, the private sector easily provides an infinitely better solution than any government program could hope for.
Contrast this to Bush's rhetoric of so-called "compassionate conservatism," which has heralded in huge increases in domestic spending and a grotesque swelling of the federal government that should make Hillary Clinton's eyes light up. Federal spending has increased around 27 percent under Bush's watchful eye, and heightened defense spending doesn't begin to account for that huge jump. Most notably, Bush's prized $400 billion prescription drug entitlement plan is the largest anticipated government handout since the not-so-great days of Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society agenda. He has pushed to increase the national farm subsidy bill 70 percent to $170 billion, justifying this giveaway with the brilliant comment, "this nation has got to eat."
These programs go along with Bush repeatedly re-asserting the silly claim that it is the government's job to "help people." This is not at all a conservative sentiment, and more importantly, this is not the government's job. Our nation was founded on the premise that the proper role of government is to secure people in their life, liberty and property.
Helping people is a noble and necessary part of any society. But it is not the job of government, because government can operate only by collecting taxes, and collecting taxes means forcefully taking other people's money. If you want to help somebody, you use your own resources or you convince someone else to donate theirs. You do not threaten people with forceful imprisonment in order to steal their money and then give it to whomever who you want to help. This is theft, plain and simple, and there is nothing compassionate about it. This is especially true when you consider how such taxation invariably kills economic growth and destroys jobs, which causes more apparent "need" for government programs, and on and on ad nauseum.
Bush's move away from Reagan Republicanism is compounded by the fact that he has not only made government bigger, but also more centralized. In the 1990s, Newt Gingrich led the Republicans to take over Congress under the promise of, among other things, abolishing the federal Department of Education and returning educational control to state and local governments. Bush has gone the exact opposite direction by strengthening the Department of Education and creating the No Child Left Behind Act, which creates strict national standards to which all students nationwide must conform. He has been unreceptive to the complaints of those who fail to see the compassion in creating a centralized bureaucracy that relies heavily on standardized tests and dictates to people how they must educate their own children.
As a life-long Orioles fan, I'm used to having nothing to cheer about in the fall. But in an election year with the Republican Party now drifting unanchored toward the morass of big government, that feeling of resigned desperation is taken to a new extreme. The sad truth is that it seems no matter who loses the election in November, big government will win, and Reagan's voice will echo more faintly than ever in the halls of the White House.
Anthony Dick's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at adick@cavalierdaily.com.
Read More
UPADHYAYA: The Great and not-so-Good sides of U.Va.’s 2030 housing plan
By Apal Upadhyaya | 2 days agoInstead of improving the dire state of existing infrastructure, however, the University has shifted attention away from it and chosen to expand.
EDITORIAL: Support low-barrier shelters in Charlottesville
By Editorial Board | 3 days agoInvesting in low-barrier shelters now will pay off in increased stability for the homeless, which will undoubtedly improve the safety of shelters and the community writ large.
SHRAUGER: McIntire’s three-year model limits opportunities for first-year students
By Alex Shrauger | 4 days agoBy pigeonholing students into commerce so early, the University violates its own mission of providing a holistic education that produces students capable of succeeding in a variety of fields.
