When I was young (and I admit that was quite a while ago), a conservative was a person who believed in balancing a budget, paying for only what you could afford now, and eliminating the national debt. But Bush and his cohorts don't seem to believe in those ideas. There's a new breed of conservative now inhabiting the Republican Party. They limit their conservatism to social issues like being anti-privacy, anti-science, anti-abortion, pro-death penalty and pro-war. But when it comes to fiscal issues, they are the biggest spenders this nation has ever seen.
When Bush and his "new" conservatives took office, the National Debt was $5.7 trillion dollars. That's a lot, but the budget was producing large surpluses and it look like we might finally be able to put a dent in it. Bush had other ideas.
He gave huge tax cuts to the rich and corporations, started two expensive wars, and oversaw huge increases in discretionary spending -- all done in concert with a Republican Congress (can't blame this on the Democrats as they'd love to do).
The sad part is that we really have nothing to show for it.The poor, the working class and the middle class are all worse off. The only people who have benefitted from this Republican spending spree are the rich and the corporations.
The current National Debt is $9.13 trillion -- more than a 60% increase over the day Bush took office. Clinton grew the National Debt by $1.7 trillion (with a Republican Congress). Bush has more than doubled that. He has increased the National Debt by more than $3.43 trillion. The debt is currently growing at a rate of $1.4 billion a day (or $1 million every minute).
As a liberal, I'm usually not averse to some deficit spending -- if it is used to help the American people. But these "new" conservatives are even starting to scare me. Frankly, I don't think we can afford these conservatives much longer. A couple more years of Bush's conservative policies, and he'll break the backs of the working and middle classes.
These "new" conservatives have already hocked our children's future. We have to get them out of power before they do the same to our grandchildren.
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