Katrina Ushers in Return of Big Government (fundies taking advantage)

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON - The era of big government is back. President Bush is presiding over what is sure to be the most expensive government relief and reconstruction operation in U.S. history.

With estimates of the federal tab ranging up to $200 billion for rebuilding New Orleans and other storm-ravaged Gulf Coast cities, Bush and his Republican allies in Congress are casting aside budget discipline.

They're also deferring — for now — vows to finish the Reagan revolution against big government and turning to some of the same kinds of public health, housing and job assistance programs they once criticized as legacies of the Democrats' New Deal and Great Society.

...

Hurricane Katrina also opened the floodgates to proposals in Congress — some embraced by Bush — building on a host of long-cherished Republican themes. These include proposals for school vouchers for storm-displaced children; more federal support for "faith-based" organizations engaged in hurricane relief; business-friendly "enterprise zone" tax credits for companies that rebuild in stricken areas; and eased environmental and labor-protection requirements.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050916/ap_on_go_pr_wh/katrina_big_government

ETA link. ;)

[SmokingJacket]

1. Are these truly public programs, or public moneys used to finance

private ventures?

The whole "vouchers for storm-displaced children" REALLY bugs me. How about fixing their schools, or giving money to the existing schools they're in?

Did I mention I hate Republicans??

:grr:

[saigon68]

2. Its like the CHIMPANZEE is the new SANTA CLAUS

Giving little Pat Robertson and the rest of the Low lifes, new opportunities to Build NEW GILDED PLAYHOUSES.

[Dover]

5. Yeah, Bush's 'Extreme Makeover - Home Edition'... Santa Claus is

coming to town. MOVE THAT BUS!

[Dover]

6. ......

duped post

[flamingyouth]

3. "Lower my taxes. And send more federal money my way."

:eyes:

[pnorman]

4. Before you added the link, I Googled the following

from the same initial phrase:

September 07, 2003
The Era of Big Government is Back

By Kenneth Quinnell

In one of his better policy moments, Bill Clinton declared in 1996 that "the era of big government is over." He realized that there was some truth in the conservative warnings about runaway government growth. The conservatives, of course, went too far and suggested that any non-military government was bad government and that any cut is a good cut, but there's truth in the idea that excessive spending and needlessly large government can have a detrimental effect on the budget, on the national debt and on government programs that work and provide valuable services.

This idea rejected some liberal assumptions that had been held as gospel in the past - namely that any government cuts were automatically bad for the country. Government was full of waste. Government did feature redundancy and programs that were ineffective or unwise. Clinton recognized that what we needed wasn't necessarily bigger government, but rather, better, smarter government.

Clinton never completely followed through on this promise, but he did cut more than 250,000 federal jobs and began the task of culling bloated federal laws and regulations. It was a noble and worthy goal that was spearheaded by Al Gore and inspired by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler's Reinventing Government. It fell short because the administration was only weakly committed to it and because political reality put forth many roadblocks to cutting back on those wasteful parts of the government championed by both Republican and Democratic senators and representatives. But even though it fell short, the process of making a smarter, smaller government did begin and it did have some success.

When George W. Bush moved into the White House, the extreme conservatives thought that their deepest, darkest anti-government wet dreams had been realized. They finally had one of their own in charge and they expected that regulations would fall, civil servants would be laid off and the government would begin to shrink to a size even Libertarians would love. Little did they know that Bush had no such plans, and he would, in fact, bring back the era of big government. And Bush didn't just bring back big government, he brought back big, dumb, ineffective, inefficient government and put it in charge of the most important aspects of American society.
>
>
http://www.ospolitics.org/usa/archives/2003/09/07/the_era_of.php

Thanks for the lead. This aspect of that PNAC-Theocrat HYPOCRICY should be stressed at every opportunity.


pnorman
On edit: Removed the fifth paragraph to keep it to DU's Fair Usage guidelines.

[Singular73]

7. This speech was Awesome

Seriously.

Just the fact that it stood against EVERYTHING his base stands for.

Wonderful.

[krkaufman]

8. No better way to fully turn the people against "big government"...

... than to have a bigger government run by incompetents w/ malicious intent.

Isn't it possible that the promise of government relief is a setup? When it fails, people will blame big government bureaucracy -- rather than the negligent criminals currently running the government.

[rodeodance]

9. Congress sounds like a bunch of carpetbeggers!

[Az_lefty]

10. fundies love Big Government control

as long as they are in charge but let a Democrat in there and they go nuts. Fucking hypocrites!

[meow2u3]

11. "Faith-based organizations" = FUNDIE CHURCHES

This is a scam at best and state-sponsored domestic terrorism at worst, IMO.