What happened to the Republicans as the party of small government?

Question

http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8103528

"The biggest handout was a prescription-drug entitlement for the elderly, known as Medicare Part D, which passed by a handful of votes in 2003. It addressed a real problem: some 22% of the elderly lacked drug coverage. But it did so in the costliest way imaginable. It is not means-tested, so old people who previously paid for their own drug coverage have an incentive to mooch off the taxpayer instead. It will cost an estimated $1.2 trillion over the first ten years—making it the biggest expansion of the welfare state since Mr Bush was dancing the Alligator at Yale."

"This was less than two months after the passage of the lardiest highway bill of all time, including a $223m bridge connecting the Alaskan town of Ketchikan to an island with a population of 50."

"In the end, though, Mr Bush made the response to Katrina a federal responsibility, and the federal government botched it. The rescue effort was ill co-ordinated. Billions of relief dollars were wasted. The Department of Homeland Security's inspector-general noted, for example, that $900m was splurged on 26,000 mobile homes for evacuees, when regulations forbid the use of such homes on flood plains, so 11,000 of them were left “sinking in the mud” in Arkansas."

I thought Republicans were supposed to be conservative which means small government. I wish we could get back to that, because these policies are idiotic. Under Bush, federal spending per person has increased by 3.1%; 10 times the amount of the Democrat (wtf?) before him.

Answer 1

The GOP as the party of small government died on Sept 11, 2001. On that day, the neo-conservatives used Terrorism and National Security as weapons to launch a complete takeover of the US political machinery. Once a splinter part of the GOP, the neo-cons, who were already in powerful positions thanks to their leader, Dick Cheney, took the reins of power and led the country into folly.

Some important points of the neo-con philosophy are:
1) Bigger government in order to exercise tighter control over the people.
2) A slow repeal of civil rights that might allow citizens to speak out or work against the neo-con leadership.
3) World peace through global domination, including invasion of any country perceived as a potential threat.

Neo-conservatism is a fascist philosophy that puts the government in ascendancy above the people. It is designed to put people in power and keep them in power forever. It's biggest proponents over the past ten years have been Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld. There are others, but they took their orders from Dick and Don, and that includes George W.

Note: I am not a conspiracy theorist. This neo-con agenda is thoroughly documented in many places.

Hopefully, the recent election failures for the GOP have shown George W. that the neo-con agenda is NOT America's agenda, and he will put the neo-cons out to pasture and start governing from the center, as he did as Gov of Texas.

Answer 2

Small government was going great till a little thing called 9/11

Seems national security tends to be expensive

Answer 3

They abandoned their principles in hopes they'd get a union made christmas card from "The Gipper." Then, they handed the keys to the party to the neo-cons and their Dixiecrat puppets, went home and fell asleep.

Answer 4

What happened? They controlled all three branches of government for six year and congress for five more, that's what happened. The piggy bank was open and the more who could dip into it the merrier. It's just another instance of saying one thing and doing another. It was a flat out BBQ. Pass the Bush's beans and give me more of that pork, mmm, mmm, is that good pork.

Answer 5

I agree with you for once but due to different reasons. your libral agenda is confortable for people so they go with people who are leaning rep but will give them things like dems. They vote for mod dems or left rep its all the same. rep isnt conservative anymore.

Answer 6

duh! 9-11 happened you stupid butt, If it weren't for some of these actions ,you forgot to mention the bail-out of the air lines,our economy would have gone down the drain like the terrorist planed. Get off your high horse and act like you care about America for a change.

Answer 7

the religous right happened