TheAgitator.com
Bush Bashing
Sunday, November 30th, 2003Read David Boaz on Bush’s big government in the Washington Post.
Also, in case you missed it, the “free trade president” slapped a fat tariff on, of all things, Chinese-made lingerie.
So bras and panties, robes, catfish, microchips, virtually everything made of cloth, and damn-near everything made of steel (and that’s merely what I can remember) now cost a bit more, thanks to the Free Trade President.
I caught a bit of the speech President Bush gave praising the passage of the prescription drug welfare benefit. He talked about how no politician would dare take on Medicare, remarking that it once was called “Mediscare,” and that only “bold” leadership could have gotten the PDB through the Congress.
Bold? The bill promises the most potent voting block in the electorate that someone else will help them buy their medicine, and does so while making no effort to account for where the money to pull it off will come from. It merely passes the invoice on to my generation, which is largely apathetic, or the next, which isn’t yet old enough to vote.
That ain’t bold, gang.
But good news! Bush did finally brandish the veto. He didn’t have to use it. But by golly, he certainly brandished it. He merely threatened the veto, and his own party leaders backed down. What was this piece of legislation that moved our principled president, finally, to whip out his Constitutionally-delegated government-limiting weapon? Was it overzealous spending? Overregulation? Too-aggressive environmental standards?
No, no. None of that. It was a move by Congress to allow U.S. tourists to visit Cuba. It was, essentially, a move toward opening trade with Cuba, which would benefit both Americans and Cubans, and do little to benefit Castro, who hasn’t exactly been dethroned by our decades-long embargo.
But the Free Trade President would have none of it.
Further federalization of education? Sign it. Biggest entitlement program in 40 years? Sign it. Unconstitutional restrictions on campaign donations? Sign it. $87 billion for nation…er…region building? Sign it.
But relaxing restrictions on Americans’ freedom to travel and trade? Not a chance. Little Havana votes Republican, remember.
One more time, can someone give me any reason why someone who favors limited government should feel any allegiance at all to this guy?
I am very frustrated with his trade policies. I do think he is doing well with the war on terror (including Iraq), but I know you do not agree. This sucks though, I wish he would swing the correct way with trade.
I’ll go you one better.
Why should anyone have ever felt any commonality with Bush over limited government?
No matter how much people like Boaz write about Bush “betraying” small-government folks like us, he never held himself out as a small-government conservative. He ran for office as a moderate, or more specifically, the extra head on Al Gore’s right shoulder. Virtually everything he’s done to make fiscal conservatives and libertarians wail (and rightfully so) has been to fulfill campaign promises.
Just to make this absolutely clear, no one who watched the 2000 presidential debates (where Bush’s response to each and every proposal Gore made to expand government was, “And I’ll do that, to!”) can honestly whine about Bush’s lack of “conservative” or, at the height of absurdity, “libertarian” leanings. He never said he was one of us, he didn’t get elected to be one of us, and he never tried to be one of us.
What did Milton say about people spending other people’s money whom they did not know on other people they did not know?
They don’t know “them” because “they” do not vote, “they” have become irrelevant.
Trade with Cuba only benefits the communist party and canadian tourists, the money would not go to the people.
On what planet does going to Cuba and putting money DIRECTLY into the hands of the Cuban people constitute benefitting Canadian Tourists?
Radley Balko: It was a move by Congress to allow U.S. tourists to visit Cuba. It was, essentially, a move toward opening trade with Cuba, which would benefit both Americans and Cubans, and do little to benefit Castro, who hasn’t exactly been dethroned by our decades-long embargo.
Hey I was wondering â¦
If free trade with Cuba or some other nation we have a âproblemâ with is actually a bad idea, then is it also a âbad ideaâ to deny U.S. citizens free trade with convicted criminals? I mean, think of the untapped potential! Imagine if state and federal inmates could produce goods in prison and then sell those goods and then use the proceeds to buy other products from the general public!
Maybe we could even have a day once a month where we take all of the convicted murderers and rapist to the Mall for a shopping spree?
Serpent-
Is your seemingly moral argument against ‘free trade with the wrong people’ faith-based, or rooted in secular humanism?
I’ve always thought that convicted criminals should be forced to work, and that their wages should be used to compensate their victims. As it is, all they do is sit around, spend taxpayer money, and get really muscular.
Paul: Is your seemingly moral argument against ‘free trade with the wrong people’ faith-based, or rooted in secular humanism?
Itâs not faith-based, but then again, Iâm no secular humanist either.
I was just wondering why people claim that trade embargos are ALWAYS a bad idea?
Look, maybe you killed someone, so now you are a âmurdererâ, but maybe I didnât really care for the guy that you murdered all that much, so maybe in my eyes you arenât such a bad guy after all? Why should I be forced to pay for your incarceration? Why should the benefits of your free trade be denied to our âsocietyâ? How can we call ourselves âcivilizedâ when we let a little something like murder stand in the way of the benefits of free trade?
Don’t confuse victims with murderers and who is hurt with an embargo.
no more tariffs! and bush will continue to back off of his other anti-capitalist policies, and eventually we’ll like him.
“One more time, can someone give me any reason why someone who favors limited government should feel any allegiance at all to this guy?”
Uhhhhhhhh….no.
Russ Lemley: can someone give me any reason why someone who favors limited government should feel any allegiance at all to this guy [Bush]?
Al Gore, Howard Dean and the Democrats?
And there was something else about the lesser of two something-or-anothers, but it hurts my head when I have to think too much.
There is a war on.
I’m so tired of politics… It’ll never be justiful enough.
Mary
In your free time, check out some relevant pages in the field of guide - Tons of interesdting stuff!!!