From: John Cuccia 

Cal Thomas (conservative by any measure) agrees that the Republicans are an
embarrassment:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/ct20031126.shtml
"The just concluded (thankfully) Congress is an embarrassment to
itself and everyone who favors smaller government. This Republican
Congress, in addition to increasing spending on entitlements and expanding
big government - like the Democrats they once criticized - also dished out
$95 billion in tax breaks and pork-barrel projects."

and

"We are moving rapidly, under Republican "leadership," past
the nanny state and the welfare state to what might be called the state as
family."


(Apparently Bush agrees that it takes a village....)




On Sat, 03 Jan 2004 10:37:14 -0500, Monte Davis
 wrote:

>Remember an exchange here a couple of months back about the Democratic
>vs. Republican record on fiscal management and government growth?
>
>Here's David Brooks in an op-ed today -- yeah, that David Brooks, nine
>years at The Wall Street Journal, eight at The Weekly Standard, and a
>conservative by any criterion:
>
>"The G.O.P. used to have a governing philosophy: reducing the size of
>the state. This was a useful goal because it was the one thing all
>Republican factions could agree upon. The business community wanted to
>reduce the public sector because it stifled growth. Social
>conservatives wanted to shrink the nanny state because it produced
>dependency. Libertarians and populists wanted to reduce government
>because it gave too much power to bureaucratic elites.
>
>...But the main reason reducing the size of government can't be the
>party's animating principle is that Republicans have no credibility on
>this subject. During the Reagan years, Republicans tried to cut the
>size of government and failed, then blamed the Democrats controlling
>Congress. In 1995, Republicans tried to reduce the size of government
>and failed, then blamed the Democrats controlling the White House. Now
>Republicans control everything, and over the past three years the size
>of government has still increased, not even counting the war on
>terror."
>
>Note to Gary "it always was and will be the Democrats' fault" Britt:
>
>Do try to keep up.
>

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