Goodpasture
Well-known member
Here's an excerpted report from the libertarian Cato Institute... the truth about the Republican Party:
The Conservative War on Freedom
The Conservative War on Freedom
We can fondly look back to a time when Republicans talked a good game on libertarian issues. They professed fealty to state rights, spoke of shrinking the government, preserving individual liberty, and embracing fiscal responsibility.
George Bush has presided over the largest overall increase in inflation-adjusted federal spending since Lyndon B. Johnson. Even after excluding spending on defense and homeland security, Bush is still the biggest-spending president in 30 years.
Total government spending grew by 33 percent during Bush’s first term. The federal budget as a share of the economy grew from 18.5 percent of GDP on Clinton’s last day in office to 20.3 percent by the end of Bush’s first term.
This spending is all the more remarkable given that at one time Republicans controlled all three branches of government.
The Republican Congress enthusiastically assisted the budget bloat. Inflation-adjusted spending on the combined budgets of the 101 largest programs they vowed to eliminate in 1995 has grown by 27 percent.
We are seeing the new Republican governance at work.
On social issues, we are seeing a government aggressively seeking to meddle in people’s bedrooms, doctor’s offices, and churches. They want to dictate when life begins, when life ends, and which consenting adults can marry. Look at the Schiavo fiasco.
The nation’s current wars have given conservatives yet more excuses to make a mockery of the protections we supposedly enjoy under the Bill of Rights, from the PATRIOT Act, to NSA spying on American citizens, to violations of habeas corpus. Republicans have abandoned even more fundamental Constitutional principles, such as “separation of powers” in their quest to consolidate power in the executive branch.
The Republican Party isn't committed to anyone’s personal freedoms.