Froomkin: "Will the real George W. Bush please stand up?"

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/09/16/BL2005091601005.html



Mr. Big Government

By Dan Froomkin

Will the real George W. Bush please stand up?

Several of the key points in President Bush's nationally televised speech last night are being widely welcomed this morning: His vow to rebuild the Gulf Coast, his increasingly direct acknowledgment that there were serious government lapses after Hurricane Katrina, his admission that Americans can and should expect a more effective response to catastrophes in the post 9/11 era.


But the guts of the speech -- in which Bush unfurled his administration's grand plans for the biggest government-funded reconstruction effort in history -- has led to considerable skepticism, if not outright puzzlement, on both sides of the political divide.

Consider two of the more extreme possibilities:

* Either Bush is being entirely forthright, in which case he's talking about something reminiscent of the biggest liberal government programs of the 20th century. That scares some conservatives, certainly fiscal conservatives, to death.

* Or maybe it's just a plan to transform the Gulf Coast into a big test bed for conservative social policy, where tax breaks flow to big business and tax money flows to Halliburton, churches and private schools. That utterly terrifies liberals.

[musette_sf]

1. Survey says...

THE LATTER!

What the hell else does anyone think these criminals have in mind?
:banghead:

[tonkatoy57]

2. If, as they say, past is prologue...

I'd be willing to put some serious money on option number two.

The entirety of this administrations public policy has been one gigantic game of bait and switch. Anyone who's dumb enough to believe that this group of con men, hucksters, and thieves has suddenly turned into a cross between FDR and St. Francis of Assisi need to slow down. All they have to do is remember three things; No Child Left Behind, money for AIDS prevention in Africa, and Iraqi rebuilding. This is going to be a ripoff and boondoggle for the ages.

The word for the day boys and girls is kleptocracy.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

3. A Bit Of Both

You can give all the tax breaks in the world but if there's no profits to be taxed than tax breaks are an exercise in futility..

[Inland]

4. Bush's strength: HIs supporters think he just lies

You would think that this would be a negative for a president, but Bush's supporters are very conscious of their minority status and their deeply unpopular agenda.

Therefore they simply believe that Bush HAS TO provide some sort of bullshit speech and lie to the rest of the nation and pretend to want to do something popular.

That's why the conservatives tend to not go ballistic over a program to rebuild Iraq. They think BUsh is lying and actually working to kill muslims and steal oil.

And not going to go ballistic over the Katrina rebuilding. It's all going to be tax cuts and enterprise zones and giving away federal properties to homesteaders and contracting out the work to private companies, in their mind.