Bush: Kerry Wants to Expand Government

[wicket]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040916/ap_on_el_pr/bush_4

Seeking to gain ground against Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), President Bush (news - web sites) said Thursday that his Democratic opponent "wants to expand government" in education, health care, taxes and virtually every other area of domestic policy.

"We have a difference of philosophy in this campaign," Bush told supporters. "It's a clear difference: my opponent's programs will expand government. Our programs will expand opportunity."

Bush made a special point of assailing Kerry's positions on health care, one of the issues where the president is weakest against his Democratic challenger. Bush is attempting to boost his own agenda by painting Kerry as a big-government, antibusiness, anti-patient politician.

"I have a commonsense practical plan to make high-quality health care more affordable and more accessible," Bush said. "My opponent wants government to dictate. I want you to decide, when it comes to health care."

----------------------------------------------------

Apparently Shrub doesn't understand the irony in his statement, considering government expansion has EXPLODED in his term in office. What a dolt.

[LisaLynne]

1. I know!

He just says these things that have no correlation to reality. It's bizarre!

[gratuitous]

2. Mr. Biggest Deficit Ever said that?

Wow, who said he's stopped drinking? I'd have to put away the better part of a bottle of Old Overcoat before I started hallucinating that badly.

[wicket]

3. He probably washed it down with some magic mushrooms

:evilgrin:

;)

[cthrumatrix]

4. coming from a man who has NEVER veto'd a spending bill..... LOL

[htuttle]

31. Bush has never seen a spending bill he didn't like

He's presided over the biggest expansion of the Federal government since WWII -- perhaps even larger.

Just because we are charging it to our national 'credit card' doesn't mean we aren't actually spending it. And it's become so large and overwhelming, it's very likely the debt will have a direct effect on our own lives, instead of waiting to merely crush the dreams of our children.

[CatWoman]

5. um

isn't that what Bush is doing?

two words: Homeland Security

[Catfight]

6. I'm telling you, I'm convinced he's smoking crack now! He has the

biggest government in history, even conservatives are nervous about that! Maybe it's true that some Republicans really do want to bring the Bush's down forever and end the monarchy? His speech writers are burying him with his own words. What a loon. That statement is going to bury him in the polls.

[leftchick]

7. this is a joke right?

omg... the Government spending has grown how much under bushco*? Kerry can take this baby and run with it!

[MidwestTransplant]

8. I think that Bush has added more federal employees than any pres.

since FDR.

[seasat]

9. Here's a link to a great Brookings Institute Study on it.

Fact Sheet on the Continued Thickening of Governmen

This quote from the study sums it up:

The 2004 analysis suggests that the Bush administration has added significantly to the thickening of government. Part of the growth is due to creation of the new Department of Homeland Security, which grew from just 3 layers and 3 occupants in the winter of 2003 (secretary, deputy secretary, and under secretary) to 21 layers and 146 occupants in the spring of 2004. But the thickening has occurred in almost every department, including many that are not involved in homeland security or the war on terrorism. Moreover, the increase would have been greater but for the significant thinning of the management ranks at the departments of Defense and Treasury, both of which obviously remain engaged in the war on terrorism.

Also wanted to add this on edit:

When Defense and Treasury are removed from the inventory, the total width of the federal hierarchy increased by 20 percent between 1998 and 2004, rising by 355 positions from 1,785 to 2,140. The increase is particularly significant when compared to the 1992-1998 period, when the girth of government basically held steady because of Vice President Gore's reinventing campaign. Under the reinventing agenda, all federal agencies were asked to expand the ratio of supervisors to subordinates from 1 : 7 to 1:15. The Bush administration's management agenda has no position on the thickening of government, which may have given departments de facto permission to widen their hierarchies.


So according to this objective study, Democrats, in the past serveral decades, reduce beauracracy while Republicans create it.

[IA_Seth]

10. And Bush is just expaning imperial America

I guess I would rather have big government than a worthless one, and I would rather have a big government here in the US rather than a bunch of puppet US Governments siphoning off our dollars all over the world.

I am all for a period of Diplomatic Isolationism (my term i think). We need to act with our allies in the world, but not as the overbearing world power we have become. There would be nothing wrong in my eyes with pulling out our troops from Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, and if we HAVE to use them somewhere to keep our miliary-industrial economy ticking for awhile while we adjust our economy at home, have them do real humanitarian missions in places like Africa (ie humanitarian means non-violent).

[itzamirakul]

14. I prefer less privatizing

I would rather see bigger government in which regulations are in place. The privatizing that has gone on has caused prices to rocket skyward, has encouraged greed and even more shady dealings than before privatization and less stability in employment.

The Bush regime has in mind the privatization of absolutely EVERYTHING and at least some regulation and price controls are necessary so that ALL Americans can live a decent life, not just those who have reached some kind of celebrity status.

As a former public school teacher, I am particularly worried about the privatization of our schools and the free education that American children are entitled to.

[wicket]

16. Welcome to DU!!!

:hi:

[leftofthedial]

11. the little bushturd is the biggest expander of gummint

in US history

laughable hypocrisy

[struggle4progress]

12. This from the guy who has appointed pro-torture judges, ...

... the guy who argues government should be able to ship you to an offshore prison beyond the reach of law, the guy who wants to know what books you read?

[FeebMaster]

Hmm. Must be election time.

The Republicans are pretending to be for smaller government again.

[Tempest]

13. Increasing goverment 28% ISN'T expanding it???!!!

First he says the U.N. supports his war in Iraq, and now this.

He's on drugs.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. But, you know, killing and oppressing people don't count, because

killing and oppressing people gooooooood, helping and protecting people baaaaaaaaaad.

[NJGeek]

17. Love it!

These are SOFTBALLS. Kerry please crush them.

[belle]

18. Lame; Kerry should smash that weak lob right out of the park.

[ixion]

19. the biggest expander of government ever... he has room to talk

not!

[silverpatronus]

20. he said WHAT?

is he listening to himself? mr. bloated bureaucracy himself is complaining that his opponent wants to expand government? how much more 'expanded' could it get?

[shawn703]

21. KERRY, ATTACK ON THIS NOW!

He can't let this statement of ultimate hypocrisy go untouched. Bush presides over the biggest government expansion since LBJ and he has the gall to attack Kerry with this garbage?

[wicket]

24. Bush just handed Kerry a gift with this statement

Hopefully Kerry THROTTLES Bush with it. :spank:

[The_Casual_Observer]

22. "Our programs will expand opportunity"

For Halliburton, Drug Companies, Insurance Companies, Stock Brokers.....

[moondust]

23. I smell a delusional candidate.

And he really, really stinks!

If he's down to trying to run on this unprecedented hypocrisy I think the race may be all but over.

[auburngrad82]

25. Bush's government is the largest in history

His deficit is the largest in history.

Why don't the news reports bring these contradictions up when they print this trash? It's one-sided reporting and it's a big part of the reason that so many people are misinformed about Bush.

[Darranar]

26. This is the guy wih a massive deficit and huge government expansion...

rates?

This is transparent propaganda.

[alarcojon]

27. Don't know what to say

something about a pot and a kettle...

[Kierkegaard]

28. "We have a difference of philosophy in this campaign,"

Bush told supporters. "I want to burn this country to the ground by overextending our military, scaring the daylights out our citizens with terror alerts, giving away bundles of free cash to my 'base' and chopping up our constitution to make sure no one can challenge my authority. My opponent, on the other hand, wishes to enable Americans to prosper, co-exist peacefully within the world and have a sense of well-being and safety. It's a clear difference."

:eyes::eyes::eyes:

[wicket]

29. It'd be funny if it weren't so true

:( 4 more years?? HELL NO!!!

[stray cat]

30. Bush wants to remove all gov protection for working americans

Bush wants to eliminate any aspect of government that gets in the way of his corporation chronies from making money and protects the rights of working Americans. However, any goverment that save guards his dictatorship and pay offs to his chronies continues to go through the roof.

[dansolo]

32. Republicans don't want smaller government

That is a huge lie that, like the notion of the "liberal" media, has somehow been accepted as fact. Republican administrations have continually increased spending with record deficits. The trick is that they promote privatization, and then somehow convince people that even though it is the govenment paying the bills, because the work is done by the "private sector", it doesn't count towards the size of the govenment.