Conservatism, R.I.P.

September 14, 2005

We’ve all heard rumors that conservatism, as a governing philosophy, was on life support. Under Bush, as the federal government embraced massive deficits, a stronger federal role in education, an expansion of Medicare, a stronger federal role in law enforcement (the Patriot Act), and the most bloated, pork-laden transportation bill anyone’s ever seen, “conservatism” was just about a goner.

But I didn’t believe it was really dead until this morning, when I saw Tom DeLay tell Rev. Moon’s Washington Times that the federal government’s massive budget is now waste-free.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an “ongoing victory,” and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.

Mr. DeLay was defending Republicans’ choice to borrow money and add to this year’s expected $331 billion deficit to pay for Hurricane Katrina relief. Some Republicans have said Congress should make cuts in other areas, but Mr. DeLay said that doesn’t seem possible.

“My answer to those that want to offset the spending is sure, bring me the offsets, I’ll be glad to do it. But nobody has been able to come up with any yet,” the Texas Republican told reporters at his weekly briefing.

Asked if that meant the government was running at peak efficiency, Mr. DeLay said, “Yes, after 11 years of Republican majority we’ve pared it down pretty good.”

There’s no indication that he was kidding. Tom DeLay — who has seen federal spending, federal deficits, and the size of the federal government flourish under Republican control — now believes the massive federal budget is just about perfect. No more waste, no more abuse, no more fat to trim.

A few far-right stragglers may still argue that the government should cut spending to help bring the budget back towards balance, but DeLay effectively explained yesterday that this simply can’t be done. The Majority Leader has declared “victory.”

Someone let me know when the memorial services for conservatism will be held; I’d like to send flowers.

Are you sure that wasn’t in The Onion?

  • Norquist and his ilk are really going to give DeLay hell over this. I expect a retraction by the end of the day.

  • CB, you’re right–there aren’t any conservatives left in government. But it’s amazing to hear on progressive blogs sentiments that sound downright libertarian. So its not as if conservatism is bankrupt, since people see a lot of merit in it. It’s just been hijacked for a bit by a party whose mascot looks like an elephant but is really Jabba the Hutt.

  • Yes, tens of millions of federal dollars for a bridge to an uninhabited Alaska island and a new road to Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville really speak well of the “fat-cutting” by these so-called conservatives.

    I do believe Tom Delay has slipped into a vegetative state.

  • Don’t worry Rush is on it. He’s claiming that Delay was being sarcastic. That will be the talking point before the end of the day.

  • This is a prime example of why we need more women in the HOUSE!!!!!!!!
    Women have for many years been able to feed, clothe and maintain families on whatever budgets they have for years.
    Mr. DeLay cannot see any corruption in the budget?
    A bridge in Alaska comes instantly to mind.

  • It would be nifty if Tom DeLay, Grover Norquist, and Pat Robertson all shot each other in a grand “Mexican Standoff.” Maybe we could get Tarantino to film it.

  • Classic Coolidge-style conservatism may be dead, but don’t think for a second that the people currently running Washington have lost their ideological edge because of huge deficits or the Katrina disaster. Check out an article on today’s Washington Post front page (which I can’t link to), under the misleading headline “Bush Takes Responsibility for Failures of Response,” by Jim VandeHei and Jonathan Weisman.

    The gist of the article is how Bush, Rove, Norquist, Senator Kyl, etc., see Katrina as an opportunity to experiment with their right-wing schemes (vouchers, tax breaks, waiving environmental and other regulations, portable benefits, etc.) on a massive scale — starting with the suspension of wage supports for relief workers. I assume the opening salvo in this crusade will take place tomorrow night when Bush appears on prime-time (appropriately right after “Survivor”).

    The cost? “GOP officials involved in the effort said more than $200 billion could be spent on Katrina-related projects, most of it over the next two years. They project that hurricane-related spending will trail off in the final two years of the Bush presidency, allowing him to say he met his stated goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009. ‘You’re a fiscal conservative until you get hit with a natural disaster,’ said Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss).”

  • ‘You’re a fiscal conservative until you get hit with a natural disaster,’ said Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss).

    Or in other words, as long as you assume there are never any problems that government needs to deal with, conservatism works!

    Perhaps he can retire and run for governor of the state of Denial?

  • The solution to these clowns is VOTE THEM OUT.
    However, slight problem: the vote is not being counted, it is being “announced” by the republican-owned vote-stealing machine companies. what is needed is:
    PAPER BALLOTS, HAND COUNTED.

    Anything else is a waste of time and a waste of our democracy.

    Get crackin’ Democracy Lovers!

  • The government’s budget is waste free about like his committee in Texas was righteous (two more of his cronies indicted today). Hopefully, Delay will be off to jail soon and we won’t have to read about or listen to anymore of his idiotic statements.

  • All our present government is interested in is reducing their taxes so they and their friends can get richer. They parley the words taxes and liberal like they are dirty words. Soon enough, we, the have less, will all be living in a serfdom, tending the fields of the have mores.
    patriot is right… don’t foget about electronic voting. Not having a voting paper trail is the biggest threat we face. We need legislation that protects our greatest right as a citizen.1 person, 1 vote.
    We can complain all we want but it is the congress and executive branch that needs to be changed. I want my country back!

  • And for his next act, Tom DeLay will prove conclusively that the Earth revolves around the sun… that Shakespeare’s plays were really written by Fred McMurray… that grits ain’t groceries, eggs ain’t poultry and Mona Lisa was a man.

  • No the death knell is the bankers and insurance companies who are now caterwalling that every single owner of ‘improved property’ in the entire country should bear their costs for imprudently financing development, writing mortgages and insuring homes and businesses which did not carry flood insurance.

    Let’s leave aside just for the moment the exact mechanisms which mystriously put vast tracts of metro NOLA outside the flood zone in a city mostly below sea level.

    I thought these guys were big into ‘personal responsibility’ and abhored ‘redistributing income’ and ‘entitlements’ and so forth.

    Right up to the very moment when its their ox getting gored.

  • The bridge to Alaska that Drew mentions was mentioned specifically by the Economist (the consistently pro-Iraq-war conservative newsweekly), along with the rest of the transportation bill, as needing a serious throat-clearing, but good. They say it’s urgent to revamp this bill.

  • “PAPER BALLOTS, HAND COUNTED.
    Anything else is a waste of time and a waste of our democracy.
    Get crackin’ Democracy Lovers!”

    I agree. Suggestions as to actually implement this welcomed.

    Since we have no more Checks & Balances, the status quo will not change, no matter how many letters to the editor we write, no matter how many calls to Congress we make, no matter how unAmerican and Wrong the policy itself is. We saw it coming, and could do nothing.

  • Check this out Covered up by Tom DeLay and the Head of Lutheran Social Services Senske, (the lawyer), who showed up at the June 6, 2004, meeting uninvited and thwarth a Congressional investigation on the FRAUD and FALSIFIED FATALITY FOSTER CARE REPORTS!

    http://media.familyrights.us/expose/ExposeV2005.pdf

    *Lutheran Social Services has the largest Texas Foster Home Contracts! The Lutherans Went to Russia Too!!!

    Here is the Abramoff Foster Care connection!

    http://auctionhouse.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/11/4/114556/020

    http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/11/9/15581/1958

    Didn’t Abramoff go to Russia Too!

    Who else went to the communists!

    They have a network SEE! http://www.txcfr.org/M.pdf

    Here is how the Life insurance SCAM works for Abramoff and Republicans! http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=2016

    They use it on the FOSTER CARE KIDS! THE Public doesn’t seem tomind the DEAD CHILDREN COVER UP!

    Here is where they put the Foster Care legislation so you wouldn’t find it! It isn’t in the Foster Care legislation dummy, that is too obvious! SEE toward end of this under Option C near end. http://www.ita.doc.gov/hrm/fegli.html

    Once they got away with it SCOTT FREE! Sponsored and backed by Republicans! They upped the limits on the children by 500%!! Republican Style! http://www.opm.gov/asd/htm/1999/bal99-212.htm

    Do you want the FAKE FOSTER CARE FATALITY REPORTS posted along REAL NUMBERS!! I will post later think about it ……….VOTE ON UNELECTION DAY! Or Happy Corrupters Day! We have 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, of FALSIFIED DEATH REPORTS RepublicanWAY! VOTE ON UNELECTION DAY! Oh, the legislation was passed in 1998, amended in 1999, and the life insurance PAC gave in 1997! Happy UNELECTION DAY!

  • Here is your Russian Communist Connection!

    http://www.mosnews.com/commentary/2005/04/18/adoption.shtml

    http://www.boston.com/news.nation/articles/2006/02/23/abramoff_ties_to_russians_probed/

    http://www.lsss.org/mediareleases/media_credentials.htm

    I wonder why TOM DELAY and LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES SENSKE (THE LAWYER) showed up on June 6, 2004, to thwarth a Congressional Investigation!?? Just wondering!

    http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=2016

    I will post the FALSIFIED FOSTER CARE FATALITY REPORTS NEXT ALONG SIDE REAL REPORTS so you can see how it works! I have lots of time on hand NO KIDS to tie me down! Plenty of time to post the evidence !!! VOTE ON UNELECTION DAY!

  • Don’t watch the news I tell ya, it’s lies all lies! WAR?! GLOBAL WARMING?! …………get out of here!

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