Gannett News Service: Has Bush Betrayed GOP Values? Conservatives vent about president's moves, future spending
President Bush is a "fraud" and a "disaster." He's betraying the Reagan Revolution. He has turned the Republican Party into the "the new welfare state party."
Those are Republicans talking. And that rage from Republicans who favor small government and fiscal restraint, both in Washington and the heartland, could mean trouble for Bush's re-election.
The article provides only anecdotal evidence of more fractures among the right, but there's lots of good quotes. I'm amazed there hasn't been more of this reaction earlier, so I can only say "What took them so long?".
Some more choice quotes:
The worry for the Bush campaign is not that Republicans will vote for the Democratic nominee next November. It's that they will stay home.
...
Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, one of the 25 House Republicans who voted against the Medicare bill, said some of the Republican base will be demoralized by the expansion of government under Bush. Why, he asked, would the GOP base be enthusiastic about traipsing to the polls if they see the party of Ronald Reagan becoming the party of entitlements?
On Friday, 13 Republican House members sent a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert complaining that the last four years had seen the biggest expansion of government in 50 years. A final, massive spending bill for fiscal 2004 -- passed by the House Monday -- would only make matters worse, they said.
...
(F)or Republicans who favor small government, polls show that one concern is paramount: the fear that their children and grandchildren will end up footing the bill for irresponsible decisions made by Washington during the last four years.
The Heritage Foundation calculates that just to pay for the prescription drug benefit, households will have to pay an additional $1,125 in taxes per year by 2030.
"I'm not happy at all," said Tom Brinkman, a Republican state representative from Cincinnati.
"The spending is out of control and somebody's going to have to pay for it, and it's my children. And I don't think that's right," Brinkman said.