Originally Posted by Steve_NO
It would have made for an interesting administration if, in addition to fighting the Long War, Bush had tried to take on the democrats and endured the media wars that Reagan did.....the meme would have been....cruel cut in aid to the poor....no federal help for failing schools.....old people eating cat food......all the old canards used against Reagan, and against the Republican congress under Clinton.

Instead, he just rolled over, let them spend, and got on with the wars. If he'd successfully opposed the prescription drug benefit....which he obviously should have....that would be the only thing you'd have heard from the democrats and media ever since. Ditto NCLB. Immigration was a self-inflicted wound, though, since the people would overwhelmingly support him if he'd come down for the fence and secure borders. Of course, he'd have been excoriated as a racist, and that would be one of the themes of the election if he'd done it.


In my humble backwoods opinion, our economic might is the single most important factor in keeping America the strongest country in the world, so to ignore it or trying to compete with the libs on spending is completely reckless and only serves to weaken us in the future when not so friendly countries like China are experiencing double digit GDP growth and in turn exponentially increasing their military spending.

How long before Chindia starts using their economic might to dictate world policy while we're stuck with such enormous debt, we have little capability to forge world policy?

There definately needs to be a better balance between fiscal responsibility and strong national defense. You can't go full tilt in either direction without suffering some ramifications.