Commentary

More on the big spender

It’s certainly difficult to please everyone, and if you try there’s a small chance you’ll win big and a huge chance you’ll lose big. Bush may very well end up losing big. He’s spending so much he’s making Jimmy Carter look like a penny-pinching limited government type. And he’s not just spending on programs generally associated with Republicans. He’s spending more on all sorts of social programs, and Jacob Sullum notes that he’s even spending more on the Right’s favorite whipping boyââ?¬â??the National Endowment for the Arts. So what’s been the reaction? Well, even after the spending spree liberals still don’t like him, GOP leaders are fuming, Canada wouldn’t vote for him and at least one writer suggests (see #9) that all this may even affect how developing nations view our success. The U.S. has always been most effective as an advancer-of-liberty by the example it has set. But might other nations eventually come to assume that our high standard of living comes because ofââ?¬â??not despiteââ?¬â??government’s expanding sphere?