[quote=SK in CV]If that is really the main issue of the tea partiers, where were they for the 8 years before this administration, when congress and the administration ran up debt, and spent and grew the size of government faster than any before them? As the deficit grew by 3 to 4 times what it had been during the previous 8 years and 50% higher than every other administration before, besides Bush the senior’s 4 years in office.[/quote]
Perhaps most people weren’t listening.
“As to Bush’s non-defense, non-homeland security domestic spending, people did complain — lots of them and frequently. Why isn’t this more widely recognized? When a conservative criticizes Rush Limbaugh, that’s news. The left hates Limbaugh. When a conservative criticizes Bush’s spending, that’s not news. The left loves domestic spending. For liberals, Bush’s No Child Left Behind program “wasn’t fully funded.” The prescription bill for seniors contained a “doughnut hole,” which made it insufficiently generous.
Conservatives, pundits and talk show hosts routinely blasted Bush for domestic spending. In 2003, after the passage of the Medicare prescription bill, a member of The Heritage Foundation said, “The president isn’t showing leadership, and conservatives are angry.” Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said, “The conservative, free-market base in America is rightly in revolt over this bill.”
