In 2000, George W. Bush ran for office on a platform of smaller government. But in Bush’s eight years of office, the federal government has seen its most rapid expansion since Franklin Delano Roosevelt implemented the New Deal. Bush’s embrace of so-called “big government conservatism” has long been a burr in the side of conservatives and now his own brother, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, is trashing that legacy:
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said the party should take four primary steps: show no tolerance for corruption, practice what it preaches about limiting the scope of government (“There should not be such a thing as a Big-Government Republican”), stand for working families and small business, and embrace reform.
Bush also touted “limited government” in a recent interview with the Washington Times, telling the paper that it “requires a zeal for reform.”
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