A Return To Big Government? A Bush New Deal?

For an administration that has sought to limit the reach of social welfare programs, the proposed reconstruction of New Orleans represents a massive new investment similar in size to the New Deal or Great Society programs.

1 minute read

September 11, 2005, 9:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


the president is turning to many of the New Deal and Great Society programs that he long criticized as too costly and a threat to Americans' sense of self-reliance.

...Bush has consistently promoted shrinking the size of government even as he has expanded the military in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. But in the wake of the hurricane, the administration appears to have put aside its interest in small government for the time being.

...Indeed, it is the size of the administration's relief plan that has taken conservatives and others by surprise. At more than $62 billion and counting, the effort invited comparison with such undertakings as the government's Marshall Plan for rebuilding Europe after World War II."

Sunday, September 11, 2005 in The Los Angeles Times

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