You certainly wouldn’t know it from reading this site over the last year, but I’m actually quite sympathetic to conservative economic positions. But before everyone runs away yelling “traitor,” let’s define our terms. Despite their choice of words, the policies of the Bush administration are anything but conservative. Actual conservatives know that tax cuts must be coupled with spending cuts in order to work. Actual conservatives oppose corporate welfare as much or more than they oppose welfare for poor people.

The Bush administration is not conservative, but radical. An unaffordable elective war, massive spending on missile defense to address an outdated threat, unsustainable structural budget deficits, currency manipulation, restrictive social policies, and mingling church and state are anathema to what actual conservatives stand for: small government, individual rights, and laissez faire ideals.

Consider for a moment the Medicare drug benefit passed this year. Rather than letting the market to set prices by allowing drug re-importation from places like Canada, the administration twisted arms and bent rules to pass a $400 billion $500 billion $534 billion $576 billion giveaway to drug companies masquerading as a Medicare benefit. The plan was such an obvious boondoggle that less than half of the people eligible even signed up and the government had to throw the towel in and just mail the cards to all senior citizens.

Brad DeLong wonders daily where the “grown-up” Republicans are and why they allow the daily perversion of their movement to continue. Of course the answers are simple: No one wants to cross a vindictive administration (especially one that controls all three branches of government), and most importantly, they believe they will profit financially even from the policies they don’t agree with.

I am not a “grown-up” Republican, nor any kind of Republican. So I’m able and eager to stand up and point out these grievous errors and misplaced priorities.

Those who follow the news closely may have seen a new study released last week found that 1/3 of this country’s largest corporations paid zero taxes or received a rebate in at least one year between 2001 and 2003:

After 2001, the average effective rate for all 275 companies dropped by a fifth, from 21.4 percent in 2001 to 17.2 percent in 2002 and 2003, less than half the statutory 35 percent corporate tax rate that corporations ostensibly are supposed to pay.

Also last week, Congress passed another $13 Billion in corporate tax cuts.

At the same time, the federal government is cutting housing aid to the poorest among us. By up to 30%

It can’t be any more plain: The Bush administration is paying for corporate tax cuts on the backs of the people least able to afford it. And when the next round of studies are released showing steep spikes in poverty and homelessness, no one will be surprised. But neither will anyone be able to do anything about it because there won’t be any money.

All of which fits perfectly with the Bush administration strategy vocalized by Grover Norquist:

“I’m not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”

Now is the time for “grown-ups” of every party affiliation to step up and change the course of history. If you are a Libertarian (big L or small l), it’s not in your interest to vote for George W. Bush. If you are a moderate Republican, it’s not in your interest to vote for George W. Bush.

You can rationalize it all you want, but this administration’s policies were designed by corporate lobbyists to benefit corporations. Unless you are a corporation, you have no business voting for the President’s reelection.