Katrina's Damage to Bush's Standing Still Haunts His Presidency

Although much of Bush's relief plan was based on conservative principles -- local control, regulatory easements, tax-advantaged opportunity zones, aid vouchers -- Republican fiscal conservatives cringed at what they deemed was a blank check. They saw it as an open-ended commitment that ran counter to the free-market principles of a president who took office in 2001 pledging to play a ``limited'' role in people's lives because ``too much government crowds out initiative and hard work, private charity and the private economy.''

What about conservative values of corporate welfare, racism, theocracy, class conflict and oligarchy. Those run counter to free market too yet are cherished by repiglikkkans as much as they cherish that first 10 bucks hey made selling grandma to slave traders.