Pat Buchanan on Bush’s proposed marriage promotion initiative:
Where in the Constitution is the U.S. government empowered to take money from citizens to teach other citizens how to have “healthy marriages”? Why is the White House dreaming up new social programs when we’re running a $500 billion deficit?
What, exactly, is the difference between the compassionate conservatism of George W. Bush and the Great Society liberalism of Lyndon Johnson, against which Mr. Conservative, Barry Goldwater, broke his lance in 1964? What do the Beltway conservatives stand for anymore, other than getting their snouts in the trough, too?
. . .
This $1.5 billion is nothing but faith-based pork, cooked up in the kitchen of Karl Rove to bribe the Religious Right not to scream too loud if the White House decides to go into the tank on gay marriage in 2004.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.