Self-described neocon “godfather” Irving Kristol defined the neocon agenda in a Sept. 25, 2003 Weekly Standard article as essentially statism in domestic policy and imperialism in foreign policy. He ridiculed classical liberals, Hayek in particular, while rhapsodizing over the prospect of perpetual wars for perpetual peace. We all know they got their war, and are drooling over the prospects of more, as Frummer Boy’s new book with R. Perle attests.

Now comes a new study by Cato (“The Republican Spending Explosion” by Veronique de Rugy) that documents how Bush is the biggest domestic spender since Lyndon Johnson.

Real nondefense spending increases during LBJ’s first three years: $124.8 billion.

Real nondefense spending increases during Bush’s first three years: $123.4 billion.

The Republican Party is returning to its big-government roots. As Mark Thornton and Bob Ekelund write in their new book, Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War,” the term “New Deal was actually coined in March 1865 by a newspaper in Raleigh to characterize Lincoln and the Republicans and persuade North Carolina voters to rejoin the Union.” They cite historian Daniel Elazar as saying “one cold easily call Lincoln’s presidency the ‘New Deal’ of the 1860s” with its high tariffs, corporate welfare, central banking, government pensions, labor legislation, agricultural interventionism, income taxation, and more.

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