WASHINGTON — Sometimes his themes reprise Ronald Reagan. Other times they echo Bill Clinton.
Depending on the issue and the audience, President Bush can be equally comfortable denouncing the dangers of big government or extolling Washington's potential to spur creative local solutions to entrenched social problems.
Through his first 100 days, Bush has sketched an agenda that takes the Republican Party in some new directions--especially on issues relating to the needy--but mostly reaffirms the prevailing currents of conservative thought that have dominated the GOP since his father's defeat in 1992.
Indeed, on the left and the right, perhaps the principal surprise of Bush's first months in office is how much core conservatism is embedded within his vision of "compassionate conservatism." Martin Anderson, former President Reagan's top domestic policy advisor, says: "Reagan would have been comfortable with what Bush is doing, especially on the major issues. If you look at the entire range of conservative positions, that's where Bush is."
The picture actually is more complex. Compared to Reagan, who built his political appeal around the stark contention that "government is the problem," Bush accepts a larger responsibility for Washington in confronting problems such as persistent poverty and faltering public schools.
And the role Bush defines for Washington in those arenas overlaps Clinton's vision of government as catalyst, in which the federal role is providing local institutions and individuals the means to solve problems themselves.
To Karl Rove, Bush's political strategist, that focus on supporting local problem-solving is "the essence" of the president's compassionate conservatism. That theme runs through everything from Bush's endorsement of block grants in education to his push to increase government partnerships with grass-roots, religion-based charities.
Yet Bush has proposed only modest new funding to support those local efforts. On education, which he has labeled his top domestic priority, he has proposed spending increases much smaller than those Clinton signed into law. And even these are the favored exceptions in Bush's proposed budget, which would squeeze the growth of domestic spending for a decade while imposing the largest tax cut since Reagan's in 1981.
In a rising chorus, Democrats are maintaining that these conventionally conservative fiscal priorities--and Bush's equally resolute skepticism of federal environmental and workplace safety regulation--are undermining his promise of compassion.
