St. Dean the liberal "conservative".

As more and more people wake up from the spin liberals in the media have been passing off as the dissemination of information, the liberal distortion machine reacts by painting themselves as something they are not. Case in point. St. Dean the every-taxing is being hailed as a "fiscal conservative"..............by liberals.

"Compare that to the Cato Institute’s “Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors: 2002,” by Stephen Moore and Stephen Slivinski. They gave him a “D.” An excerpt from their evaluation of his tenure in Montpelier: "

Howard Dean, Vermont’s articulate and telegenic governor since 1991, is one of America’s most iconoclastic politicians. On many issues, he is as pro–government intervention as any governor. He supports state-funded universal health care, government-subsidized child care (even for upper-income families), a higher minimum wage, liberal family leave legislation, and taxpayer-financed campaigns. Dean has raised many taxes over the past decade, including the gas tax, the sales tax, the corporate income tax, the cigarette tax, and the property tax. But he also claims to be “Vermont’s most fiscally conservative governor in decades.” He has been receptive to smaller government in a few areas. In his first three terms as governor, state spending rose by less than personal income growth. In 1999, he sought and won support for an across-the-board income tax cut to make the state more competitive. He was dead right on that score: Vermont has one of the highest income taxes in the nation and loses jobs and businesses to its income tax-free neighbor, New Hampshire. He also has also supported electricity deregulation and some limited school choice initiatives for high school students.

By far the most contentious decision of his administration was to back Act 60, a controversial Robin Hood–like school equity financing scheme. Act 60 guarantees $5,000 per student for every school district and delivers that guarantee by soaking up funds from some communities and redistributing dollars to poorer ones. Act 60 has unleashed a taxpayer revolt across the state. Dean has taken the brunt of the anger and nearly lost reelection in 1998 as a result. Vermonters want local control back and their property tax dollars spent on their own kids’ schools. Vermont has been hit hard by the recession, and Dean’s main response has been higher taxes. He raised the cigarette tax by 50 cents a pack and then decoupled the state income tax from the federal tax, so that Vermont would not have to reduce taxes in response to President Bush’s federal tax relief.

After 12 years of Dean’s so-called “fiscal conservatism,” Vermont remains one of the highest taxing and spending states. Dean is said to be a potential Democratic presidential nominee and is a frequent guest on national TV talk shows, usually espousing a more activist government.

For the Cato report in full, in PDF format

"Telegenic"? I have no desire to see his mug in the media. "Articulate"? I guess if you consider the blathering hate-filled ant-Bush rhetoric he pukes out for cameras to be "articulate".......sure. And it's hyperbole to call him "iconoclastic".

Golly gee whiz......ya mean ya can't be for huge entitlement programs and be "fiscally conservative"? ;)

The Valiant Elephant