“I love my dad. In fact, my dad is the greatest man alive,” Jeb Bush said, jokingly offering to fight anyone who disagrees. “I love my brother. And I think he’s been a great president.”
Judging by the outline of his economic platform in a speech given to the Detroit Economic Club on Wednesday, Bush was perfectly sincere. He offered a small government agenda cloaked in populist rhetoric in the mold of George W. Bush, famous for his brand of “compassionate conservatism.”
“I don’t think they ought to balance their budget on the backs of the poor,” Bush, then governor of Texas, said in the fall of 1999, triangulating against a staunch Republican Congress bent on deficit cutting. “I’m concerned for someone who is moving from near-poverty to middle class.”
