The state of Big Government. (The Last Word).(Column)

Back in the summer of 2000, when the Bush-Gore presidential race was gathering steam, syndicated columnist Charley Reese painted a very complimentary picture of candidate Bush. The choice facing voters, he opined in one column, was between "saving the country" (voting for Bush) and committing national suicide" (voting for Gore). Continued Reese, "my Dad used to say that whenever America got into trouble, somehow the right person always came along. I believe that George W. Bush is that right person at the right time." In a separate column, Reese enthused that Bush was "the only candidate with a chance to win who hasn't indicated that he views the Bill of Rights with utter contempt."

Unfortunately for America, Charley Reese's rosy appraisal of the younger Bush was way off the mark, which a contrite Reese now acknowledges. Bush's latest State of the Union address--one part stirring rhetoric, five parts socialist vaporings--is a case in point. On topics ranging from the environment to health care, President Bush sounded positively Clintonesque, calling for more than $400 billion worth of new government spending on initiatives ranging from the quaintly oxymoronic (USA Freedom Corps) to the downright silly (hydrogen-powered cars).

By continuing the grand bipartisan tradition of taxing and spending, Bush has already destroyed any lingering doubts about his devotion to Big Government. But the burgeoning deficits and reckless spending embraced by Bush and his congressional toadies aren't the biggest worry. The real problem is a pair of fatal ideas that have become orthodoxy in official Washington. The first is the conceit, entertained by big-government enthusiasts of every hue, including the current president, that any problem can be solved, or at least greatly mitigated, by the creative application of centralized state power. Ascribing to the federal government near-messianic attributes, President Bush assured Congress in his address that the federal government has the power to give us "healthy forests" (whatever that means), clear our skies, shower on our senior citizenry still more medical benefits, cure drug addiction, and even, by subsidizing religion and philanthropy, "transform America, one heart and soul at a time."

Nor does Bush's coercive compassion stop at the water's edge. According to the president, our convictions oblige "us"--meaning our government--to go "into the world to help the afflicted, and defend the peace, and confound the designs of evil men."

Thanks largely to the "war on terrorism," Bush has managed to commit America to a policy of permanent worldwide interventionism, even though our own country has many legitimate defensive needs--such as a ...