Bush a socialist?

I woke up this morning with an idea. I intended to write a post called "Bush A Big-Government Conservative," ending with the line "The only thing worse than a big-government liberal is a big-government conservative. At least the liberals don't claim to dislike big government."

But checking online, I find Mr. Sullivan had a similar idea over the weekend, asking if Bush is a socialist.

In the sense of punishing the successful and rewarding the unsuccessful, he's not quite there, although I do have to note that after four and a half years of his Presidency, we STILL don't have a flat income tax rate.

But in the sense of the government trying to fill every need like some OCD-afflicted nanny, he is certainly rapidly approaching socialism.

Which makes him the worst possible combination -- a social authoritarian and an economic authoritarian.