Samwick Dissatisfied with GOP

Economics professor Andrew Samwick, a former member of the Council of Economic Advisers, told the Washington Post that he’s growing somewhat dissatisfied with the GOP’s turn from small government:

“I’m inclined to support the Republican Party, but the question becomes, how much other stuff do I have to put up with to maintain that identification?” asked Andrew A. Samwick, a Dartmouth College economics professor who until recently was chief economist of Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers…

Samwick said the disenchantment of small-government conservatives has been building since the passage of the USA Patriot Act, which some saw as infringing on individual liberties, and the Medicare drug benefit, which created future government liabilities that exceed the entire projected Social Security shortfall.

“Some of these outcomes are really starting to alienate people who might be Republican because they are for limited government,” Samwick said.