George W. Bush--The First 30 Months

7-1-2003 | Justshe

[rattrap]

ok your list is good, and i agree Bush has done good things, but allow me to add a few 'cons'

Federal spending during the years 2000 - 2003 more than any other time in US history save for WWII
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/BG1581.cfm
http://www.cato.org/research/articles/dehaven-030326.html

The PATRIOT Act

Detention of US Citizens without charges or representation, suspected terrorists or not, if they are US citizens, they are protected by the constitution.
Jose Padilla

Most Federal Education Spending in Decades, Bush partnered with Ted Kennedy for this one
http://www.cato.org/current/school-choice/pubs/lartigue-020301.html

That Ugly Farm Bill
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Agriculture/BG1534.cfm

Extention of Unemployment

Pressed for Tax-cuts for those that don't pay taxes

Federalization of Airport security under the TSA

Huge new cabinet agency, Homeland Security

Supports(publicly) Assault Weapons Ban

His record of Growing Government in texas.
This is important because it shows his penchant for spending and big government.

[Catspaw]

The problem with the aid to the PA isn't that we've provided it, but that it's been robbed by that slob Arafat. If further aid provides stability and gives a fledgling PA leadership that is reasonable and determined to change 50 years of hatred toward Israel, all the money you mention, and more, will have been worth the investment.

Arafat is still in charge. He's still president. And do you think Arafat's cronies--and that includes Abbas--have clean hands?

[Trace21230]

George Bush, not only is he AWOL on this, he puts on a sombrero and dances the La Cuca-Rockefeller-Republican cha-cha.

Here's a good example of a meaningless, derogatory, ad hominem, false statement.

To compare George W. Bush to a Rockefeller Republican shows you don't have the first clue when it comes to politics.

Trace

[Scenic Sounds]

As you probably know, a certain element here viscerally hates Bush and will refuse to acknowledge that he has done anything good while in office.

Yeah, some of us "probably know." LOL.

Good post, Trace. You've added some perspective. ;-)

[Dane]

Politically, Bush is a centrist, but he is slowly moving the center more to the right.

BINGO, but that will not matter to those who knee jerkingly curse those(politically center voters) for not being idealogically pure.

[Dilbert56]

You're right. Gore is such a zealot he would have tried anything to further his pet projects. But the discussion is about what President Bush has done. He is credited here with killing US participation in the Kyoto Treaty. My point is that the Senate had already done so.

[justshe]

Good analysis. Thanks.

[Trace21230]

posters who have merely questioned Bush's policies have been flamed as if they HAD lanched personal attacks on others or Bush. Its a TWO WAY street!

I'll agree with that.

Trace

[Mo1]

Excellent!!!

[Trace21230]

BTW, great home page. I've got a 3-year-old beagle that I rescued from the animal shelter.

Trace

[Dane]

He is credited here with killing US participation in the Kyoto Treaty. My point is that the Senate had already done so.

Bush is in charge of the executive branch of government at the current time, his main competitor for the job when the vacancy came up, Gore, would have used executive orders to fulfill his pet project called the Kyoto treaty.

So, IMO, Bush did kill Kyoto by defeating the main supporter of Kyoto, Gore, and not putting out executive orders fulfilling Kyoto as Gore would have done.

[justshe]

Did you read this part of my post:

Items still to be accomplished and/or addressed

Allow sunsetting of AWB

Fix illegal immigration issues and border control

Limit/eliminate federal entitlement programs

Cut size of federal budget

Shrink federal government job force

Hate all Dems and do not treat them civilly

Don't appoint any homosexuals to public office

Don't meet with Grover Norquist--or Muslims--or Homosexuals

Kill all terrorists in Israel

Drop the idea of a Palestinian state

"Eliminate" all Palestinians

Need means testing on Senior Rx legislation

Get the United States out of the United Nations

Banish the United Nations from U.S. soil.

Stop all foreign aid.

Stop all foreign aid to the Palestinians

Eliminate Steel and Wood tarrifs

Talk non-stop, at every opportunity, about judicial nominees and lack of Senate vote.

Push Frist out.....bring back Trent Lott

Fire Karl Rove

Fire Colin Powell


I have added some of your points to the list...but I doubt there is much that can currently be 'addressed or accomplished' re: the size of government in Texas while he was governor. In other words, it is NOT germaine to this discussion, imo.

[Scenic Sounds]

I try to keep in mind that all of these folks will vote for Bush, each for his/her own reasons. And I know that some of those reasons may not make sense to us. There will even be a confused few who, like TLB, will vote for Bush because they have somehow convinced themselves that "a vote for Bush is a vote for socialism."

All of them will help, whatever their motivations. ;-)

[Scenic Sounds]

that I rescued from the animal shelter.

You're a hero.

"Don't breed or buy while shelter pets die." ;-)

[rintense]

For the record, I'd like to see more done on our borders as well. Do I agree with Bush's 'lack of interest' outside of the current Homeland Security policies? No. I'd like to see the borders closed until the illegals in the US can be reduced to a manageable number, and then reopened with a totally overhauled approach to border security. The illegals roundup would continue, and illegals would know that if they really wanted to be Americans, they would go about it the legal way, as have so many other millions of Americans. Then send each one back to where they came from.

But, the illegal problem will never be solved until the national welfare system is completely overhauled as well. The two are problems that feed upon each other.

[Reagan Man]

After 30 months as President of the United States, I give George W.Bush lots of credit on many issues. Highlights include his tax cuts, increased military spending, homeland security, judicial nominees, foreign affairs and prosecuting the war on terrorism. Bush`s opposition to Kyoto, the ABM treaty and the ICC have been the right decisions to make. Bush remains a strong pro-lifer and when he signs the PBA ban later this year, it will be a victory for the right to life movement in America.

However, on the issue of reducing domestic social spending, PresBush hasn't gotten the job done. Period. I'm hopeful that in his second term the President will give the American people real tax reform, along with reform of Social Security and medicare, as he promised in the 2000 election campaign. An effort to fight waste, fraud and abuse in the federal bureaucracy should also be a major priority for Bush`s second term.

Frankly, I don't see the dynamic duo of Bush-Rove wasting four years of a second term. I think they will be very aggressive in certain specific areas and will push for legislation that will begin to exhibit more fiscal responsibility, that will lead to a tighening of the budgetary purse strings.

[AAABEST]

But he "got us out of Kyoto".

[Brian_Baldwin]

That's correct. And don't let some fanatical elements, whose extent of their politics is pasting photos of a smiling George and Laura Bush waving as they step down from an airplane, sway you or any other conservative voice from asking the questions. You are NOT the "minority" among consevatives - you may be a "minority" among the sheeple and teaming masses, but among the silent majority you are not. Little do the fanatical elements understand this, they don't even realize they are the actual 2 percenters. Keep asking the questions. They can attack Rush, or Laura Ingraham, and so on a very long list - they end up attacking all the conservatives, as if we should just all go along to get along, attacking the very voices that gave the conservative revolution some legs. Absurd, such fanaticism. They will call you a liberal, or find some nit-pick such as "Ingraham supported McCain" or such. They will say you are a "plant" to spin the focus against Bush. They are like the Stalinists, and I make no bones about that. I see the best conservatives attacked by these fanatics for speaking up on the cultural wars. My credentials as a player, both on the street and in communications, of the conservative agenda go back to the 1960's. But who cares? The point is, we are all just players in this, big and small, but each one of us can make a huge difference. Over the many years, I can tell you, it is so many shadows in the fire that turned the worm, you won't ever even know. I think you are one of them.

The Bush re-election is so compelling to them, that now sodomy and affirmative action are now compelling interests for our nation.

So compelling. So compelling. They aren't going to stop me.

[deport]

Bush is a centrist,

---

IMO, someone who finally gets the story correct.... President Bush has never been a far right wing conservative and I have no idea where all these people get that idea. He's never claimed to be that I'm aware of. He will reach for a compromise to gain some of what he wants while the opposition gets something also.

Conservatives represent something around 30% at best of the 2000 voters.... They don't control or can't control the process with those numbers... you have to have support from other parts of the political spectrum.....

[rattrap]

Yeah i read it, but the tone of it was too much sarcasm.

I think to be fair it should have been a pros and cons list. I don't hate GWB or want to attack everything he's done by any means. He's done a lot of good things as you listed but you should give proper weight to the 'bad' things as well, instead of including them with things like:

Hate all Dems and do not treat them civilly

Don't appoint any homosexuals to public office

Don't meet with Grover Norquist--or Muslims--or Homosexuals

"Eliminate" all Palestinians

thereby equating them with such looney charges. Thanks for the list though, should be a good topic, I'll predict 500+ posts. :-)