[moodyskeptic]

Good kob. You'll be amazed at how many Freepers missunderstand your second list, though.

Sarcasm is just too deep for some.

When GWBs accomplishments are listed, they are impressive. And he did all this with a constant soundtrack of outraged protest from Democrats.

[My2Cents]

Interesting list of accomplishments and "Things Left to Do." Did you include faith-based social programs? What about outstanding judicial nominations?

To me the greatest things Bush has done are to return decency, integrity, and character to the Oval Office; prosecute the War on Terror with steely-eyed determination. And the greatest things he will do are change the environment in the nation's judiciary (appointing people who actually respect the rule of law, rather than make it up as they go); and to consign the Democrat Party to permanent minority status.

[Sir Gawain]

Here ya go.

Do Republicans really support smaller government? Here are some interesting facts:

• Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress from 1995 through 2001 during which time the federal budget grew from $1.4 trillion to $2.1 trillion (about $100 billion annually). [source]
• Since Republicans took control of the House in 1995, federal discretionary spending has grown by a rate of about 7% annually. The number of earmarks lawmakers have put in the spending bills to steer federal funds to their districts has also grown. By one estimate, between fiscal years 2001 and 2002, they increased from about 6,300 to 8,300, or 32%. [source]
• Social welfare programs under George W. Bush have grown by $96 billion in just two years, versus $51 billion under six years of Clinton, according to economist Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth. [source]
• When Ronald Reagan became president in 1981 the federal budget was $680 billion. When he left office in 1989 the federal budget was $1.14 trillion -- an increase of 67%. [source]
• The last Republican presidents to preside over a decrease in federal spending were Warren G. Harding (who served from 1921 until his death in 1923) and Calvin Coolidge (who served from 1923 until 1929). During that time federal spending decreased 44% from $5 billion to $2.85 billion. However, spending began increasing again in 1928 before Calvin Coolidge left office. [source]

WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION PROGRAMS & POLITICAL BOONDOGGLES

• [source] $5 billion bailout and $10 billion loan for airlines via the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act.
• [source] $521 million Amtrak budget for fiscal 2002.
• [source] $205 million bailout plus $100 million loan to Amtrak.
• [source] Dept. of Transportation budget increased by 6% over fiscal 2001 to $59.5 billion. (riddled with pork)
• [source] $145 million for the New Freedom Initiative to ensure transportation alternatives for people with disabilities.
• [source] "Homebuyer bill of rights" to Reform Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act -- federal regulation of real estate.
• [source] Continued anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft.
• [source] $1 billion over 5 years for the poor to purchase homes via the "American Dream Down Payment Fund."
• [source] Proposed $3.7 billion in new Medicare funding over the next three years (2003-2005) .
• [source] Health care subsidies for laid-off workers and expanded job retraining benefits ($10 billion to $12 billion over 10 years).
• [source] Wage insurance -- federal wage supplement.
• [source] $67 million in taxpayers' money to finance presidential campaign via federal matching funds.
• [source] Issued executive order creating the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
• [source] Submitted largest budget ever to Congress, $2.13 trillion.
• [source] Increased debt-limit from $5.95 trillion to $6.4 trillion.
• [source] Scholarships for Cuban students and professionals via the Initiative for a New Cuba.
• [source] Increased budget for National Health Service Corps by $44 million to $191.5 million.
• [source] $150 million for the Coast Guard and the Customs Service to hire new personnel.
• [source] Increased farm subsidies by $180 billion over 10 years via the Farm Security Act.
• [source] Increased Pentagon budget by 12% over fiscal 2001 from $316 billion to $355 billion.
• [source] $560 million for the USA Freedom Corps which includes $230 million for AmeriCorps.
• [source] Double the number of Peace Corps volunteers at a cost of $200 million over five years.
• [source] $3.5 million for SuperBowl anti-drug ads.
• [source] Faith-based subsidies.
• [source] Increased federal spending on education from $39.9 billion to $44.5 billion via the "No Child Left Behind Act."
• [source] Signed Congressional payraise of $4,900.
• [source] Patients Bill of Rights.
• [source] Federal Compassion Capital Fund, $700 million over 10 years.
• [source] $100 million to beef up investigative manpower and technology at the SEC.
• [source] $6 million to upgrade a U.S. Geological Survey data center near Sioux Falls, S.D.
• [source] $10 million to help farmers near the Rio Grande River involved in a water dispute with Mexico.
• [source] $7 million for enhancing water supplies in New Mexico.
• [source] A provision pressuring the Agriculture Department to reimburse poultry producers in West Virginia and Virginia for losses from avian influenza.
• [source] $1 billion for Pell grants for low-income students.
• [source] $417 million for veterans' medical care.
• [source] $400 million to help states improve voting systems.
• [source] $100 million for countering western wildfires and floods.
• [source] Taxpayer-funded national memorial, congressional gold medals, and gold coins for victims of 9/11.
• [source] Scholarships and grants to nurses and help hospitals with retention.
• [source] Increased the NEA budget by $10 million, to $126 million.
• [source] $200,000 for a trucker congestion notification system in Tacoma, Washington.
• [source] $500,000 to save the Prebles Meadow Jumping Mouse in Colorado.
• [source] $62 million to promote the Sacajawea dollar coin.
• [source] $100,000 a month to monitor news reports and offer advice on media strategy for the Pentagon.
• [source] $1.5 million for maintenance of the Vulcan Statue in Alabama built for the 1904 World's Fair.
• [source] $20 million annually for "Strategic Milk Reserve." Was phased out in 1999 by the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act. Congress extended it temporarily, and then made it permanent again in the farm bill that President Bush signed into law in May.
• [source] $877 million in disaster relief for victims of Tropical Storm Allison.
• [source] $2 million in federal recovery assistance to typhoon victims in Guam.
• [source] Steel and lumber tariffs.
• [source] $1.7 billion plus $300 million in emergency funds for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) via the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2001.
• [source] $230 million for the Weatherization Assistance Program.
• [source] Federal disaster relief for tonado victims in Maryland.
• [source] Payoff to families of 9/11 victims with taxpayer money via the "Victim Compensation Fund."
• [source] Bush pushes for school vouchers.
• [source] $450,000 in federal funds for the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention for fiscal year 2003 on top of $750,000 in 2002.
• [source] $752 million in drought aid to livestock farmers.
• [source] $30 million in research grants over the next five years to develop new ways of making industrial products from plants and natural waste materials.
• [source] $10 billion military reserve fund for the Pentagon.
• [source] National Institute of Health to spend $24 million on a retirement facility for chimpanzees.
• [source] $750,000 for grasshopper research in Alaska.
• [source] $2 million to house a worm collection at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, DC.
• [source] $400,000 to study manure management at the National Swine Research Center in Iowa.
• [source] $4.2 million for a shrimp aquiculture research project in six states.
• [source] $400,000 for the Montana Sheep Institute.
• [source] $23.1 billion for the National Institute of Health for fiscal 2002, a 13.5% increase over fiscal 2001.
• [source] $10 million upgrade for Amber Alerts.
• [source] $1 million to upgrade a law enforcement communication system in Placer County, CA.
• [source] $850,000 for a wastewater treatment facility in Placer County, CA
• [source] $1.7 million to purchase 6,100 acres of land along the American River.
• [source] $14 million for restoration projects in the Lake Tahoe basin.
• [source] $3 million for the acquisition of land for rare plant preserves in El Dorado County, CA.
• [source] $600,000 for the West Blount sewer system. (Alabama)
• [source] $1 million for the Duck River Dam. (Alabama)
• [source] $99,000 for sidewalk improvements at Vinemont Middle School. (Alabama)
• [source] $100 million in grants for communities to develop mosquito-control programs. (pending)
• [source] $753 million for Import-Export Bank.
• Increased loan limit for Import-Export Bank to $25 billion. Taxpayers must guarantee loans.
• [source] $159 billion deficit for fiscal 2002.
• [source] $14.2 million for Phoenix Sky Harbor traffic control tower replacement. (pending)
• [source] $4.2 million for Phoenix bus facilities. (pending)
• [source] $500,000 for a Scottsdale pilot project to determine the best technologies for removing arsenic from drinking water. (pending)
• [source] $300,000 for a Southwest Transit Assessment and Review Team (START) project for Bus Route 131, which runs through Avondale. (pending)
• [source] $500,000 for Central Arizona College to continue implementation of the Science, Engineering, Math and Aerospace Academy in Pinal County. (pending)
• [source] $1 million for Rio de Flag (Flagstaff) flood-control project. (pending)
• [source] $1.5 million for Maricopa County's AZTech Integrated Emergency and Transportation Communications Network. (pending)
• [source] Creation of new federal bureaucracy, Office of Rare Diseases.
• [source] $100 per month federal subsidy to welfare parents who marry.
• [source] $8 million to maintain a heating oil reserve to stabilize prices in the U.S. Northeast. This fund was created in 2000 by Bill Clinton.
• [source] $2 billion over 10 years to help companies develop cleaner-burning coal.
• [source] $87 billion in corporate welfare which includes (but is not limited to) funds for oil companies through the fossil energy research and development program, research subsidies to aerospace companies, the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the Foreign Agriculture Service, and the Conservation Reserve Program.
• [source] $6 million for teaching English through the Elementary School Foreign Language Incentive Program.
• [source] The federal government currently provides $700-800 million in annual ethanol subsidies.
• [source] $37 billion through 2007 for the National Science Foundation via the National Science Foundation Authorization Act of 2002. (pending)
• [source] $15 billion for NASA fiscal 2003.
• [source] $903 million in grants to spur federal agencies, industry and universities to devote more energy to cyber security research.
• [source] $533 million over two years for Project Safe Neighborhoods. Billed on the official website as "America's Network Against Gun Violence."
• [source] $900 million for the President's "Reading First" plan.
• [source] $28.9 billion "anti-terror" package. (As if the federal government didn't already spend enough on defense)
• [source] Increased FDA budget by over $120 million.
• [source] $1.1 billion for federal reading programs.
• [source] Proposed economic stimulus package which could cost as much as $600 billion over 10 years.
• [source] Ordered military to begin deploying a missile defense system.
• [source] Urged Congress to raise pay of federal judges who already earn $150,000 or more annually.
• [source] Increased the National Science Foundation budget from $4.8 billion to $7.4 billion in 2005 and $9.8 billion in 2007.
• [source] Proposed increasing defense spending to $378.5 billion next fiscal year from the $364.1 billion appropriated by Congress for fiscal 2003.
• [source] $782 billion in new spending for fiscal 2003 above what Washington spent in the previous four years.
• [source] Reinstated program to pay cash bonuses to political appointees. The program was previously stopped during the Clinton administration because of concerns about potential abuse.
• [source] "Terror insurance" which would force taxpayers to compensate those affected by future terrorist attacks.
• [source] Up to $3,000 for unemployed Americans to pay for their job searches.

[Dilbert56]

One that may need correction: "Revoked rules that reduced the acceptable levels of arsenic in drinking water." This is straight out of the Dimocrat commercial: "Can I have some more arsenic in my drinking water mommy?" What the Administration did was request a review of an order that Clinton signed on the way out the door to see if it was setting the new level correctly. There were concerns that some towns in the west wouldn't be able to meet the new level and people would go back to well water which would actually increase their risk. That's right. Just reviewing a proposed regulation was portrayed as dumping arsenic into children's drinking water. Remember that the next time Dims say: "Oh, we're just to nice and polite to fight those nasty Republicans."

The review took place and the implementation was left unchanged. No rule was revoked or even changed.

[Trace21230]

Impressive job! Thanks for compiling the list.

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.

Your list proves that Bush has been a solid conservative with an impressive list of accomplishments.

Trace

[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.

[Mo1]

Excellent!!!

[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.

[Cyber Liberty]

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

What, Frist not a big enough p**sy?

[NittanyLion]

Good list. However, you may want to add some "cons" for balance. Farm Bill, Patriot Act, Education Bill, CFR and pending prescription drug plan are the most obvious ones, to my mind.

On the whole, it's been far more good than bad. Foreign policy has been Bush's strong suit. Still some room for improvement as far as domestic spending goes...

[Constantine XIII]

Don't you just want to take all of these single-issue people and smack 'em upside the head? ;p

[jmc813]

If you have individual ping lists.....please use them to facilitate the widest possible discussion.

As you wish. A ping for some loserdopians and JBT's.

[Southack]

I like your lists, but sadly the tone of half a dozen or so "permanent" Bush Bashers will refuse to acknowledge that Bush has done much good for Conservatives, no matter how many times you list his achievements for us.

It's very similar to how the Rats behave on DU and in the media, where Bush must always be portrayed from the worst possible angle.

In fact, it's eerily similar to how the Rats are always bashing Bush.

Hmmm...

[Sabertooth]

In your very artfully and objectively phrased list of non-accomplishments, you omitted "attemtpted to sneak an Amnesty for 200,000 Illegal Aliens by way of a midnight insertion of a Section 245(i) extension into a Homeland Security bill, which would have penalized tens of thousands of legal immigrant candidates who've never broken our laws."

[tnlibertarian]

This is just off the top of my head. I am sure there are numerous things to add. I hope people will do so.

Is pushing for tax refunds for families who don’t pay taxes

Supports Medicare drug benefit resulting in the largest new entitlement program in 40 years

Signed campaign finance reform limiting freedom of speech

Federalized airport screeners creating DMV-type service

Signed PATRIOT Acts I and II, bypassing the fourth amendment on searches and seizures

Is currently holding American citizens without writ of habeas corpus

Supports Social Security benefits for Mexicans

Supports amnesty for illegal aliens

Refuses to address illegal immigration problem

Has increased discretionary non-defense spending by 18% in first three years, a rate eclipsing Clinton’s

Worked with Ted Kennedy for largest increase in the Department of Education’s history

Sent $15 billion of our money to Africa to fight AIDS

Continues financially supporting terrorists AKA Palestinians

Supports continuing assault weapons ban

[Southflanknorthpawsis]

Big kudos, justshe. This is an excellent idea.

It's a great way to stimulate discussion.

Of course it will also allow some folks' "true colors" to be highlighted.

Thank you.

[The Old Hoosier]

Signed McCain-Feingold

[The Old Hoosier]

Supported racist admissions decision by O'Connor. Plans to reward her love of sodomy with the Chief Justice position.

[winodog]

I did not read the entire thread and I give you kudos for your work.
I would love to see a list of what the husband of the big apple antichrist did in his 8 years of attempted destruction of america. Especially if it was a sort of side by side comparison.
It would make a great hand out to be given to anyone wearing hillary or squirt kneepads.

[The Old Hoosier]

Signed a bill making it harder for poor and middle-class Americans to file for bankruptcy, even in the case of daunting medical bills.

Actually, he has not signed this bill, although he certainly intends to. It got hung up in the Senate last time.