Bush's Catastrophic Legacy. (Congress, health care, Clinton, Obama)
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Consider first the median income. When Bill Clinton left office after 2000, the median income-the income line around which half of households come in above, and half fall below-stood at $52,500 (measured in inflation-adjusted 2008 dollars). When Bush left office after 2008, the median income had fallen to $50,303. That's a decline of 4.2 per cent.
That leaves Bush with the dubious distinction of becoming the only president in recent history to preside over an income decline through two presidential terms, notes Lawrence Mishel, president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Bush's record on poverty is equally bleak. When Clinton left office in 2000, the Census counted almost 31.6 million Americans living in poverty. When Bush left office in 2008, the number of poor Americans had jumped to 39.8 million (the largest number in absolute terms since 1960.) Under Bush, the number of people in poverty increased by over 8.2 million, or 26.1 per cent. Over two-thirds of that increase occurred before the economic collapse of 2008.
The trends were comparably daunting for children in poverty. When Clinton left office nearly 11.6 million children lived in poverty, according to the Census. When Bush left office that number had swelled to just under 14.1 million, an increase of more than 21 per cent.
The story is similar again for access to health care. When Clinton left office, the number of uninsured Americans stood at 38.4 million. By the time Bush left office that number had grown to just over 46.3 million, an increase of nearly 8 million or 20.6 per cent.
Whatever your ideological bent, he's difficult to defend. Easily one of the worst presidents in the past 50 years, if not ever. Obviously this article is far from being comprehensive.
Economic repercussions due to Presidents are not reliable yardsticks in my book. The economy is too large and slow a monster to be affected appreciably during a President's term by his/her actions. But there is a delay and I think what we're experiencing now may have had its birth in the Bush years and maybe even the Clinton years. Unless someone can point to a specific act that caused increases in poverty, I'll hold off judgment.
However, where Bush was a verifiable failure was everywhere else: environment, defense, reputation, crime, education, health, etc. You name it and his party's actions decimated years of progress and turned the world against us. Our children are more stupid, our environment is dirtier (while polluters are richer) and our reputation as a world class nation is in the toilet.
Actually, they weren't records. Obama is doing that.
Almost all economists agree. To get out of a deep recession, and to avoid a depression, the government needs to temporarily increase spending and cut taxes to turn it around. Obama increased spending and cut taxes (more than any president in history). He said this during the campaign - I don't know why it would come as a surprise to you.
He also said once things were stabilized, he would cut spending and raise certain taxes. He said he'll then balance the budget, work towards turning the deficit into a surplus, and start reducing the debt. Again, he said all of this when he was running for office. He said the recovery from the recession he inherited would be measured in years, not months.
I like the path he's taking. I hope he does freeze discretionary spending for 3 years starting next year like he's promised. If he doesn't, I probably won't vote for him again.
Almost all economists agree. To get out of a deep recession, and to avoid a depression, the government needs to temporarily increase spending and cut taxes to turn it around. Obama increased spending and cut taxes (more than any president in history). He said this during the campaign - I don't know why it would come as a surprise to you.
He also said once things were stabilized, he would cut spending and raise certain taxes. He said he'll then balance the budget, work towards turning the deficit into a surplus, and start reducing the debt. Again, he said all of this when he was running for office. He said the recovery from the recession he inherited would be measured in years, not months.
I like the path he's taking. I hope he does freeze discretionary spending for 3 years starting next year like he's promised. If he doesn't, I probably won't vote for him again.
Most economists don't agree. A ton of them disagree completely.
Warren Harding inherited a worse recession than Obama. He cut taxes, cut spending, fired govt workers, eased up some regulations. That recession ended in 18 months. Not years. That tells me Obama is not very smart.
And one of the first things Obama did was raise taxes on tobacco. And I believe there are 123 tax increases in the health care bill he just signed. Any taxes he did bother to cut were more than off set by his tax increases.
And all I said is that Bush wasn't running record deficits compared to Obama. I didn't say Bush was any good at his job.
Actually, they weren't records. Obama is doing that.
Whatever the Kool-Aiders think of Bush Obama is 100 times WORSE.
His record proves it!
Thanks to Bush and his pro working small business ideas I was able to take a failing business under Clinton and turn it into a large business that in 7 years I was able to grow and sell for a nice profit.
Retired at 40 with a nice monthly check coming in from the sale of the business for the next 30 years.
And I am renting the property to the new owner, another 1.5k per month of free income thanks to Bush.
Bush was not perfect but Obama is a disaster.
Already being names the lame duck and already being named one of the worst ever in only 12 months.
Obama is a total and epic failure.
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