Americans should not forget the fact that George W. Bush presided over the largest expansion of government since Lyndon Johnson, some estimates put it as much as 40%.
Spending under Bush doubled the national debt to $10 trillion (which doesn’t count such things as the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare). His veto pen was not to be seen for most of his administration.
All kinds of out-of-control spending by Republicans soared, including domestic discretionary spending. "Entitlements" were also out of control, as Republicans dipped their greedy little hands into the coffers of the American tax payers and helped themselves in spending on vast GOP pork barrel projects. The GOP truly has the title of Big Government and Liberal Spending as they pillaged off Americans the past 8 years.
We should not forget Bush’s occupation and rebuilding of Iraq which continues to cost $10 billion month, not to mention the billions being sunk into the bottomless Afghanistan war, while not investing one dime in the rebuilding of our own country’s infrastructure. While military spending is necessary and needed and the security of America is of utmost importance, overall military spending under George W Bush and the GOP grew exponentially and dwarfs what the rest of what the world spends.
It should go without saying that Bush’s myriad taxpayer bailouts of investment bankers and automakers and the removal of restrictions by Phil Gramm and other irresponsible Republicans are further proof that he and the GOP had no commitment to limited government.
Bush has also presided over a dramatic and ominous expansion of executive power in the name of national security. On the basis of a novel legal theory, his administration claimed that the Constitution delegates all sorts of implied autocratic powers that may not be checked by the other two branches of government. George W Bush’s attack on the privacy of Americans included everything from the authority to wiretap without warrant all Americans’ phone conversations and reading private citizens mail and e-mail, to setting up secret CIA prisons, to sending detainees to foreign countries for torture, to holding "unlawful enemy combatants" forever, subject to torture, without charge or right of habeas corpus.
Bush repeatedly signed bills into law with caveats (signing statements) that he refused to enforce the parts that limited his power. His non-veto veto was just another way to get around the Constitution. (A veto can be overridden by Congress; a signing statement cannot be).
It is no secret that Bush is the father of government of secrets. He, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rice hid the truth from war and economic issues, manipulated his annual budgets by disallowing costs of wars, giving no bid contracts to Cheney’s former company Halliburton and never provided any transparency of his government in 8 years. His Administration outed a CIA spy, illegally used ‘presidential privilege’ and continue to do so, supporting the violation of U.S. Law, and all supported by an inexperienced Justice Department who did the will of Bush and not the power of the law, nor the will of the people.
How dare John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal and other Republicans talk about fiscal responsibility and transparency. These are the political ‘criminals’ and ‘robbers’ which pushed America into the dismal economic state we find ourselves. Now with the help of the news media, which was absent during the Bush years on investigative journalism, come out challenging President Obama and assisting the GOP in its hypocritical attacks on a popular President who has inherited some of the largest issues ever to face an American President.
George W Bush and the GOP were not and are not fiscal Republicans and their mottos of ‘compassionate conservatism’ are nothing more than a fainting memory of a time gone by’.
The Republican Party is a complete and narcissistic failure. They are at a loss on how to ‘deal’ with a President who is intelligent, smart, wise and forward looking; they cannot seem to fathom a President who, only in office 6 weeks has done more to tackle problems and issues facing Americans and knows they will of the people he represents and moves forward to resolutions. The GOP does not have a clue how to move out of the 20th century. If they were smart, they would finally put the will of the people first and support the rebuilding of America rather than wasting ‘hot air’ tearing down our President and ignoring Americans who pay them to represent us.
It is important to focus on the future, to focus on helping hardworking, taxpaying Americans get back on their feet. However we should never forget what George W Bush, his Republican and Wall Street cronies have done to this country. It is obvious to more than this writer that Republicans ALWAYS put politics over people.
Down with the GOP! UP WITH AMERICA!