Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyD
You left out the rapid deterioration of civil liberties of US citizens under the Patriot Act (not to mention the illegal warrantless wiretaping), the abuse of Executive Privilege and burning the economy-candle from both ends by starting two wars while also pushing for massive tax cuts.
You often point out the economic irresponsibility that comes from the Left. However, I find the Bush tax cuts during time of war to be just as irresponsible.
Let's also not forget that the explosion of our national debt started at the end of Bush's first term, not to mention he pushed for the first wave of financial bailouts.
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"You left out the rapid deterioration of civil liberties of US citizens under the Patriot Act (not to mention the illegal warrantless wiretaping),"
I didn't leave that out...see my comment about how much I admire his reaction to 09/11, which covers this. I don't see that I've lost a single liberty, I just have to put up with some tolerable inconveniences.
I have seen you refer to the quote "those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither libetry nor security". What that quote means, is, those who don't want to be blown up by terrorists, deserve to be blown up by terrorists? I don't buy it. I don't view the constitution as a suicide pact. Maybe that's the start of a slippery slope, but I just don't see that I'm less free than I was before 09/11.
If you want to say that he over-reacted, many would agree with you. Not me.
"burning the economy-candle from both ends by starting two wars while also pushing for massive tax cuts."
Good points. Bush didn't help the debt, that's for damn sure. You seem to have left out though, that one large reason was that he had to build a massive anti-terror infastructure, literally from scratch. It's also worth noting that government tax revenue hit an all-time high after his tax cuts. I don't think you can simply say that if he raised taxe rates by X%, then tax revenue would have increased by the same X%. Maybe the tax cuts were stimulative?
"not to mention he pushed for the first wave of financial bailouts."
Also a valid point, and something I disagreed with at the time, and still do. Although I'm not a macro-economist...Also, remember that the vast, vast majority of those bailouts have been repaid. So while I didn't like TARP, the fact is, it didn't cost us a ton of money.
I guess the point of this post was to point out the enormous, and alnost completely untold, story of what he did in Africa. Libertals don't like to concede that, nor do they like to concede that he's a genuinely good man.
I was proud to serve under him, and thrilled as hell that I didn't have to serve under the current
Mao-ist President.