This guy must have one hell of an FBI file.
Uh....how about you live in the PRESENT, Bruce???
Ugh. I agree with parts of what he said—the recession was shaping up during 2008, and GWB made a LOT of mistakes through his term on economic policy (especially in spending like a drunken pirate and cranking the deficit up to ridiculous levels). But just because President Bush made a ton of mistakes doesn’t mean that we can’t call President Obama out for making WORSE mistakes, such as running the deficit even higher out beyond the event horizon, nationalizing major corporations, attempting to execute more state control over the economy, and now trying to nationalize our healthcare system.
You can argue whether Bush was bad on the economy, but I can’t see how any conservative could argue that Obama isn’t much, much worse. One does not prevent you from pointing out the other.
}:-)4
Bush’s fault™
FWIW, McCain and Bush both made weak attempts to fix/end the subprime thing.
This guy is so far off the edge. I e-mail corresponded with him and he HATES Bush. Apparently, he’s pals with the Muzzies or something because he’s just insane.
Republicans have not been in charge for a long time.
Bush was hamstrung by the Democrats in the House and Senate.
Also, Bush and his Father are both Northeast Liberal Republicans, so they are mostly Democrats in their action.
McCain is also, so any questions about how it would be "different" are misguided, at least.
“If George W. Bush wins, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party starting on Nov. 3.” - Bruce Bartlett, 2004.
Mr. Bartlett: Just imagine how sharply consumer spending would have increased if the trillion dollars of stimulus had gone to tax refunds, for instance. Sure, if that were our strategy, the GDP would probably tank in 2011 by about 5%, but it’d go up by about 10% before then. Now, we’re due for a tanking, with no growth first.
But if your point is that we should be outraged by the 2007-2008 Congress and the feckless, spineless bastard in the White House back then for being so soft on Domestic communism/totalitarianism, then your point is well taken. George Bush and Juan McCain can rot in Hell with Obama.
That's just plain idiotic. McCain sucks, but there are plenty of "conceivable policies" that could have ended the recession already. Louie Gohmert's tax holiday proposal, for one.
“He is the author of Reaganomics: Supply-Side Economics in Action and Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy . His latest book, The New American Economy: The Failure of Reaganomics and a New Way Forward, will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in October.”
Huh???? One book DEFENDS the Reagan legacy. The next calls it a FAILURE. Sounds like he is not getting invited to enough wine and cheese parties inside the Beltway. What a loser.
If this is 0 cleaning up a mess, I dread mess he is going to make for the next guy. His clean up is a complete screw up.
I take issue with a lot of what he says here because Bartlett is a well known Bush hater and enough so to want to carry water for Clinton. No mention of the tech crash and declining revenues that Bush walked into, no mention of the Wall St. corruption that went on during Clinton’s watch that the Dems were able to blame on Bush (Enron) that prompted Sarbenes/Oxley, Clinton’s WH signed Graham Leach and pushed subprime lending. Clinton also had the Repubs in Congress refusing to go along with his spending plans and kept him in check. Bush did raise the red flag on freddie and fannie and he was crucified for even trying to limit social spending growth. When he talked about allowing people to own some of their tax dollars with respect to SS he was crucified for that as well.
Oh, and please don’t deny that Greenspan had nothing to do with our credit bubble Bruce.
Bush could have and should have made some different decisions but I don’t recall any democrats calling for less social spending.
Oh what earthly use is being angry at a guy who is no longer POTUS? Bush made a bunch of policy and strategic errors but that has little impact in real time.
We are fighting against policies and proposals which some are trying to force on us. It is about the present and the future not the damned past.
The historical lesson to be learned from the Bush years is don’t elect a non-conservative to the office if you can avoid it. Nevertheless, Bush was better than the Democrat alternative. Politics is about choosing from available choices. If I could have my fantasy POTUS it would be Reagan at age 36 with no 22nd Amendment.
Including VOTING FOR THE STUFF WE'RE MAD ABOUT!
Until conservatives once again hold Republicans to the same standard they hold Democrats, they will have no credibility and deserve no respect. They can start building some by admitting to themselves that Bush caused many of the problems they are protesting.
Where has this guy been? It's CONSERVATIVES who have been griping at the GOP to the point many of us left the party long ago!! Why do they all confuse conservatives with Republicans?
In 2003, the Bush administration repeatedly lied about the cost of the drug benefit to get it passed, and Bush himself heavily pressured reluctant conservatives to vote for the program.
For the record, a good many conservatives said don't pass this entitlement. But really, is this something this guy wants to use in his argument, when 0bama and the Dems are crowing about how they've "won significant benefit for Medicare patients by eliminating the doughnut hole", meaning they took a program that is costing umpteen and cannot be sustained and will be making it worse!!
Finally, conservatives have an absurdly unjustified view that Republicans have a better record on federal finances. It is well-known that Clinton left office with a budget surplus and Bush left with the largest deficit in history. Less well-known is Clinton’s cutting of spending on his watch, reducing federal outlays from 22.1 percent of GDP to 18.4 percent of GDP.
I am so tired of these people giving Clinton credit for anything along the lines of fiscal responsibility, welfare reform, etc. It was the TRUE CONSERVATIVES in the GOP back in 1995 who wrote the budget reforms/legislation, it was not Clinton and his big spenders in his administration. He is not the one who cut (real, true minuses, not the phony cuts in proposed increases) spending, the GOP is. If he hadn't pushed so much on the citizens over their vociferous objection, the Dems would not have lost all those seats, Mr. Newt would not have had the chance to pass the Contract With America. It was not Clinton at all -- only look at the difference in what he did in 1993 and what he signed in 1995-2000. PLEASE already!!
Oh, so because Republicans were screwups we shouldn’t hold Obama to account for his own screwups? LOL
I believe I recall getting in Bush and the Republican’s faces over amnesty, Miers and the stimulas. Now we’re getting in Obama and Democrat’s face over this government takeover of the health industry. Rest assured if Republicans find themselves in power again due to Democrat incompetance that the old days of party over principle are over. I’ll be just as strident against them if they, I guess when they is more likely, propose similiar destructive policy.
Maybe it’s time the Left did the same and realized the true enenmy is the government they wish expnded and the elites that scorn average Americans.
Conservatives are angry at Bush. You don’t get an approval rating below 30% without really annoying your own base.
Bruce Bartlett is a self serving IDIOT!
Nothing more or less!
When you see his by line on something read no further is my advice.
Agreed.
0bummer simply ran as "Not Bush" and won.
Value is based upon perception of long term worth. The more power government exerts the less predictable things are because while the market is predictable, government is irrational and arbitrary.