Posted on 07/30/2011 1:03:14 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
WATCHING today’s Republicans being led around by an extremist Tea_Party faction, with no adult supervision, I find my mind drifting back to the late 1980s when I was assigned to cover the administration of George H.W. Bush, who I believe is one of our most underrated presidents. I have long admired the elder Bush for the deftness with which he dealt with the collapse of the Soviet empire. But, in later years, I came to admire him even more for the fact that he believed that math and science were not matters of opinion — a view increasingly rare in today’s G.O.P.
Despite having run on the promise of “Read my lips: No new taxes,” when the deficit started spiraling to dangerous levels under his presidency, Bush agreed to a compromise with Democrats to raise several taxes, along with spending cuts, as part of a 1990 budget deal that helped to pave the way for the prosperity of that decade. It definitely hurt his re-election, but he did it anyway.
George H.W. Bush also believed in science. How many Republicans know that he and his aide Boyden Gray pioneered the use of cap-and-trade to deal — very effectively — with the problem of acid rain produced by power-plant emissions?
In an article, “The Political History of Cap and Trade,” published in Smithsonian Magazine in August 2009, Richard Conniff details how “an unlikely mix of environmentalists and free-market conservatives hammered out the strategy known as cap-and-trade.” As Conniff explained it, “Gray liked the marketplace approach, and even before the Reagan administration expired, he put [Environmental Defense Fund] staffers to work drafting legislation to make it happen. ... John Sununu, the White House chief of staff, was furious. He said the cap ‘was going to shut the economy down,’ Boyden Gray recalls....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I have always thought that the entire Bush family consists of Democrat moles sent to destroy the Republican Party from within. I’m sticking to it. It’s my favorite conspiracy theory. ;-)
Why settle? Just have GHWB run again. I'm sure the left would be tickled pink.
I’m convinced that the brains of all NY slimes writer’s slid down their Momma’s leg....no other explanation suffices!
The All-knowing Twitching Mystical Mustache of Superior Intellect has spoken- not long ago this guy praised China’s fascism, stating that we needed to suspend the Republic here temporarily until things get straightened out.
So take it from there...
Until Obama, Rush was constantly saying that Carter was the worst president of last 100 years. I strongly disagree. Bush 41 was. He was a certfied wimp that blatantly lied about not raising taxes. The fact that 62% of the voters voted against him for reelection proves it. Carter got a higher percentage when he ran for reelection and he ran against Renaldous Magnus. That whole Bush family are wimps. Passed down from Poppas dna.
Yes, yes by all means, let’s bring back Poppy. Friedman thinks his presidency was underrated now, huh? Because it was a good thing that he broke his word not to raise taxes. Or was it because he sicced his justice department on the police officers that had been aquitted by a jury of their peers for using the force necessary to place Rodney King under arrest? or maybe because he resigned his membership in NRA and supported the tactics of ATF? or perhaps because the Gulf War had such a good outcome and he exercised such restraint on Saddam Hussein and hung the Kurds and the Marsh Arabs out to dry that we had to do it over again ten years later?
Poppy gave us Clarence Thomas, but he also gave us David Souter. So the net effect was a wash. Imagine if Souter was a conservative.
“How many Republicans know that he and his aide Boyden Gray pioneered the use of cap-and-trade to deal — very effectively — with the problem of acid rain produced by power-plant emissions?”
This statement is an attempt to create confusion. Something like cap and trade was used to limit Acid rain. But this had nothing to do with carbon emissions.
Acid rain was produced by oxides of sulfur and nitrogen which react with atmospheric moisture to produce acid sulfuric, and nitric acids along with some weaker acids. Any contribution of carbon dioxide on acid rain was negligible.
The use of cap and trade to mitigate emissions that produced of acid rain was doable and successful. Global warming from man- made carbon dioxide is negligible or non- existent.
“John Sununu, the White House chief of staff, was furious. He said the cap ‘was going to shut the economy down”
Yeah, I guess John Sunnunu was a little ahead of his time. It took 20 more years for cap and traders to shut down the economy by preventing fossil fuel exploration. .
Acid rain.
Another manufactured crisis.
That’s right.
Remember the “Chicken Kiev” speech?
That’s right.
Remember the “Chicken Kiev” speech?
Uh, no.
:’)
As Senator Marco Rubio said yesterday, “if we had $1 billion for every time I heard the words ‘tea party extremist,’ we could solve this debt problem.”
Is Thomas Friedman Impervious to Facts?
http://www.businessinsider.com/is-thomas-friedman-impervious-to-facts-2011-7
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