Posted on 05/21/2015 8:00:09 AM PDT by VinL
Jeb Bush went beyond his normal hesitation to criticize his brother and argued that the 43rd president could have done more to bring "budget discipline" to Washington.
The former Florida governor was asked by a voter Thursday morning at an event in Concord, New Hampshire, if there was an issue where there's big space between he and his brother.
"Sure, I think that in Washington during my brother's time Republicans spent too much money," Bush said. "He could have used the veto power. He didn't have line item veto power, but he could have brought budget discipline to Washington, D.C."
RELATED: GOP grapples with ground troops in Iraq
Bush added that his comments seem "kind of quaint" now, considering that "budget deficits and spending went up astronomically" under President Barack Obama's administration. But he maintained that "having constraints on spending across the board would have been a good thing" during his brother's tenure as president, when the debt grew by $4.9 trillion.
As he's been pursuing a likely presidential bid, Bush has attempted to straddle the difficult line of distancing himself from his family and prove that he's his own man without coming across as disloyal. That challenge was amplified last week when Bush struggled to answer questions about the Iraq War that was started under his brother's leadership.
In his stump speech, (snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Congress actually wrote the budgets back then, Jeb
Any Presidential candidate knocking any other President for “spending” is delusional.
Spending starts in the House. If you want to blame ANYONE on spending, look no further than your own Congressman.
If a Candidate wants to get attention, start blaming Congress. That is pretty tough to do when you are a sitting member.
Until the American public gets that through their thick skulls, the longer we spin down the drain.
He's unqualified morally, because of Terri Schiavo. We can't survive another eight years of a President with no moral compass.
Jebster is supposed to be the GOP’s amnesty candidate. I don’t think they’re going to be able to nominate him.
He’s that bad as a candidate.
Rubio is the backup amnesty candidate.
The RNC has to produce an amnesty candidate for their paymasters of The Cheap Labor Express.
Congress may have written them, but W signed them. He was referred to as Open Checkbook George long before the massive bail-out bills in his final 2 years.
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From this, we are supposed to think Jeb will be ‘different’?
Jeb didn’t remember how Dubya said he’s going to spend his political capital? And the result?
“Congress may have written them, but W signed them. He was referred to as Open Checkbook George long before the massive bail-out bills in his final 2 years.”
George W. inherited a balanced budget from Bill Clinton. All he had to do was stay the course.
For those who want to blame spending during the Bush years on the Democrats, for the first six years of the George W. Bush regime, Republicans controlled the House and the appropriations process. This was the era of huge earmarks such as the $200 million bridge to nowhere in Alaska. Republicans under Speaker Hastert, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, were handing out money to special interests like candy. George W. Bush couldn’t find his veto pen. The national debt doubled under his watch from $5 trillion to $10 trillion.
Brother Jeb is correct that George W. did nothing to reign in spending. It is too bad Jeb didn’t speak up at the time.
Just keep Diggin, Jebby. Not ready for prime time.
Once again it shows that there is no honor among thieves.
He, and we, forget the condition of the nation at time of and after 9/11/01. The military had to be put on war footing, our economy was collapsing, etc. Not all spending is bad!!
When Clinton left office he had the nation already spiraling downward economically, the military in bad shape, etc. Jeb, and we, forget the condition of the nation at time of and after 9/11/01. The military had to be put on war footing, our economy was collapsing, etc. Not all spending is bad!!
No, he did not. We haven't had a balanced budget since 1956.
It’s actually something I agree with Jeb with. George spent too much money. I can’t believe you don’t believe that and find it BS. Surprising.
“our economy was collapsing”
So you think government theft and spending is the cure rather than the curse? No wonder we are on the brink of collapse. No difference between today’ “conservatives” and the rest.
Bingo. He should have told Congress how much they could spend, then vetoed anything that was even one penny over.
you need to go back to 9/11/01 - the Islamist’s purpose of attacking the twin towers, a major financial center, was to topple the US economy and they did put a serious hurt on us, the nation was, in fact teetering. The military was unprepared. And they too received a major hit, more than many people realize. It is easy to sit in our lounge chairs today and speculate, but the reality of that particular time required drastic action. I know you don’t think much of Bush 43, but he did a masterful job keeping the ship of state upright. I may be an octogenarian trying to remember names, but this time of history is vivid.
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