Category Archives: George Bush

Bush Failures Led to Obama and Obama Failures Led to Trump

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As I have previously stated, I voted for Hillary Clinton because Donald Trump is so crude and sleazy even though our country will now greatly benefit from the change which Mr. Trump represents.  This is the way the political process often works.

capture79 Consider that after eight years of George Bush we had:

  • Ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan, of which the Iraq war was an unnecessary mistake.
  • $2.5 trillion of additional debt, even after Mr. Bush started out with a budget surplus, compliments of Bill Clinton.
  • An expensive new Medicare Part D prescription drug plan which just makes overall Medicare even less affordable than it already is.
  • The Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 which the Bush Administration could have seen coming if they had been more vigilant.

 

Under such political circumstances, the 2008 election of the Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, over the Republican nominee, John McCain, was almost inevitable. But then in the next eight years we have experienced:

  • Slow economic growth averaging only 2% per year, ever since the end of the Great Recession in June 2009. The unemployment rate has fallen to 4.9% but there is still a lot of slack in the labor market which holds wages down. This is the main reason for the huge support Mr. Trump had from white blue-collar workers in the election.
  • Massive debt, now 76% of GDP (for the public debt on which we pay interest), the highest since right after WWII and double the debt in January 2009 when Mr. Obama entered office. Such a high debt level means greatly increased interest payments as soon as interest rates go up which they are likely to do anytime. The high annual deficits contributing to the debt mean little budget flexibility for new programs.

Conclusion. Democrats like to say that slow economic growth is “the new normal” which can only be overturned with budget busting new fiscal stimulus. This is a pessimistic point of view which refuses to consider other alternatives.  This is what led to Ms. Clinton’s defeat on November 8.

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America and the World: the Need for Leadership

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As we are just getting started on what so far is a confusing presidential election campaign, it would be easy to forget how incredibly lucky we are in America.  Our country is very strong and we are isolated from many of the world’s problems.  The terrorist attacks in Paris over the weekend are a grim reminder of this fact.  But we still have responsibility for much of what is happening around the world.
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  • George W. Bush’s biggest failing is not the Iraq War, draining Medicare funds with a new drug benefit or ramping up deficits with tax cuts that lose revenue. His biggest failing is not foreseeing the financial crisis and at least mitigating it if not heading it off entirely. His financial advisors (Greenspan, Bernanke, Geithner, Paulson) were asleep at the switch. As the Economist makes clear in its latest issue, “First America, then Europe. Now the debt crisis has reached the emerging markets.”
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  • Barack Obama’s biggest failing is not the stagnant economy or massive debt buildup which occurred on his watch, although he could have eased their burden with smarter policies. His biggest failing is his unwillingness to assert sufficient power in the Middle East to head off the chaos we observe today. The enormous European refugee crisis with all of its attendant horrors is largely the result of his inadequate intervention in Iraq, Libya and Syria.

The main concerns of this website are the internal fiscal and economic problems faced by the U.S.  We have to figure out amongst ourselves how to address these very serious issues.  But, like it or not, what we do affects the whole world.  If we fail to meet our responsibilities, the whole world, including us, will suffer with the consequences.

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The Bush Deficits vs the Obama Deficits

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As I like to remind readers, I am a fiscal conservative and a social moderate.  I started writing this blog in November 2012, after running unsuccessfully in a Republican congressional primary in May of that year.  I am appalled by our reckless fiscal policies in recent years.  We simply have to get federal spending in much better alignment with tax revenue and do this in a relatively short period of time.
Both political parties are responsible for our current predicament.  Nevertheless, we need to have the best factual information available to help us get back on track.  Today I compare the Bush deficits with the Obama deficits.  The most objective way to do this, in my opinion, is to divide the transition budget years, 2001 and 2009, between the incoming and outgoing presidents.  In other words, October, November and December of the year 2000 are assigned to President Clinton and the last nine months of the 2001 budget year, i.e. January 2001 – September 2001, are assigned to President Bush.  Likewise for the 2009 budget year, when Bush was leaving office and President Obama was coming in.
CaptureA good source for such detailed budget information is the website of David Manuel, “an online repository of financial and political information that is often searched for but is generally hard to find.”
Here is what I’ve come up with:

President Bush

  • 2001 budget year (last 9 months)                $129.6 (billion) surplus
  • 2002 budget year                                         $157.8 (billion) deficit
  • 2003 budget year                                         $377.6 (billion) deficit
  • 2004 budget year                                         $413   (billion) deficit
  • 2005 budget year                                         $318   (billion) deficit
  • 2006 budget year                                         $248   (billion) deficit
  • 2007 budget year                                         $161   (billion) deficit
  • 2008 budget year                                         $459   (billion) deficit
  • 2009 budget year (first 3 months)                $332.5 (billion) deficit
  •                                                                   $2,337.3 (billion) deficit TOTAL

President Obama

  • 2009 budget year (last 9 months)               $1080.5 (billion) deficit
  • 2010 budget year                                        $1294  (billion) deficit
  • 2011 budget year                                        $1299  (billion) deficit
  • 2012 budget year                                        $1100  (billion) deficit
  • 2013 budget year                                         $ 683  (billion) deficit
  • 2014 budget year                                         $ 483   (billion) deficit
  • 2015 budget year (CBO estimate)               $ 468   (billion) deficit
  • 2016 budget year (CBO estimate)               $ 467   (billion) deficit
  • 2017 budget year (first 3 months, CBO)      $ 163     (billion) deficit
  •                                                                   $7,037.5   (billion) deficit TOTAL  

These totals represent, of course, the amounts that were added (Bush) or will be added (Obama) to the national debt during their terms of office.  George Bush made little, if any, effort to control deficit spending.  But the Obama debt is three times as bad as the Bush debt.  Getting the debt under control is by far our biggest and most urgent national problem.  By failing to take our debt seriously, both Bush and Obama have been huge failures as president!

Bush Was a Disaster; Obama Is Merely Ineffective

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As Barack Obama nears the three-quarter’s mark of his presidency, it is natural that he and George W. Bush will be compared to one another.  I consider them both to be disappointing presidents but in very different ways.
CaptureFirst, the sins of George Bush:

  • The Bush Tax Cuts of 2001-2003 lowered tax rates without being offset by closing loopholes and/or shrinking tax deductions. This made his huge budget deficits much worse than they otherwise would have been and without helping the economy.
  • The Iraq War. Regardless of whether or not the U.S. was justified in invading in 2003, the current ISIS uprising of Sunnis is likely to result in a worse outcome than existed before the U.S. invasion. This will come to mean that Iraq was a mistake.
  • Medicare Part D (2003). The Prescription Drug program now costs the federal government about $100 billion per year. It makes the unsustainable cost of Medicare that much worse.
  • The Financial Crisis of 2008. This represents an even bigger stain on his record. He appointed all of the key players such as Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner and Henry Paulson who failed to see it coming. He also appointed Sheila Bair as head of the FDIC in 2006. She did see it coming but it was too late and she didn’t have enough clout.

Mr. Obama is very bright and articulate.  But he has made many serious mistakes including:

  • His total immediate attention in 2009 should have been on reviving the economy. Instead he and the filibuster-proof Democratic Congress pushed through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The employer mandate of Obamacare, even though postponed by the administration, has slowed down the economic recovery by making it more expensive for businesses to hire full time employees.
  • For all of his nonpartisan campaign rhetoric about “change we can believe in,” he has been one of the most divisive and partisan presidents in many years. This has created huge animosity and distrust amongst his political opponents which makes it difficult for the two sides to negotiate differences in good faith.
  • The most glaring example of this is the anemic 2.2% annual growth of the economy since the Great Recession ended in June 2009. Many economists agree that cutting both individual and corporate tax rates, offset by closing loopholes and deductions, would be hugely beneficial in boosting the economy. It would put millions of people back to work and shrink our huge deficits. Why isn’t the President talking about this and leading the charge?   But, of course, this was the Romney tax plan in 2012. What’s wrong with the election winner adopting the best parts of the program of the election loser?  Now that would be demonstrating real leadership ability!