Why It's All His Fault – Or The Failures Of George W. Bush

I am not one who normally places blame (Yes I am when it comes to George W. Bush!) but sometimes it is called for and this is one of those times.
 
When he came to office George W. Bush became president of a nation with a budget surplus approaching $300 billion dollars, a standing army that was combat ready and whose strength was unmatched in the world, and a nation with an international reputation for doing the right thing and, if resented on some levels respected on most.   He has, during 5 short years, created an annual budget deficit approaching $400 billion dollars in 2006, has decimated the active duty, guard, and reserve forces by pushing them to the breaking point and they are now in need of billions of dollars to rebuild and reequip and he has taken us from having a modicum of respect in the world to being nearly universally vilified as a result of his foreign policy.   And all of this from a man who while campaigning for president promised America that he was a "uniter and not a divider", and he would be a leader who was a "consensus builder" and that he was someone capable of "reaching across the isle" politically.   And don't forget he is the same man who said he would bring "civility back to Washington" and he did not believe the United States should be in the nation building business and he would not be a nation builder president.
 
I'd like to talk common sense.  First let's talk about the budget deficit and to simplify process I want to compare our national budget to our family budget.   It goes like this.  So you have a family budget and it's based on income and expenses and the nation has a national family budget and it's based on income and expenses.  Your current income is $1,000.00 dollars and it pays all of your expenses which are $700.00 dollars a month and you have enough left over for savings and you save $300.00 a month.   This was basically the financial position of the United States when George W. Bush came into office.
 
So one day you become insane and tell your boss you want to keep working but you only want to be paid $300.00 dollars a month now.   In this insane moment you just created a situation where you will without a doubt have to declare bankruptcy and you have placed your family in a potentially life threatening situation.   You now have the same expenses of $700.00 a month but only an income of $300.00 a month so you just took a $700.00 cut in pay and you're not saving anything.  That is precisely what George W. Bush has done with the American family.   He went to" some" of his bosses (rich ones) and told them he didn't want their tax money anymore.  Now we, the national family, are in debt up to our eyeballs and must cut our expenses or we're going to go bankrupt.   It's as simple as that.  But it's not really so simple because you know what?  You use to have medical insurance (Medicare) and now you can't pay for it so if you get sick you're probably going to die.   And you know what else, you use to be able to pay into your retirement plan (Social Security) but now you can't so you're not going to be able to retire.   Now I don't know about you but I call that insane and anyone who would create a situation like that is insane.  So in my opinion he's insane and the condition of the national budget is George W. Bush's fault.
 
Now let's talk about common sense national defense.   On September 11, 2001 a group of terrorists hijacked four airliners and flew them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.   These men were a group of terrorists organized by Osama Bin Laden to execute a plan of his design which was a terrorist act against the United States.   Note that I said a terrorist act and not an "act of war".  The reason for this is common sense.  Terrorist are not soldiers but criminals.   Terrorist do not conduct military operations but criminal operations.  Terrorist organizations are not nations with armies with whom one can fight a war.   They are organized criminals to be fought with police forces and tactics and not with military forces and tactics of war.  
 
You cannot fight a war on terrorism.  It is that simple.  During prohibition and the era of gangland mobs the United States did not use an army to fight these gangs of criminals.   Even though the criminal gangs used bombs and machine guns and murdered people by the hundreds the United States did not declare war on Mafia gangs, (except perhaps in a philosophical sense), they fought them with police forces both federal, state, and local.   Today the drug cartels of the world use bombs and machine guns and carry out criminal operations to move, sell, and distribute drugs in and out of many countries of the world but we don't declare war on them, (except perhaps in a philosophical sense), we fight them with state and local and federal law enforcement.  You know those special counter drug forces.   So why does George W. Bush want to declare war on terrorism?  The straight answer is that it simply fulfills a political expedient.   War powers gives him more power and power and money is what he’s all about.
 
Lastly let's talk first about common sense credibility at home and then common sense credibility abroad.   Since taking office, George W. Bush has alienated people both domestically and abroad.  Domestically his political and legislative agenda has been focused on taking from the poor and giving to the rich through tax cuts and policies aimed at benefiting the very wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle class.   This has been a pretty straight forward process that is best explained this way.  If you reduce the amount of taxes paid by the very wealthy without proportionally reducing the taxes on the middle class and poor then the middle class and poor end up shouldering the bulk of the national budget.  He has done this in a manner that has been best described as the "my way or the highway" attitude and without consulting with the minority party in Congress.   The repeal of the estate tax is a perfect example of tax relief aimed at the very wealthy.  Additionally he has, in budget after budget, cut programs aimed at benefiting the middle class and poor while giving away taxpayer dollars in no bid contracts to wealthy corporations.   If you do this after disproportionately reducing the taxes on the very wealthy you are now taking money from the poor and middle class and just giving it to the wealthy so it's a double tap.   One for them and one for them and none for anyone else.  Simple huh?
 
Now what about our credibility abroad.  If you just go to war because you feel like it and you justify that war with fake documents and lies then you have no credibility.   That is precisely what Mr. Bush did.  He sent his Secretary of State to the United Nations and in front of the entire world, most of whom were already skeptical, presented a case for war with Iraq using suspect and in many cases patently false information to convince them to go to war with Iraq.   This tactic failed with almost every country and did incredible damage American credibility.

Those Are The Sergeant Majors Thoughts On That.