Tony Blair praises Bush: "No dumb idiot". Really?
Other than the obviously superficial, is Tony Blair correct? While the frenetic left relished in insulting Bush due to his perceived "stupidity" it largely pertained to his speaking and communication ability, see, they wanted an intellectual elite much like what we have right now in the White House. Yet do you believe the hallmark of a great leader is one that communicates to the masses as opposed to an elite upper crust of society much like Hamilton once envisioned? Sure Bush made a few speaking errors and may have waved to Stevie Wonder, but if the Bush haters consider this to be the primary reason for their criticism then they are not very smart themselves.
The problem is that Bush was an idiot, but the bulk of the opposition largely stemming from America's Left has trouble articulating their discontent. As for the Right, well as long as Bush has an 'R' next to his name and helped Africa more than any other president then all criticism need not apply. Why do you suppose the Left is unable to properly explain their frustration and resort to 5th grade antics and spending hours bringing out Bush's simian traits in Photoshop? Because Bush's failures are Leftist policies!
But why? Do you suppose Americans were seething with anger because Bush prayed to God or because we have in aggregate not added any private sector jobs in the past 10 years? Do you think Bush's stance on abortion was causing hardship or the fact that since 2000 America's GDP growth was non-existence and in fact replaced with Federal spending failing to exceed the boom 90s (chart below)? Do you think his secret opposition to gay marriage was creating a partisan rift or because Bush added trillions of dollars in unpaid liabilities in the form of Medicare Part D? While Congress is more responsible for the country's budget, let us take a look at what Bush allowed during his presidency.
In 2003, Bush and his cronies lobbied and pushed through Congress by the tightest of margins an expansion of Medicare that was the single biggest since Medicare's original inception in 1965. Disregarding the partisan differences in Congress that resulted in this bill being largely a Republican venture with great Democrat opposition, an expansion of Medicare can only be considered a leftist policy. Furthermore, to expand a program that has proven to be a tremendous failure with unprecedented costs, sub par value and restricted choice can only be considered dumb. One could technically forgive the 1965 Congress for attempting to provide a benevolent solution, but after 35 years of failure, where is the justification in expanding it further? Who will pay for all the extra trillions of dollars that we are now obligated to dish out in the coming years? Every economic projection states that Medicare/Medicaid will soon eclipse Social Security in terms of liability, yet Bush chose to expand this program further. Dumb liberal policy? You decide.
In 2008, with our economy in a tailspin two awful political responses were made. First, failed banks who got way in over their heads by making risky bets were granted access to 700 billion dollars of taxpayer money and the first stimulus package was signed into law. TARP was voted in Congress in opposition to a majority of Americans under shady circumstances and the premise that failure to do so would lead to financial Armageddon. Note: Some of the more stringent and conservative members opposed this bill while the majority of the Democratic Congress supported it. National takeover of companies, however, can be best described as a Leftist policy, something any Communist would defend with pride. Distributing wealth to loser corporations is still wealth distribution, regardless who the recipient happens to be and is firmly a mantra of tyrants, communists and fascists. Secondly, Bush then signed the first real stimulus, of almost 170 billion dollars in an effort to stem the bleeding of an economy that never truly recovered from the 2000 recession (consider chart above). Just another attempt that failed tremendously because it's foundations are based principally on the idea of wealth distribution and the flawed concept that the Government can stimulate economic growth. Dumb liberal policy? You decide.
Bush left his presidency with a huge expanded federal government, a war in Iraq that should have been finished the same year it started, trillions of extra in debt and trillions more in unfunded liability. With the exception of the war, the majority of the opposition to Bush's policies from the Left is exactly the same policies espoused on a regular basis. Yet the failure of these policies seems to go unnoticed.
Consider the Medicare expansion and financial bailouts signed into law by Bush. Now consider the trillion dollar debacle known as ObamaCare and the 787 Billion dollar stimulus passed in 2009. They are conceptually identical and only differ by the sheer magnitude. Even when central planning goons like Obama and his administration acknowledge the failure, as did the stimulus architect Christina Romer on her way out today, they continue to call for bigger stimulus package and MORE government expansion. What do we call people who continue doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results? Insane. Bush was dumb for passing into law ideas that have been demonstrably proven as failures and today's administration is insane for continuing his legacy.
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