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BobG
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Not all of these are good examples.Art said:Some achievements of Bush that spring to mind are;
He declared a war on terror and succeeded in changing a small terrorist network with supporters numbered in the 1000s into a formidable international fighting force with supporters now in the millions and all for the paltry sum of several hundred billion dollars of U.S. tax payers money. Way to go!![]()
He's managed to undo 40 years of hard work the U.S. spent in building an excellent relationship with europe and all in just a few years. Quite an accomplishment.
He has alienated just about every muslim on the planet.
He's now turning his 'charm' on the Chinese with similar effects.
He has managed to eliminate the Clinton budget supluses and run up a record deficit by handing out trillions of dollars in tax cuts mainly to his already extremely rich friends.
He has increased american debt even further by borrowing every cent used to fight his personal crusade in Iraq for which he lied to the american people to gain their support. (This is in addition to the budget deficit as he hasn't funded this through the budget)
He has introduced torture as a 'repectable' means to glean information.
The list just goes on and on... of Bush's 'achievements'
You're overestimating the number of new terrorists Bush policies have created. The real impact is to move the problem from Chechnya and Afghanistan into Iraq. That's a result that's bad enough in its own right since fighting terrorists in backwater countries is better than fighting terrorists in the heart of the world's oil supply.
The economy is cyclic and has more to do with budget surpluses and deficits than presidential policies. The important thing is what a president does with the money during the surplus periods. Clinton at least had a reasonable plan for putting the money to good use - at least in January 1999:
Clintion '99 State of the Union speech said:...Third, we must help all Americans, from their first day on the job -- to save, to invest, to create wealth. From its beginning, Americans have supplemented Social Security with private pensions and savings. Yet, today, millions of people retire with little to live on other than Social Security. Americans living longer than ever simply must save more than ever.
Therefore, in addition to saving Social Security and Medicare, I propose a new pension initiative for retirement security in the 21st century. I propose that we use a little over 11 percent of the surplus to establish universal savings accounts -- USA accounts -- to give all Americans the means to save. With these new accounts Americans can invest as they choose and receive funds to match a portion of their savings, with extra help for those least able to save. USA accounts will help all Americans to share in our nation's wealth and to enjoy a more secure retirement. I ask you to support them. (Applause.)
...Saving Social Security, Medicare, creating USA accounts -- this is the right way to use the surplus. If we do so -- if we do so -- we will still have resources to meet critical needs in education and defense. And I want to point out that this proposal is fiscally sound. Listen to this: If we set aside 60 percent of the surplus for Social Security and 16 percent for Medicare, over the next 15 years, that saving will achieve the lowest level of publicly-held debt since right before World War I, in 1917. (Applause.)
Alas, he was no more successful in the middle of budget surpluses than Bush was six years later in the middle of budget deficits.
I think it is fair to blame Bush for making the deficits worse through an expensive war that has little impact on the overall problem of terrorism and for trashing the American image among Muslims, Europeans, Asians ... well, probably it would be easier to list the few countries whose image of America hasn't been tarnished by Bush.