Replies to post #41201 on Discover GOP Opprobrium

[teapeebubbles]

It’s been more than seven years, but I still laugh when I look back at this classic satirical item from The Onion, in which George W. Bush assured the nation that “our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over.”

“My fellow Americans,” Bush said (in this fake-news item), “at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us.”

Of course, this piece, written four days before Bush’s first inaugural, proved to be rather prophetic. But in the meantime, whenever I see or hear references to “peace and prosperity,” I think of The Onion, and the strength and success Bush squandered.

I was reminded of it again this morning, listening to Bush’s speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

“My energy is up, my spirit is high, and I will finish strong. And in the meantime, we will elect a new President. We’ve had good debates and soon we’ll have a nominee who will carry a conservative banner into this election and beyond. Listen, the stakes in November are high. This is an important election. Prosperity and peace are in the balance.”

Really? Does George W. Bush seriously want to argue that the nation should follow his direction in order to maintain “prosperity and peace”?

Where is this elusive “prosperity and peace”? And why is it hiding so well?

That the president showed up at CPAC at all was a bit of a disappointment. After making an appearance before the 2000 election, Bush has carefully avoided the right-wing event, sending “videotaped greetings” to the unhinged activists and exhibitors who make the annual pilgrimage.

This year, however, Bush and Cheney showed up to pander to the far-right crowd — a first in the 35-year history of the conference.

The president’s speech was unintentionally amusing. A few highlights from my notes:

* Cheney: “I appreciate the fact you invited Vice President Cheney here. He is the best Vice President in history.” Bush did not appear to be kidding.

* Afghanistan: “The first battle in this war against the extremists centered on Afghanistan — the 9/11 attackers had trained and planned in Afghanistan. We believed our military could remove the Taliban from power and that we could help aid the rise of a stable and democratic government. Critics had a different view.” Really? Where were all of these opponents of a military confrontation with Afghanistan?

* Iraq: “There is more work to be done. It takes a while for young democracies to take root — but reconciliation is taking place.” Actually, it’s not. I’d hoped the president would do more to keep up on current events.

* Democracy promotion: “We can have confidence in Iraq’s ultimate success because we believe in the transformative power of freedom. We believe there is an Almighty God. And a gift of that Almighty to every man, woman and child on the face of this Earth is freedom.” Unless these men, women, and children live in Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or a variety of other dictatorships, in which case Bush isn’t especially concerned with freedom.

* Warrantless searches: “Our ability to monitor the communications of terrorists overseas has helped us gain crucial elements on terrorist cells, and helped keep our country safe. The Protect America Act is working. The problem is that Congress set the law to expire one week from tomorrow. I don’t think the al Qaeda threat is going to expire one week from tomorrow.” Hilarious. It’s almost as if Bush is counting on his right-wing audience to be so confused, he can lie to them with a straight face.

* U.S. public opinion: “We will face other challenges ahead that will require new energy and before long, new leadership. I’m absolutely confident, with your help we will elect a President who shares our principles. As we take on the challenges, we must be guided by the philosophy that has brought us success. Our policies are working. The American people support our points of view. They share our philosophy.” Do you suppose Bush is being willfully ignorant, or is he just confused over how thoroughly the public has rejected everything he stands for?

Just 346 days to go.

[teapeebubbles]

Following up on the last item for a moment, there was one other part of Bush’s speech to CPAC that warranted special attention.

“When I took office, we inherited a recession — and then we acted. We were guided by this principle: the best way to help our economy grow is to leave money in the hands of those responsible for our prosperity. That, of course, would be the American people. And so with your support, we passed one of the largest tax cuts in American history — and then we cut taxes again. In all, we delivered nearly $2 trillion in tax relief over the past seven years.

Our critics wanted a different approach. They believed that the best way to keep the economy — to help the economy was to keep taxes in Washington and expand the size and scope of the federal government…. Despite these dire predictions, the tax cuts we passed contributed to a record 52 months of job creation. They helped produce strong economic growth — and the increased revenues from that growth have put us on track to a balance our budget by 2012. Here is the bottom line: tax relief works.”

Now, I suspect I’m easily dismissed by Bush and his allies as part of the reality-based community, but I tend to think of the president’s economic record as something of a disaster. Anytime Bush wants to list his accomplishments in office, it must be a difficult challenge, but given the state of the economy, this looks like a topic to be avoided.

But not this guy; he wants to brag about his economic record, using some of the silliest arguments imaginable.

Let’s take these quickly, one at a time.

* “When I took office, we inherited a recession.” That’s demonstrably false.

* “Despite these dire predictions, the tax cuts we passed contributed to a record 52 months of job creation.” First, the 52-month streak ended last month. Second, Bush has only added, on average, 369,000 private-sector jobs per year over the course of his presidency (nearly one-fifth the total under Clinton, who raised taxes).

* “[Tax cuts] helped produce strong economic growth.” Unfortunately, “strong” is a subjective word. In reality, Bush has produced the worst GDP growth of any president of the last 50 years.

* “increased revenues from that growth have put us on track to a balance our budget by 2012.” First, we’re nowhere near “on track” to balance the budget by 2012; Bush’s own OMB projects deficits of over $400 billion in each of the next two years. Second, the increased-revenue argument sounds an awful lot like the ridiculous “tax fairy” nonsense Republicans are so fond of.

* “Here is the bottom line: tax relief works.” Works for whom?

The irony is, Bush not only screwed up every possible facet of the nation’s fiscal and economic health, he was wrong in all of his predictions. He assured the nation that if he got his tax cuts through, he could balance the budget, match (if not, exceed) Clinton’s record on job growth, match (if not, exceed) Clinton’s record on GDP growth, reduce poverty, and watch the stock market soar.

All of those predictions weren’t just mistakes, the opposite came to fruition. Every number that was supposed to go down went up, and the numbers that were supposed to go up went down. It’s not even a matter of opinion — the guarantees of 2001 and 2003 were simply wrong. The benefits of Bush’s policies never materialized.

Mr. President, you might want to find something different to brag about. This record is humiliating.