Former Vice President Dick Cheney was making comments this past week about his former boss, George W. Bush when he was president. The Washington Post was reporting on Cheney's comments and said that Bush didn't rely on Cheney's advice during his second term in office as well as Bush allowed public opinion influence some of his policy decisions. Cheney described Bush as resolute when he became president but now he said Bush was just like another ordinary politician as he ended his second term. I'm not going to comment on Cheney's comments, but I"ll make a few of my own.
First of all, I'm thankful Al Gore didn't win the presidency in 2000. Even though Bush had several shortcomings, Gore would've been much more lethal. He would've pushed a socialist agenda through our Congress as well as he would've pushed a global warming agenda on us. America would've transformed into a socialist country much quicker under Gore than Bush. Bush did some good things as president. However, there were several things he did that wasn't good for America as well. He paved the way for the Obama presidency during his second term in office. The bailout of the banks and other financial institutions sealed it for Barack Obama. Most of my frustration with Bush was during his second term. It it wasn't for some of the things he did his second term, I would've given Bush a higher grade. I give Bush a D+. The financial bailout of the mortgage industry was a negative for Bush, in my opinion. I was greatly frustrated with Bush as a result of that.
I will list some of the positive accomplishments Bush made. He helped Congress pass a tax cut in 2001 which I felt was needed. The only negative about that was he wasn't able to persuade Congress to make the tax cuts permanent. I agreed with his response when he sent troops to Afghanistan to route the Taliban. However, I found it disappointing he didn't finish that war before he left office. I believe he also made a mistake when he didn't order the poppy fields to be torched in Afghanistan as well. When the war in Iraq began, Sadaam Hussein and his regime was toppled and that part was good. However, the aftermath of Iraq since the downfall of Hussein has been downhill. I believed that was another war that should've been won before he left office.
Another accomplishment of Bush's was the interrogation methods the CIA used to extract information from the Guantanamo Bay detainees concerning future terrorist plots. Waterboarding was used to extract information from one of the Al-Qaeda masterminds Khalid Shaikh Mohammad. We learned of some future plots Al-Qaeda had planned for the United States and using that method against him helped save some American lives. One of the reasons why America hasn't experienced another attack has been due to the interrogation techniques. For that I'm very thankful.
Bush supported the pro-life cause as president. He voted for a bill that would ban partial-birth abortion. It was sad that a lower federal court declared that bill unconstitutional. He did a good job when it came to his judicial appointments. He appointed good lower federal court judges even though the Democrats prevented them from being voted on in the senate judiciary committee. He also appointed two good Supreme Court judges John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the bench. Those were the highlights of Bush's accomplishments.
Some of the negatives of the Bush administration were increasing the size and scope of government for one thing. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, he helped create the Department of Homeland Security, which hasn't been effective in fighting terrorism. It's just another bureaucracy America doesn't need. Also, Congress created a position called "National Intelligence Director" to be over the CIA and the intelligence department. That was another unnecessary position. That position was created due to the 9/11 commission's report. What benefit is it to create new governmental positions if they're going to be infiltrated with political correctness? It's worthless. The two unfinished wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is another negative as well. We haven't learned our lessons from Vietnam when it comes to fighting a limited war. When you go to war, you must supply your soldiers with all the equipment necessary to win the war. Bush didn't mind waging war, but he didn't seem to be concerned with winning the war before his term ended. Last year I heard a radio talk show commenting on how Bush would say that the war in Iraq was one of the most important wars there was and that we needed to win it. The host asked the question why would Bush want to leave this war to his predecessor who might be Barack Obama knowing where he (Obama) stood on Iraq? I agreed with that.
The national deficit skyrocketed under the Bush administration. National spending kept increasing every year. It wasn't all for the purpose to fight the war on terror, either. A lot of foolish spending was taking place when it came to pork barreling projects in many of our elected officials' home districts. A lot of the foolish spending as usual. Much of that foolish spending was taking place when the Republicans were in control of Congress. Also, Bush supported expanding Medicare with it covering prescription drugs, which hasn't helped our senior citizens. In 2005, Bush signed a treaty called Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) which wasn't good for American manufacturing. Bush also signed an agreement along with Canadian President Stephen Harper and then Mexican President Vicente Fox calling for a North American Union which would erode America's sovereignty and create one currency. It also called for the creation of a NAFTA superhighway which would allow trucks from Mexico to come through America's highways to carry goods. It could put many of our truckers out of business. Also the failure to rein in the high fuel costs was another problem for Bush. The government could've used antitrust laws to break up the monopoly of these oil corporations. In the process, there wasn't any progress made to drill for domestic oil, which is what we needed given the problems our world has with Islamic terrorists.
Bush also failed to secure our borders. That was one of the first things that should've been done when we were hit by terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. He tried to push for amnesty for illegals and thankfully that measure failed. Lastly, the bailout of the mortgage industry last year was another bad thing. That incident helped seal the election for President Obama last year. If companies are too big to fail, then they need to be broken up into small companies.
I could still continue, but these are the positive and negative highlights of the Bush administration. Bush did some good things, but he also in the process did a lot of bad things. His actions brought America down the path to socialism. Barack Obama has picked up where Bush left off and will probably complete the deal unless the Lord intervenes. Bush and his family are wealthy elitists and they are believers in the New World Order. Bush's policies the last few years have brought us closer to that realization.
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