Tag Archives: Bush

President Reagan: Socialist, class warfare advocate

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“A great American said that he thought it was ‘crazy’ that certain tax loopholes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying ten percent of his salary.” — President Obama referring to what President Reagan had said in the past about taxes

SEE VIDEO of President Reagan talking about the unfairness of the American tax system, arguing for the same things President Obama is arguing for today.

HERE’S WHAT GWB had to say about it.

TOP FIVE FACTS about the one percent from Think Progress:

  1. The top 1 percent of Americans owns 40 percent of the nation’s wealth
  2. The top 1 percent of Americans take home 24 percent of national income
  3. The top 1 percent of Americans own half of the country’s stocks, bonds, and mutual funds
  4. The top 1 percent of Americans have only 5 percent of the nation’s personal debt
  5. The top 1 percent are taking in more of the nation’s income than at any other time since the 1920s

TIMELINE OF EVENTS: Republican vs Democratic presidents, fiscal irresponsibility, and the deficit

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Steve Benen: Let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we? (posted in full):

1980: Ronald Reagan runs for president, promising a balanced budget

1981 – 1989: With support from congressional Republicans, Reagan runs enormous deficits, adds $2 trillion to the debt.

1993: Bill Clinton passes economic plan that lowers deficit, gets zero votes from congressional Republicans.

1998: U.S. deficit disappears for the first time in three decades. Debt clock is unplugged.

2000: George W. Bush runs for president, promising to maintain a balanced budget.

2001: CBO shows the United States is on track to pay off the entirety of its national debt within a decade.

2001 – 2009: With support from congressional Republicans, Bush runs enormous deficits, adds nearly $5 trillion to the debt.

2002: Dick Cheney declares, “Deficits don’t matter.” Congressional Republicans agree, approving tax cuts, two wars, and Medicare expansion without even trying to pay for them.

2009: Barack Obama inherits $1.3 trillion deficit from Bush; Republicans immediately condemn Obama’s fiscal irresponsibility.

2009: Congressional Democrats unveil several domestic policy initiatives — including health care reform, cap and trade, DREAM Act — which would lower the deficit. GOP opposes all of them, while continuing to push for deficit reduction.

September 2010: In Obama’s first fiscal year, the deficit shrinks by $122 billion. Republicans again condemn Obama’s fiscal irresponsibility.

October 2010: S&P endorses the nation’s AAA rating with a stable outlook, saying the United States looks to be in solid fiscal shape for the foreseeable future.

November 2010: Republicans win a U.S. House majority, citing the need for fiscal responsibility.

December 2010: Congressional Republicans demand extension of Bush tax cuts, relying entirely on deficit financing. GOP continues to accuse Obama of fiscal irresponsibility.

March 2011: Congressional Republicans declare intention to hold full faith and credit of the United States hostage — a move without precedent in American history — until massive debt-reduction plan is approved.

July 2011: Obama offers Republicans a $4 trillion debt-reduction deal. GOP refuses, pushes debt-ceiling standoff until the last possible day, rattling international markets.

August 2011: S&P downgrades U.S. debt, citing GOP refusal to consider new revenues. Republicans rejoice and blame Obama for fiscal irresponsibility.

There have been several instances since the mid 1990s in which I genuinely believed Republican politics couldn’t possibly get more blisteringly ridiculous. I was wrong; they just keep getting worse.

Obama’s Egypt Strategy

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The Vindication Of Obama’s Egypt Strategy? Andrew Sullivan notes:

While Marc Lynch emphasizes that there “is no question that the first, second and third drivers of this Egyptian revolution were the Egyptian people,” he still praises Obama’s handling of the situation:

The Obama administration … deserves a great deal of credit, which it probably won’t receive.  It understood immediately and intuitively that it should not attempt to lead a protest movement which had mobilized itself without American guidance, and consistently deferred to the Egyptian people.   Despite the avalanche of criticism from protestors and pundits, in fact Obama and his key aides — including Ben Rhodes and Samantha Power and many others — backed the Egyptian protest movement far more quickly than anyone should have expected.

Their steadily mounting pressure on the Mubarak regime took time to succeed, causing enormous heartburn along the way, but now can claim vindication.  By working carefully and closely with the Egyptian military, it helped restrain the worst violence and prevent Tiananmen on the Tahrir — which, it is easy to forget today, could very easily have happened.   No bombs, no shock and awe, no soaring declarations of American exceptionalism, and no taking credit for a tidal wave which was entirely of the making of the Egyptian people — just the steadily mounting public and private pressure on the top of the regime  which was necessary for the protestors to succeed.

And Bush’s violent means of spreading Democracy may have helped in a roundabout way too.

George Bush did not regularly attend church

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MMFA:

Where did people get the idea that George W. Bush regularly attended church? He didn’t. Whatever the reason(s) for the widespread false belief that President Obama is Muslim, they aren’t so innocuous as his infrequent church attendance.

Last year, some reporters wondered why Media Matters criticized them for reporting on the infrequency of Obama’s church attendance without noting Bush’s infrequent attendance. Maybe now they understand?

But did the media and the conservative wingnut fringe ever “question” whether Bush was a Christian? Did they even wonder how often Bush went to church?

MMFA:

In an article for the October 11, 2004, issue of The New Republic, headlined: “Empty Pew,” Amy Sullivan criticized the media for its lack of reporting “on the president’s whereabouts on Sunday mornings”:

What most [Americans] — including many of the president’s fiercest supporters — don’t know, however, is that Bush doesn’t go to church. Sure, when he weekends at Camp David, Bush spends Sunday morning with the compound’s chaplain. And, every so often, he drops in on the little Episcopal church across Lafayette Park from the White House. But the president who has staked much of his domestic agenda on the argument that religious communities hold the key to solving social problems doesn’t belong to a congregation.

That’s funny… if Bush’s and Obama’s church attendance is so similar, what ELSE could be the big difference between these presidents, in the minds of conservatives, that they are forever questioning whether Obama is a Christian? What a mystery.

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