Today, the George W. Bush library will be dedicated and a long list of luminaries will laud the life and legacy of our 43rd president. I first met the future president in 1986, in Corpus Christi, Texas. I was an independent businessman at the time, and simultaneously, working for his father as an adviser. As the host of a business event held at the Corpus Christi Convention Center, I invited in George W. Bush to speak to the group. He did a great job. And afterward I took he and Laura and the twins to a Mexican restaurant where we talked politics.
In March, 19987, he joined his father’s campaign and co-opted my work with coalitions so I reported directly to him. It was then that he learned the power of the evangelical vote and how to tap into it.
I may be the first person, outside of his own random fantasies, who actually thought of him as a future president. Shortly after his father was elected I wrote a 44 page memo on presidential children. In the study I learned how many sons pursued the presidency themselves. Not just the first son born to a president, which was John Quincy Adams, but nine others. A few of them came close, including John Van Buren and Robert Taft. So I wrote about that possibility for the young Mr. Bush and talked about him to journalists, including a description in an article dated 1991. (George Jr. exhibits clout in Bush White House. Denver Post. December 15,1991, p6a.)
George W. Bush has a dynamic personality, a cunning sense of humor and was the most decisive person I had ever met in my life. While I never stopped praying or rooting for him, personally, I publicly parted ways with him over the war in Iraq. It was a decision that would cost me dearly in my career. Even before, when a 1998 CNN/Gallup poll showed George W. Bush as the leading presidential contender, I warned my wife. “If he wins the presidency we will go to war with Iraq and we will kill Saddam Hussein and we will kill his sons.” After 9-11, I watched helplessly as our war against Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda shifted to a war against Saddam Hussein, the man who had tried to kill Bush’s father.
There were many unintended consequences to the war in Iraq and to the subsequent upheaval across the Middle East. It was called “the Arab Spring” as dictatorships toppled. But Democracy, offered to voters in the region is routinely voted down as soon as it is won. The people want theocratic dictatorships. And they choose them at the ballot box.
Christianity, which existed in Iraq for 2,000 years and traced its lineage to the apostles , numbered one million believers before the Iraq war. It has been cut in half, with churches destroyed and members killed or fleeing to Jordan. Now the Coptic Christians of Egypt, one of the oldest Christian communities in history faces possible annihilation.
In 2011, when the whole West, including President Obama, were celebrating the change of governments in the Middle East, I was hotly criticized for throwing cold water on the celebration. It was not out of any loyalty to the dictatorships they replaced. But rather to the naive confidence with which we so easily brushed aside the tenuous house of cards that were in place. We did so by what we said and did and what we did not say and did not do. And we accomplished this without debate or adequate consideration, acting on instinct rather than logic. The consequences have meant death to many and the blood bath may have only begun.
Today, supporters of President George W. Bush say that he kept America safe and never raised taxes. Opponents say his war in Iraq had unintended consequences that are unhinging the whole Middle East and his spike in spending wrecked the economy.
Presidents spend their time in office trying to shape what happens and when its over they spend their time trying to shape what we think happened. Both with limited success. Today, President George W. Bush has begun his campaign for his legacy. What do you think? How would you rank the president’s time in office? Today the former president has a a 47% approval rating which is exactly the same as President Obama.
Participate in this poll and learn the results.
Doug Wead 
I watched George Bush being interviewed by Matt Lauer on the Today Show. Mr. Bush was quite uncomfortable with what he was asked and I can understand why.
George Bush should just go home, paint some more paintings and prepare himself for the Eternity which awaits him for when he stands before God a “War Criminal”. This man has usurped the United States Constitution, so much so that his Administration is responsible for the UNCONSTITUTIONAL Patriot Act, the TSA, the Department of Homeland Security and Warrantless Wire-tapping under the NSA. Mr. Bush’s use of “signing statements” was unprecedented. He used “signing statements” to DECLARE that provisions in the bills he was signing were “unconstitutional constraints” on executive power, claiming that the laws did not need to be enforced or obeyed as written. Talk about a Dictator! The laws he challenged included a “torture ban” and requirements that Congress be given detailed reports about how the Justice Department was using the counter-terrorism powers in the USA Patriot Act.
Because of his “blood lust” for War against Saddam Hussein, he authorized the killing and maiming of THOUSANDS of innocent human beings in Iraq and Afganistan. All this WITHOUT a Declaration of War from “The People” (Congress – our elected Representatives) – required by the US Constitution!
And just like the diabolical and nefarious Democrats in Congress, George Bush is also responsible for “crashing” our Free Market Economy by inflating the Housing Bubble which began under “Slick Willy” Clinton and by fighting 2 ILLEGAL wars while cutting Taxes – putting Americans in DEBT to the tune of TRILLIONS of Dollars!
George Bush, like Barack Obama, should go down in History as 2 of the worse fiscally responsible Presidents that America has ever had!
Tex2
I’ve always contended that Democrats and Republicans are the same. They “work for” the same puppet masters – and it isn’t you or I.
However, when reading the rest of your posts, sometimes you do come across as a parroting, brain-washed lunatic whose view of Christianity (like most Western Churches) has been “hijacked” by the neocon “way”.
To reiterate, My Jesus is the Prince-of-Peace, not the Prince of War. Many Christians have put “Filthy” Politics before their Faith and what they truly believe about Jesus Christ, it’s no wonder that church attendance is way down. Also, when you compare the neocon “way” with both Nazism and Fascism, coupled with their agenda for World Domination – they are remarkably similar in passion and that “the ends ALWAYS justify the means”.
Happy Droning!
Murderer, war criminal.
Milosevic, Charles Taylor and Kabila met the fate they deserved. Even Hitler was led to take his own life. Pinochet and Pol Pot faced pseudo-trials, but nothing effective really. Stalin and Mobutu did not pay their dues in any court on this planet earth. Paul Kagame continues to rule to this day after all his war crimes.
Why has the genocidal war criminal from Texas never been tried in a court for his war crimes?
Dude…
I’m not trying to be mean here, but your “LOLing” is coming across as though you have a nervous “tick” when you try to communicate on a blog. It’s kind of like a twitch or that maybe you’re trying too hard and overcompensating for “defending the indefensible” concerning George Bush.
Really, Dude. Unless you’re related to the guy, most people think that he was a buffoon – surrounded by neocons.
Ummm…nope. I think you did a good job all by yourself typing the “stupidity”, textie ole girl (or whatever you are).
You win the prize – hands down.
Oh. And BTW – don’t “think” to hard about the stupidity of my posts. You just may hurt yourself 😉
Tex2
It seems you have a creepy internet stalker, Doug. This tex2 character really has a hard-on for you, doesn’t he? Did you have dealings with this guy in Amway or something like that? I noticed that he trolls through your Blogs disagreeing with and slandering you, while calling others names such as “crazed kooks” with an “LOL” attached.
I’d be careful, Doug. Perhaps this person is suffering from a psychotic break or a traumatic stimulus which causes a person to obsess to a point where it could become a stressor. I just hope I’m not saying anything here that will push him over-the-edge – where he “LOL’s” me to death. I honestly don’t know. I’ve never addressed this looney tune in the past. (oops – that’s not PC – sorry) But I know others have addressed him – and I don’t see them on your blogs anymore. Should we call in the BAU?
OK. I’m just being facetious here because he called me a crazed kook. Yet, I suppose everyone, including the “creepy internet stalker guy”, is entitled to opinions – even if they are of an obsessively personal and subjective nature.
The facts are the facts when it comes to George Bush. And his reclusive behavior are all signs that he is dealing with a tremendous guilt complex from all the innocent people who needlessly died for these wars. Wars to preserve the Petro Dollar and to enrich the War “Profiteers” in the Military Industrial Complex. Everyone knew Bush was a “Puppet President”. He said many stupid things because he’s a stupid person.
The psychopaths who illegally control the government and by default, the military will have MUCH to “answer for” when they stand before their Maker when they leave this Earth. George Bush included…
tex2 #8 response..”I think Bush did a great job in keeping us safe” ever heard of 9/11?????????
Hey Doug, I appreciate your very public, very arduous journey of personal change. But as you know, there’s no substitute for the ability to fully looking at your self in the mirror, daily.
Thank you.
I came across this at Daily Paul; understandably many within R3VOLution automatically look at ANYONE related to the ‘Bush Crime Family’ with much suspicion and disgust. You may know them at a personal intimate level that none of us would ever know. But regardless, publicly, there are no fans of the Bush Co, for anyone who pays attention to geopolitics. That said, most of us know how to discern the sin and the sinners.
I commend your journey. And, I too agree with this person’s assessment of you:
Doug Wead: Don’t Want My Nephew Dying over Bush Family Feud! & Why MSM Stopped Rabidly Smearing RP!
Submitted by AnCapMercenary on Sat, 02/04/2012 – 15:02
in
All of the following videos were taken on Feb. 1st, 2012 at Fetzer Center, Western Michigan University:
WHY and HOW Doug evolved into a Ron Paul supporter: I didn’t want my Nephew dying over a Bush Family Blood Feud.
They are not complete, but the ones already posted are well worth a viewing!
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Doug also gives an excellent 1st hand account of how corrupt corporatist lobbying works at Executive Branch level: mainly how McDonald’s got MILLIONS in subsidies and bailouts. While he doesn’t say them by name, who he’s referring to IS MickyD’s is easily verifiable as they recently got bailed out by the FED. On a sidenote, for The Doc’s own health sakes, while saving $ on the campaign trail is good, but I truly hope he’d stop eating at McDonald’s!
Doug knows intimately the details of such lobbying as he was a senior adviser and campaign debate coach for Georg Herbert Walker Bush. He knows directly from 1st person experience, what he speaks of.
Most importantly, Doug lays out WHY the MSM suddenly stopped rabidly going after Dr. Paul on the Newsletters: Black family members of the victims of drugwar and truly racist, completely biased against poor minorities who suffer the most under our ‘Judicial’ system, actually en masse, without any organization, started writing and emailing MSM, and calling them out to DEFEND Dr. Paul and his proposed Anti-Drugwar policies!
It’s become a cliche here, to a certain extent, and not to say, ‘hey let’s hang up the spurs,’ but in a very REAL sense, we truly have ALREADY WON!
The Doc and We’ve done what no other modern political movement has been able to do: TRULY change hearts and minds of the citizenry, in an Intellectual Revolution, and inspired them to take the initiative and get involved!
Also being the master communicator that Doug his, he pretty much summed it all up in simple words what I’ve been telling those around me about the REAL point of a non-interventionist foreign policy, for a long time: “Pride of Ownership.”
Just as in any individual’s own lives, when one learns or earns something on their own, there’s always a resultant “Pride of Ownership.” You’ve earned that skill. You’ve earned that knowledge. And no one is gonna be able to take that away from you, even by force. It is yours forever, and because of the manner in how you acquired it, you value it more. You don’t owe anyone, you don’t feel obligated to pay back anyone for it. It really is ALL yours.
Now a Great Mentor would inspire you to seek knowledge and OWN it, NOT be spoon fed it: which is always the mindset of a insecure control-freak authoritarians.
Why “insecure?”
Because when one incessantly tries to convince or force others, or WANTS others to believe that they NEED him, to be worthy, to survive, to succeed, etc. THAT is a precise characteristic of an insecure person.
Because they themselves are needy, they want you to feel like you need him, too. Same dynamic as the one in an abusive relationship, aka a citizen’s ‘relationship’ with their Govt.
Yes, the Govt is the WifeBeater and the gullible citizenry are those who continue to rationalize a Stockholm Syndrome by telling themselves “he beats me because he loves me.”
Frankly, the three joker RINO candidates are exactly that.
But the same extends to our foreign policy, too.
Most cultures go through internal tribal infighting that over time grow to be partisan to city-states bickering over personalities and resources. Now there are always typically a time frame in which those feuds either get resolved or settle down enough where each side can just tolerate each other enough to live on and not constantly try to kill each other.
Well, introduce a foreign power into their thousands of yrs old feud, even IF in the unlikely scenario in which an outsider helps them resolve the feud, not as a broker but as an active financier and arm one faction vs. another, even when the bombs stop dropping, those feuding parties NEVER truly get to OWN their independence. They merely become vassal States, like Japan, Germany, S. Korea, and Israel. And, are simply left arguing over what coulda shoulda happened without outside influence.
“Pride of Ownership” is precisely what the Doc has been saying, and Doug so masterfully articulated in that video.
Mr. Wead, if you’re reading, I for one, and I know many here consider ourselves lucky to have you on our side.
So, thank you Doug.
And keep “killing them with kindness.” Your disarmingly charming smile as you gently slay with your common sense tome, is a DeathRay against your unsuspecting foes.o)
“Mr. Wead, if you’re reading, I for one, and I know many here consider ourselves lucky to have you on our side.”
If Libertarians spent as much time attempting to win over skeptics as they did fellating each other and Ronnie they might have made some progress.
Edgar
There will be NO “progress” until the Neocons are “run-out” of the Party. Republicans will have a snowballs-chance-in-hell of winning the White House, so long as they are “In-Charge” of the Platform.
BTW – How’s that Shrine to John McCain coming along?
Went to the survey. Gave Shrub the worst rating. Couldn’t rank the presidents that followed as I would give them ALL an F-!
Tex2 have you seen Doug’s latest venture?
http://www.libertynetworkers.com/
I’m not a fan of Lawrence O’Donnell but he did a magnificent piece today dissecting Ron and Rand for the liars that they are and ends his piece with Libertarians deserve better spokesmen:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45755883/ns/msnbc-the_last_word/vp/51726160/#51726160
We already know that the Republicans deserved a way-better field of candidates other than THE “neocon” CLOWNS that filled the stage during the Republican Primary Race. (except for Ron Paul)
However, the “lemmings” who still watch (and analyze) MSNBC also deserve a better host than Larry O’Donnell. That’s for sure!
Tex2
I realize you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Neocon, but using “Santorum-Like” tactics to diss Libertarians to forward the “Bimbo-ism” within the GOP is just making your case weaker and weaker. You’re not making any “progress”, Tex2. (as usual) LOL!
The Republicans and the Democrats are the SAME. Both will violate the Constitution and shame America before God and the rest of the world.
Fox News tried to promote the Bimbo-ism of the GOP, but we all caught on to it and turned it off. LOL
Bimbo-ism
The result of our war on terror is reflected in our own daily society changes. The terrorists through Democracy have won the war already. They have gotten us to change our society’s operation and have brought our leaders to their intellectual knees. Democracy IS MOB RULE and is the very reason our fathers wrote the Constitution. George W. legacy is only that he forgot what he swore to defend. The elections through Democracy do not always get a REPUBLIC result.
The economic legacy of George W. Bush can only be measured in trillions of dollars—in fact many trillions. And it’s all waste and loss.
President George W. Bush’s First Legacy: The Mountain of Debt
During Bush’s two terms in office more than $3 trillion has been poured down the black hole of wars in Iraq and the Middle East. More than $5 trillion has been served up in tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest 10 percent households in the U.S.
According to U.S. Federal Reserve Bank data, since Bush assumed office in January 2001 government debt levels have risen by more than $3 trillion—the total as of the end of March 2008. It does not yet include the cost of bank bailouts this past September: $300 billion for Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, $85 billion for the insurance company giant AIG, and the infamous $700 billion TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) bailout at the close of September amounting to another minimum $1.085 trillion.
President George W. Bush’s Second Legacy: System Collapse
The unwinding of the $21 trillion in net debt accumulated during the Bush administration is the root cause of the current financial crisis.
The write-downs and write-offs by banks and other financial institutions, the bankruptcies by companies and consumers, the losses of home values, the foreclosures, etc.—all represent the “unwinding” of that record level of $21 trillion new debt. The September bank bailouts represent an effort by finance capital and America’s corporate elite to shift a major portion of this debt from their corporate balance sheets to the public balance sheet and taxpayer.
The bank bailouts will not stop the debt unwinding as they do not address the fundamental causes of the housing and commercial property price collapse underway since the beginning of the year and now accelerating. The only thing settled by the bailouts—TARP, Fannie Mae, AIG, and others—is who will pay for the crisis, not how to end the crisis.
President George W. Bush’s Third Legacy: Epic Recession
The direct consequence of financial crisis and implosion is a general credit crunch—a system-wide sharp contraction of credit. A credit contraction has been progressively growing in the economy since last January. A credit contraction occurs when banks and financial institutions have, or expect to have, significant losses due to bad loans and investments and are increasingly reluctant to loan out reserves they may have on hand. They may need the cash on hand and reserves to cover anticipated losses and prevent becoming technically bankrupt if their losses exceed their reserves. Over the past year financial institutions have tightened their lending terms. But even the slow down in lending hit a wall and entered a new, more intense and serious stage with the financial events of September.
From housing and commercial property markets to industrial loans to municipal and corporate bonds to commercial paper and even markets in which banks loan to each other, all began to shut down in September. There is no inter-bank lending market at present in the U.S. or even globally for that matter. They have shut down. The Fed and other central banks have become, in effect, the only banks willing to lend to other banks. Even money markets are contracting. Money market funds, mutual funds, pension funds, and hedge funds are all in the process of contracting and reducing lending.
President George W. Bush’s Fourth Legacy: Record Budget Deficits
With bailouts, with expected losses in tax revenues in 2009 due to the now deepening recession, and with the certain need for further fiscal stimulus by the federal government to save state and local governments from bankruptcy and provide unemployment insurance for the millions more jobless to come, the next U.S. budget deficit will easily double from its current projected level of around $500 billion. (Yes, that’s another $1 trillion.) A mind-boggling trillion dollar budget deficit will all but ensure that whoever wins the November 2008 election, few if any of their campaign promises or programs will see implementation. Instead, a national economic austerity program will likely be the agenda come January 2009. Critical programs like health care reform, student loans, sustainable environment, jobs creation and protection, foreclosure mortgage relief, retirement systems reform, etc., will likely all be sidelined more or less permanently.
The massive budget deficit is the consequence thus far of three primary causes: the $3 trillion Mideast wars, the $5 trillion tax cuts for corporations and the rich, and now more recently the multi-trillion, still rising bailouts of finance capital at taxpayer expense. The fourth is the deepening recession itself, which will result in a major shortfall of tax revenues to the federal government. The fifth is the need for the federal government to spend significantly more in order to stimulate recovery from the downturn.
President George W. Bush’s Fifth Legacy: Chronic Job Loss
More than three million U.S. workers have lost jobs to China alone during the two Bush terms and another million have been lost due to “free trade” with Mexico, Central America, and Canada. It took four years to return to employment levels that existed in January 2001 on the eve of Bush’s first recession. A brief and weak recovery of jobs followed in 2003, followed, in turn, by another jobs decline in 2003-04. It was not until just before the 2004 elections that job levels recovered. By late 2007, after just a brief few years of jobs growth, the economy once again began to gush jobs at an alarming rate.
Officially, more than 750,000 jobs were lost through September 2008. The actual number is much higher, however, given the conservative way the U.S. government calculates unemployment. For example, the government estimated 159,000 jobs were lost, but 337,000 part-time workers were hired that month. That means tens of thousands of U.S. workers were cut back from full time and rehired as part time. The government counts part-time workers as fully employed. The true job loss since the start of 2008 is closer to 1.5 million than the estimated official 800,000 or so.
President George W. Bush’s Sixth Legacy: Income Stagnation
The chronic loss of jobs due to free trade and repeated jobless recessions, the shift to lower paying service jobs, and companies transferring workers from full time permanent employment to more part time-temporary jobs explains a good deal of the stagnant or declining incomes. But not all. The decline of unions and effectiveness of collective bargaining during Bush’s term has also contributed to the income stagnation, as has shifting the cost of rising health insurance, deductibles, and co-payments from employers to workers during Bush’s term.
In stark contrast to the Bush legacy of stagnating and declining earnings for the 91 million majority, the Bush legacy has meant turning a blind eye to multi-million dollar, and even billion dollar, CEO pay packages—including those granted bank executives who received multi-million dollar payoffs even when their companies crash and burn. No wonder the general public were incensed this past September with Treasury Secretary Paulson’s proposal for a $700 billion TARP bailout, which initially failed to provide any effective constraints on executive pay or CEO golden parachutes. This obscene, uninterrupted, and unprecedented explosion of executive pay is one of the more visible hallmarks of the Bush economic legacy.
President George W. Bush’s Seventh Legacy: Chaos and Corruption
Some argue the current financial crisis is the product of financial industry deregulation. But that is only partly correct. Deregulation is only an enabler of the crisis, not a fundamental cause of it. Deregulation has allowed the banks to set up shadow institutions, as noted above, in which to hide and bury their junk securities. It has spurred the process called securitization, in which bad loans were bundled with other bad or good securities, cut up into 5 to 15 pieces, marked up in price to make a superprofit, and sold and resold around the world to other central banks, banks, funds, and private investors. Deregulation allowed banks to work with mortgage lenders to generate record quantities of bad mortgages; allowed banks to spread contagion in the name of spreading risk; and permitted excess leveraging by financial and non-financial corporation alike. But deregulation means nothing if debt is not readily available to borrow at excessively low costs. That’s where the Fed’s 25-year loose monetary policy and below normal market interest rates played a complimentary role. Speculation results in excessive leveraging of bad debt. But leveraging requires easy, low cost borrowing. Deregulation allows leveraging to happen. But super low interest rates by the Fed makes it possible in the first place. The two go hand in hand.
The repeal of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 and its replacement with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act removed a major impediment, while providing a major impetus to financial speculation and excess. But Bush took the opportunity several steps further. Bush’s contribution was to encourage and promote excessive financial speculation; turn over what remained of policing of the banking industry, in particular the investment banks, to the banks themselves; and send the remaining regulatory agency, the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), to the sidelines. This policy thrust went on from the very beginning of his term in 2001 to late 2007. It is possible to cite numerous and repeated attempts by state and even federal mid-level officials who warned of the dangers of growing financial speculation, in general and with regard to subprimes in particular, from 2002 on. So it is not true that Bush administration regulators “did not see what was coming.”
President George W. Bush’s Eighth Legacy: Destruction of Retirement
Another Bush legacy has been the destruction of the retirement system established in the immediate post-World War II period. That system was based on the idea of a three-legged stool structure that included Social Security, employer-provided pensions, and personal savings. Bush actively undermined all three, resulting in a crisis of historic proportions for the more than 44 million retirees and the 77 million baby boomers who will join their ranks starting next year.
The crisis in Social Security is not the one described by the Bush administration a few years ago, as Bush desperately attempted to privatize the system. The crisis is the more than $2.3 trillion dollars that has been siphoned out of the Social Security Trust Fund, transferred to the U.S. general budget, and spent in order to pay for wealthy and corporate tax cuts, chronic wars under Bush, and ballooning defense budgets. Social Security payroll tax collections for two decades have actually subsidized the U.S. budget, not undermined it. Every year the Social Security program produces a surplus, at the rate of sometimes hundreds of billions of dollars. And that surplus is diverted in full and spent. Defenders of the historic theft say we owe it to ourselves and can put it all back in the trust fund whenever we need. True. But to replace it requires that the U.S. government borrow back the $2.3 trillion from banks and other private sources, paying interest on that debt, and thus adding at least $200 billion more a year for 10 years to the coming $1 trillion a year budget deficit. In accounting terms it is possible; in economic and political terms it is not. Bush has borrowed over his eight years in office more than $1.3 trillion of the $2.3 trillion Social Security Trust Fund surplus.
President George W. Bush’s Ninth Legacy: Dismantling Health Care
Bush has been even more successful in privatizing, and thus dismantling, the post-war health care financing system. By allowing health care insurance premiums and other costs to double during his term, rising more than 10 percent every year, he has forced employers and workers alike to give up health care coverage altogether or to reduce that coverage in order to afford rising premiums and other costs. There are now more than 47 million Americans without any kind of health coverage whatsoever, an increase of 9 million since 2000. More than 1.3 million working Americans lost their health insurance coverage in 2006 alone. Approximately 12 percent of all children in the U.S. have no health coverage.
Despite this collapsing coverage, the U.S. spends nearly twice as much, about 17 percent, of its total GDP on health care. That compares with 9 to 10 percent for those countries with single payer health delivery systems in Europe, Canada, and elsewhere. It means the U.S. spends more than $1 trillion a year to mostly insurance companies that push forms around while delivering no health services.
For those still with health insurance, the rising cost burden has also shifted significantly from employers to their workers—by as much as 30 percent, according to some studies. Thousands of companies have been allowed to abandon their health plans altogether, most notably the big auto companies which are dumping their health care funds, underfunded by $50 billion, onto the auto workers’ unions.
President George W. Bush’s Tenth Legacy: Income Shift
Every year for the first five years of his terms in office Bush pushed historic tax cuts totaling more than $5 trillion. Estimations from sources like Brookings, Urban Institute, and others are that about 73 percent of the cuts benefited the wealthiest 20 percent households—30 percent, or $1.5 trillion, of that 73 percent benefited the wealthiest 1 percent households; roughly 1.1 million out of the total 114 million taxpaying households in the U.S. But these figures don’t include tax cuts for corporations. Nor do they include similar massive tax shifting at the state and local levels. Where has all that tax cut money gone, one might ask? A good deal of it into hedge funds, private equity funds, and other forms of private, unregulated banking, thus stoking the fires of speculative investment in subprimes, derivatives, and other unregulated financial securities. Other amounts have no doubt contributed to the explosion of offshore tax shelters. According to the investment bank Morgan Stanley, in 2005 offshore tax shelters increased their funds from $250 billion in 1983 to more than $5 trillion by 2004. More recent estimations by the Tax Justice Network indicate tax shelters now hold more than $11 trillion. A reasonable estimate is that wealthy Americans likely account for at least 40 percent of that total—around $4-$4.5 trillion. Exactly how much is not currently knowable, since there are around 27 offshore tax shelters, according to the IRS, in mostly sovereign nations like the Cayman Islands, the Seyschells, Isle of Man, Vanuatu, and the like that have closed their tax doors and do not cooperate with IRS attempts to investigate how much wealthy U.S. taxpayers have stuffed away in their electronic vaults.
This explosion of income and wealth at the top at the expense of those at the bottom has been estimated in recent academic studies by Professors Emmanual Saez and Thomas Picketty. Based on their analysis of IRS taxes paid over the history of the federal income tax since 1917, the wealthiest 1 percent of households in the U.S. received about 8.3 percent of total income in the U.S. in 1978. By 2006, that wealthiest 1 percent was receiving 20.3 percent of total income generated in the U.S.—not including tax sheltered income or corporations’ retained income or profits diverted offshore. This 20.3 percent represents a return to almost exactly what the top 1 percent received in 1928 (21.09 percent) on the eve of the last Great Depression.
These legacies are interdependent, one feeding on and exacerbating the other. It is not possible, for one example, to understand the current financial crisis and emerging global epic recession apart from the massive shift and concentration of income in the hands of the wealthiest household-speculators and corporate-speculators. That is not the sole explanation of the present systemic financial collapse or growing threat of global depression increasing now almost daily. But the financial and economic crisis underway at present cannot be fully comprehended apart from the former either. Reversing the legacies, removing the toxic effects on the future of American economy and society cannot take place without correcting the fundamental causes. That includes reversing once again, as in the 1930s and 1940s, the perverse and distorted income and wealth distribution afflicting society itself.
Ajay Jain
AJAY JAIN
Exactly! Through the legacy of George Bush, the Neocons within the Republican Party – with their “Borrow to make War” Policies – have “sealed” the fate that a Republican will not occupy the White House for many years to come.
If the Republicans will ever stand a chance again, they need to make the Constitution the “centerpiece” of their Platform – and kick the Neocons Nazis to the curb!
History is here and now and it does not bode well for George W Bush the 43rd President of USA.
1) GEORGE W. BUSH oversaw the suffering of millions in New Orleans in KATRINA disaster and did little in a timely fashion!
2) GEORGE W. BUSH increased our deficit by fighting TWO wars on the credit card, implementing the Medicare DRUG Plan on the credit card and two BIG TAX CUTS on the credit card.
3) GEORGE W. BUSH presided over the greatest economic meltdown of the American economy since the Great Depression.
4) GEORGE W. BUSH presided over the greatest terrorist attack on the US soil since Pearl Harbor which was responsible for more than 3000 deaths.
5) GEORGE W. BUSH’s IRAQ war was responsible for nearly 5000 American soldier deaths.
6) GEORGE W. BUSH had Osama Bin Laden in his sights in Tora Bora in Afganistan but he let him escape by not providing enough troops to capture UML.
7) GEORGE W. BUSH shifted focus from a legitimate war in Afganistan to an unnecessary war in IRAQ.
8) GEORGE W. BUSH’s Administration has been conclusively linked by a 576-page report from a task force of the bipartisan Constitution Project to have used torture.
9) GEORGE W. BUSH turned a surplus nation into a debtor nation by advocating for so much deficit budgeting.
10) GEORGE W. BUSH’s Administration had a GDP growth adjusted for inflation at 2.2% with a ranking of 9th in 13 recent Presidents.
11) GEORGE W. BUSH’s Administration had a 0.3% increase in jobs with a ranking of 11th in 11 recent Presidents.
12) GEORGE W. BUSH’s Administration had a inflation-adjusted changes in worker per capita income of 1.3% with a ranking of 8th in 11 recent Presidents.
13) GEORGE W. BUSH’s Administration had a increase in national debt of 88% during his Presidency with a ranking of 3rd in 12 recent Presidents.
14) GEORGE W. BUSH’s Administration had a Dow Jones Average’s annual change of -2.0% with a ranking of 11th in 13 recent Presidents.
15) GEORGE W. BUSH’s Administration had a final job approval rating of 27% with a ranking of 11th in 12 recent Presidents just above Nixon.
16) GEORGE W. BUSH’s Administration had a lowest job approval rating of 19% with a ranking of FIRST in 12 recent Presidents i.e. the LOWEST among all 12 recent Presidents.
Ajay Jain
ajain31@gmail.com
Twitter Handle @ajain31.
Mobile: 214-207-9781
Why does this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHyIVwj3ChQ
Look and sound exactly like this?
Why? Because “Gullible” Americans (like you Edgar) listen and watch this!
A Letter to Democrats and Republicans
Boston Bombing: What You Aren’t Being Told
The REAL Reason Israel Attacked Syria
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WATCH how these psychopaths “laugh” about MASS MURDER! This is LITERALLY a “joke” to them!
Because they’re a bunch of bloodthirsty warmongers?
Why do we let them get away with ritual child mutilation? And I guess the Arabs are also child mutilators. We should simply have no truck with them, and stop looking the other way when they mutilate their defenseless children. Aren’t we supposed to be protecting the children?
“I took him and Laura…” Object of the verb “took.”
That emphasis on “He and I” back in grade school was simply to teach that the other person comes first, not that when there are two or more objects, they suddenly change to the subjective mood.
My services as a proofreader are available at very reasonable rates.
Rich Grise
richgrise@lycos.com