One of the major liberal taking points is that “we don’t want to go back to the failed policies of the Bush administration.” This talking point seems to me as many liberal talking points, in that if you ask for a definition, there is really nothing behind it. But rather than speculate, I decided to check.
I searched on “failed policy of the Bush administration.” The top result was a link to a report from the US House of Representatives, Committee on the Budget, titled “The Bush Administration’s Failed Economic and Fiscal Record.”
The following is a summary of the failures of the Bush administration from that article:
- Current Administration will leave the nation with largest deficit in history Debt balloons under Administration policies
- Economic growth is anemic
- Thousands of jobs lost
- Household incomes have fallen
- The President’s fiscal policies impose heavy debt burden on America’s families
The document then proceeds to examine each of these points in detail. Some of the points listed in the detail are as follows:
- Biggest deficits in history
- Debt balloons under this Administration
- Foreign investors increasingly finance our debts
- Interest on the debt crowds out other priorities
- Housing foreclosure rates at record levels
- Heading the wrong way on unemployment
OK, I give up. I agree. Let’s not go back to the “failed policies of the Bush Administration.”
But let’s look at the facts. We can only wish to be able to go back to the level of “failure” shown above. Obama has made virtually all of the above much worse. The failed policies of the Obama Administration are what liberals should really be held accountable to talk about.
Where under Bush “thousands of jobs were lost”, under Obama in a much short period, millions of jobs have been lost (according to Joe Biden). Whereas under Bush we added $2 trillion to the public debt, it looks like we will add under Obama as much as $10 billion. And so on, and so on.
So the truth that liberals are trying to cover up is that in fact all of the failed policies of the Bush Administration are now the failed policies of the Obama Administration!
Any time any liberal talks about the Bush Administration’s failed policies, the correct immediate response to this slam is “Obama has taken every Bush failed policy and made it worse.”