Open thread: What have they been right about?
I thought I would just throw out this question and see where people went with it. What has the Bush administration been right about? Not the Liberators moniker, not energy policy, not tax policy, probably not even about the health of the economy (Alan Greenspan said this weekend that we could be in recession by the end of the year). What have they been right about?
State funeral for Rosa Parks?
1. The initial decision to invade Afghanistan.
2. Blowing off the religious right (i.e., not pursuing wedge amendments).
3. Firing Rumsfeld.
3. Firing Rumsfeld.
Does doing the right thing four years too late count? Uhhm…. No.
As for your #2 – how are things on Mars?
and your #1 – Afghanistan. They were pushed into that decision. Half credit. your score .5 out of three or 16% your letter grade is an “F”.
Afghanistan, I’ll give him credit for. Also, it’s nice that he has kept gravity going.
I have no idea how he blew off the religious right, however. Was it with that Constitutional amendment to persecute Gay people. Or was it with the whole faith-based initiatives thing?
OK, I admit #2 was lame. I’m not defending Bush; I’m just playing along with the question. I hope some rightwingers drop by with some more thought-provoking answers.
The religious right wanted a lot more than Bush has given them. The amendments were clearly a wedge game; but Bush had no real interest in them. But the religious right felt betrayed because Bush had campaigned on social conservatism and basically won the 2004 election on the gay marriage amendment.
The right-wingers are still thinking. They don’t engage in questions like this, I suspect. They have become the party of no plan, but plenty of bluster. Let’s see how they can use that bluster to compliment Bush instead of criticize a Democrat.
1. Tax Cuts
2. Judges
1. Tax Cuts
Because it is a great idea to cut taxes on the wealthy and create a fiscal catastrophe when you are trying to fight a war.
2. Judges
Because the “Unitary Executive” theory depends on judges that don’t know much about the Constitution.
Well, you can believe what you want about judges. I think that despite their appointments, they still have been smacked down on many of their crappy imperial presidency issues.
As for tax cuts, where has that gotten us? This is the first time in history that tax cuts have been used during wartime. Unless you are really well-off, I doubt that you have seen any cut in your taxes. It is actually quite likely that your State and local taxes have risen to match or exceed the cuts in State grants.
The Chinese own our debt. I remember in 2000 that we were discussing how to spend the surplus… Ahhh, those were the days.
They’ve been spectacularly successful in transferring our tax dollars to the pockets of their friends. And just as successful at getting the entire oversight apparatus of the govt to look t the other way while they did it.
You can count the decision to go to Afghanistan as a success, but the overall arc is a failure since they could not follow through enough (Look Ma! A Theme!) to bring it to a better closure.
As for the surplus, I’ll remind people that the Clinton budget people saw the surplus (and its increase) as a great way to make sure that SS was more stable in out years.
“The Chinese own our debt.”
This is the biggest fallacy out there. I’m not even going to provide the documentation.
“Because the “Unitary Executive” theory depends on judges that don’t know much about the Constitution.”
John Roberts has forgotten more about the Constitution than you will ever learn.
FSP is technically right; the Chinese don’t “own” our debt, but they own enough of it to cause massive financial mischief if they want to – that’s the problem.
And the judges are a matter of preference, I suppose. Not sure yet about Roberts, but Alito is frightening, given his advocacy of the unitary executive. Could this court be any worse than the one that installed Bush in the first place?
John Roberts has forgotten more about the Constitution than you will ever learn.
That’s a very frightening thought.