George W. Bush’s Legacy
Of all the facts on display in this chart from the Democratic Caucus regarding the quality of life for Americans now compared to when Bill Clinton left office, the most damming is the percentage of foreign oil the U.S. now imports. Bush could have used his presidency to call for increased research in renewable fuels, but instead we now import 60.38% of our oil from other nations compared to 52.75% in 2001.
Despite Bush’s war of choice in Iraq, this single fact, has decreased the national security of the United States considerably in the last six years. Threats to our economy and stability would have been significantly reduced if we had started to ween ourselves from foreign oil when he took office. Instead, our dependency on oil has grown, as has our national deficit, health care costs & the price of gas.
Bush likes to think that history will eventually judge him and his record favorably once the seeds of his policies have had time to germinate. Given the facts presented here, it seems the only thing sprouting during his time in office were weeds.
Tragic and stupid. A nice summary of his incompetency.
Thank you for making a clean, readable version of the table. I made a copy (credited, of course!) for my own blog entry [ http://lovelyangel.livejournal.com/470022.html ]. (If you’d like me to take it down, just say the word.)
~Amy
Amy,
Feel free to use it as you would like, but I’d say you should link somewhere to the original (and quite ugly) html version from the Democratic Caucus too. That version has hyperlinks for all of the sources of the data. Important to include that for people who want to verify the various bits of data.
Glad this was useful for you!
Thanks, Ged. Just like you did, I linked the graphic to the print view of the ugly page. But I think I’ll add an additional link.
Great list! Man, the original is UGH-LY! So, kudos to you for the redo. Somethings that were left off the original:
January 20, 2001
Nintendo Gamecube
Playstation 2
No iPods or iPhones
Today under Bush
Nintendo Wii
Playstation 3
Microsoft Xbox 360
iPod Touch and iPhones
Not that Bush had anything to do with these. They popped into my mind as I was reading the list. Sounds like something the Right would say he responsible for creating 😉
The reason why I do not call it a presidency but “the biggest bank robbery of all times” instead is the National Debt numbers. This is mind boggling! From $5.7 trillion to $9.2 trillion in just 8 years! Wow.
While the initial debt has created value in form of infrastructure, and invested in education, etc. nothing of Bush’s debt created something like that. It all went into the pockets of defense contractors. Anyone still arguing that these are part of the economy, too, so that was a good thing, is a bit naive, I’d say.
This is a meaningless method to evaluate the Bush presidency. If this were the criteria, then the Lincoln presidency would have been the worst in American history. Under Lincoln, half the nation left the union; the Northern Democrats were asking for a deal with the South; there were riots; worst death toll of any US war; economy devastated; newspapers were excoriating him..an on and on.
But, he is celebrated as the best of our presidents! Why? the fight was worth fighting.
Frankly, our survival as a country depends on the success of this fight.
Walter, you simply could not be more wrong. Lincoln FIXED a divided nation, Bush broke a nation that was helping lead the world. Any goodwill we had internationall before or afte 9/11, that embarassment of a “man” (using the term loosely) squandered. He claimed he had evidence of WMD’s as the reason for going into Iraq, but refused to provide it, yet urged the ENTIRE WORLD to trust him. And when they refused, like a bully on a playground, he told everyone to go to hell and did it anyway.
He is the WORST. Ask anyone who can’t find a job with a living wage, or has lost their house, or was a flood victim with darker skin that he chose to let die. As the arabs what they think of him. As his banker how well he’s doing while others skip meals so their kids can eat, when they all use to eat together.
He’s a liar. He’s a murderer. He’s a crook. And, actually, the only credit I can give his horrific excuse for a “leader”, is that he managed to feather his own nest quite well…which is surprising since he drove an oil company oprating in Texas into bankruptcy! Now its the nation’s turn to benefit from his “genius”.
You’re wrong Walter. Plain and simple. Put your pride away, take your blinders off, see what’s REALLY going on, and admit it.
Howcome Bush was elected for a second term, where the democrats so bad? Did the american voters see that Bush was leading the USA and the world in this awful mess?
Henry, if I had to guess why Bush was elected to a second term it would be because the Republicans used the old tactics of fear, uncertainty and doubt to broadcast the message that change in the middle of a war (which had just started) was unacceptable. People were scared to change course so soon after hostilities began and so Bush squeaked by and the rest as they say, is history.
W. did not win a second term. Gore won. So, there you go, Henry.
Interesting facts you have in that table up there. Because I have a fairly reliable source that reports pretty different facts.
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/pdf/budget/outlook.pdf
Zach’s source is reliable, but you must understand the numbers that you are looking at–it’s not the same number. As a percentage of the GDP, it looks lovely, but the GDP used is “projected”–and the actual is very likely to fall WAY short of that. The gov’t only just lately admitted we were in a recession.
The very same report has other information which backs up the info in the Democratic Caucus chart above. And frankly, even it doesn’t tell the whole dismal tale. My husband moved with the family two years ago when I got a much better job, so he had to quit and has been therefore ineligible for unemployment benefits. He has also been unable to find a job in those 2 years. He’s not being counted, and I bet if we counted him and others who don’t get benefits, we’d have a whole lot scarier number.