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Reposted, with author's permission, from http://reformationcomingsoon.bravehost.com/BushRecord.html The Real Record of George W. Bush (And the Hidden Agenda for His War) I grant that George W. Bush may actually believe he's doing the right thing and "doing God's will," as he claims. I also don’t want to kick a man when he’s down. But, since he can’t admit it, and since he is still unrepentant and arrogantly stubborn and self-righteous, I am duty bound to tell you the truth as I know it. In my view, Bush deludes himself and has in effect deceived those who believe in him. He is not doing the right thing, and he does not serve God. He instead serves what Jesus called "Mammon." I'll cover the major reasons why, including facts regarding both his domestic and foreign policies, as well as the hidden agenda and folly of Bush's War. But I'll begin with first things first. Consider Bush's original campaign promises to be a "compassionate conservative" and to "put an end to partisanship." Those proved to be very false promises, since both his domestic and foreign policies and his initiatives and executive orders have certainly not been compassionate toward all the people in America and in the world who have been harmed by them, and especially since he has proven to be an arrogant, hard right-wing ideologue and an extremely partisan and divisive president. He has only created more polarized and more bitter partisanship. That has been demonstrated in nearly everything Bush has done, and it is the main reason he has ignored so much good advice, made so many mistakes and come under so much criticism, not only in America, but in many other countries in the world. His impact on the whole world has been negative and even devastating, and it just keeps getting worse. For example, lets's consider Bush's Reaganite domestic economic record. After all, he followed the example of Ronald Reagan, and the initial result was a terrible recession, and ever since then the richest few have gotten even more rich while everyone else has become worse off. If you wonder why I call Bush a Reaganite who followed Reagan's example, see the page titled The Real Legacy of Ronald Reagan. That explains how and why Bush followed Reagan's example with his recession and his economic policies. Of course, Bush tried very hard to blame his recession on his predecessor, President Clinton. However, the Clinton Administration balanced the budget and produced a booming economy. Furthermore, even though Bush's recession was partially the result of Federal Reserve interest hikes that were designed to slow the economy down and prevent possible inflation, Bush's recession didn't really start to get bad until Bush and Dick Cheney used gloom and doom language about the economy. In fact, they started to do that even before they took office, claiming that Clinton's economic policies were not really good. They kept it up even more after they took office, and the more they claimed that the economy was or would be terrible, the worse it got, because the business community and the stock market reacted to their pessimistic and gloomy portrayal and predictions. That was a Reaganite tactic, and I suspect it was partly to worsen the economy to punish the middle and low income labor force and put them "in their place," as Reagan so deliberately did. I also suspect it was to justify their huge Reaganite tax cut proposal --- which was actually a huge windfall for the wealthy but was falsely and deceptively touted as a "tax relief" measure that would create a "trickle down" effect and be economically beneficial for everyone. The horrendous result of Bush's recession was that unemployment increased 40 percent in 2001 alone, a year after he gained the power of the presidency, and 2.4 Million jobs were lost between 2001 and 2004 during Bush's first term. So, Bush managed to pretty much match Reagan's terrible deeds with the same results. He made workers fear losing their jobs, and be more content with unsatisfactory wages and decreasing benefits. And, while Republicans will vehemently deny that and claim I am simply ignorant of "economic realities," the historic record and the facts clearly reveal the truth. Reaganomics greatly benefits the wealthiest few, at the expense of the vast majority, and especially at the expense of the working poor and the poor. For example, during fiscal years 2002-2004, Bush succeeded in getting his tax cuts enacted, and they delivered about $197.3 Billion ($197,300,000,000) in new tax breaks for the wealthiest one percent of Americans. But those wealthiest few certainly did not need "tax relief," as Bush called it. Even the least wealthy of that wealthiest one percent had incomes of at least $337,000 per year. Most of them had incomes in the multi-millions, and some even had incomes in the billions. Therefore, Bush's claim that they needed "tax relief" to relive their "tax burden" was a blatant lie designed to mislead and deceive 99 percent of the American people. Bush deceptively claimed that his tax cuts were designed to benefit all of us. Specifically, he said his tax cuts were to "put more of their own money in the pockets of all Americans." But while Bush's tax cuts did give a few dollars to the majority of tax payers, they were actually designed and certainly served to make the rich much richer by allowing them to pay even far less taxes, when in all fairness they should have been paying and certainly can afford to pay much more, which would only be fair and equitable. In America, Reaganite/Bushite policies and laws have produced increasing subsidies, tax loopholes, tax shelters and government giveaways which amount to "welfare for the rich," and consequently the wealthiest few pay about 7 percent of their income in taxes. In Western Europe the wealthiest few pay about 50 percent, which is only fair. And it works well. Most Europeans get from four to six weeks of paid vacation per year, free universal health care, free prenatal care, long maternity leaves, longer parental leave, free child care, and much longer sick leave than in America. Furthermore, such benefits are guaranteed by the government. They are not something that had to be fought for by labor unions, and the workers there don't even have to collectively bargain for a lot of worker benefits. By contrast, due to Reaganism (and Bushism) American businesses and corporations have been enabled to rake in record high profits while they cut workers benefits, health insurance, and even pensions. America is going way backwards, while many other countries in the world are going forward because they realize that the better workers are treated, the better off everyone is. And yet, in spite of that, George W. Bush has berated the European models, and said that America "doesn't want to be like Europe." Apparently not.
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