Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Thanks for the ‘Awful’ Bush Decade

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that Americans have a very negative view of the past decade, most of which was marked by President Bush's time in office. The poll found that 58% of people said that the decade was either "awful" or "not so good," 29% said that it was "fair" and only 12% said that it was either "good" or "great." The people that were polled also said that the country lost ground during the decade on the environment (37%), health and well being (46%), peace and national security (50%), moral values (66%) and a whopping 74% said it lost ground on economic prosperity.

Census Bureau figures that were released in September mostly supported the public's negative impression of the Bush Decade. On every major issue the Census Bureau found that the country lost ground. We lost it on median household income, poverty, childhood poverty, and lack of health insurance among other things. In comparison, the country's position in each of those categories improved during President Clinton's two terms (often dramatic improvements).

I'm proud that the State of Wisconsin twice rejected George W. Bush, but we still had our fair share of Bush backers that tried to convince us otherwise. I think of Bush's "cousin" Scott Walker, Leah Vukmir, the Republican Party of Wisconsin and so many others. I suppose a sarcastic "thanks" is in order for their contributions in promoting an awful president and helping craft an 'awful' decade. As much as some of these Bush boosters were loving him a few years ago, they couldn't run away fast enough when reality finally hit.

Although many of his prominent Wisconsin supporters have ditched him, most of them still recite his failed policies. Tax cuts for the rich being a silver bullet for everything and the massive deregulation of industry are just two of the big ones. The awful Bush Administration did plenty of both and we can clearly see where it brought us. Since I don't think that the former Bush boosters will ditch his failed policies as quickly as they ditched the man, we can only hope that Wisconsinites show the same common sense that they did in 2000 and 2004. If we didn't like the "awful" Bush Decade, then why would we promote folks that are using the same awful policy playbook?

ht: Think Progress

UPDATE: Found this because of a link at One Wisconsin Now, "Top Ten Worst Things About the Bush Decade".

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

So you are not just a Walker hater...good to see you can spread it around.

Anonymous said...

Thank God you are here for us.

What we need is big fat guys sleeping at government jobs and getting benefits that the taxpayers will never see.

You Go girl!

Cory Liebmann said...

anon 2...i don't know who you are trying to insult but if you are talking to me, i don't work for the government...i have my own biz and provide my own benefits. that being said, this post doesn't have anything to do with government employees and their benefits. please don't come here launching these kinds of personal insults in the future.

Anon 1: I would just say that the census numbers from september speak for themselves...its not about hate, its about the terrible bush record.

Anonymous said...

From what I read (your link to the NBC/Wall street poll) the name Bush was not mentioned...you however did mention it.

I stand by my comment.

Cory Liebmann said...

i suppose (if you try really hard) you can divorce the "awful" decade from the awful bush policies that lead to the awful numbers in the census report. but you really have to work at it.

Anonymous said...

Yep all the problems in the decade came from his policies and the rest of the problems look like they came from Walker.

Funny how the poll you linked shows the greatest negative impact on America this past decade; 38% cited the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 23% picked the mortgage and housing crisis...all caused by the Bush policies.

Cory Liebmann said...

i never said that EVERYTHING that went wrong in the decade was his fault, but suggesting that he didn't play a major role in our problems reflects a serious case of right-wing denial.

this poll is just the latest sign...put it together with his historically bad job approval numbers, the census report, and the "before and after" of his administration and it is a slam dunk case.

as far as the county executive, i didn't bring him up once in this post or in any of the comments...but you did twice.