George W. Who?

“Republicans talk a lot about losing their way during the last decade, and when they do they’re talking about the Bush years. For Republicans, the Bush administration has become the ‘yadda yadda yadda’ period of American history.”

-Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont-McKenna College.

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Gee, I wonder why this is?

The AP reports on the elephant not discussed at all in Iowa

“While Obama may be overly eager to blame the Bush years for the nation’s problems, GOP presidential contenders seem just as eager to pretend those years never happened.

Taking office in 2001 with a balanced federal budget and a surplus, Bush quickly pushed through sweeping tax cuts that were not offset by spending cuts. The tax cuts have cost about $1.8 trillion, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The Bush tax cuts were set to expire after 10 years, but Obama allowed them to remain in place temporarily in exchange for an extension of unemployment benefits and a payroll tax cut.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks never were budgeted and have cost taxpayers about $1.4 trillion so far. Obama ordered the last troops out of Iraq in December, but the Afghanistan conflict will extend into 2014.

Bush signed legislation in 2003 enacting a prescription drug benefit as part of Medicare, the government health care plan for seniors — a huge entitlement program projected to cost as much as $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

The Troubled Asset Relief Program, the bank bailout program widely loathed by many conservatives, was another Bush-era program. Congress authorized nearly $700 billion for the program at the recommendation of Bush’s treasury secretary, former Goldman Sachs executive Henry Paulson, in response to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the subsequent financial crisis in the fall of 2008. As a presidential candidate, Obama supported the TARP bailout, as did his GOP rival, Sen. John McCain.”

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?

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Source:
George W. Bush Barely Mentioned In GOP Campaign
The Associated Press, January 3, 2012
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/01/03/george_w_bush_barely_mentioned_in_gop_campaign/

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