Age Of Forgetting:Bush Presidency 2001-2009 (Kabuki Democracy/Alterman)

The age of forgetting is always true when we think of political discourse in America. We tend to remove information from our memories when we move along in the political process.The Bush years are behind us now and Republicans bash Obama for everything under the sun but forget the disastrous land mines left by President Bush for the eight years he spent as our leader.Bush's foolish misadventure in Iraq cost American taxpayers well over $3 trillion and left the economic condition of the nation worst than any other President since the Great Depression.More than 8.4 million jobs were lost and nearly three million homes were foreclosed on.The number of personal and commercial bankruptcies reached unprecedented levels.In 2008,a single year,American households lost $11 trillion,18% of their wealth.Federal spending rose from 18.5 percent of GDP in 2001 to 21% in 2008,while a 125.3 billion surplus became a $364.4 billion deficit.Median family income shrank during his years in office before the start of the Great Recession.During the Bush presidency,three million jobs were created compared to 23.1 during the Clinton years(Tax cuts,supply-siders were dead wrong).It was the lowest level of job creation of any post-WWII president.

Bush's inability or refusal to police the financial industry led directly to the worst economic crisis the world has seen since the Great Depression.He also failed at his other numerous administrative responsibilities.The administration ignored our physical infrastructure,mass transit system,school building construction,our environment and especially the low income earners that live and work in the hopeless sections of each state in the union.According to the American Society of Civil Engineers,more than 26% of the nation's bridges are structurally deficient.On-third of our major roads are in poor or mediocre condition with 45% of our urban highways full of congestion.Drinking water systems need $11 billion annually to replace aging ones.Inland waterways,waste water systems and levees are all rated "D" or lower.( Republicans attack the Obama stimulus for spending in these areas)

The result of this malign neglect is that post-Bush America is one disaster after another waiting to happen and are laid at the feet of the current president.The financial crisis,Iraq and Afghanistan,and the BP oil spill all reflect the burden Bush has left for President Obama.The main media outlets ignored the Minerals and Management Service until it was big news.The Bush/Cheney industry- friendly White house left the regulators defenseless to do even their basic functions.MMS,under Bush, did not require oil companies to install reliable backup systems to trigger blowout preventers in case of emergency.During the Bush years,regulators allowed the oil executives to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil,which were merely traced over before official submissions.Free hunting and fishing trips,tickets to games,and expensive meals were the norm at the Lake Charles office,all provided by the oil companies.The MMS collected only sixteen fines from the more than 400 investigations of Gulf of Mexico drilling incidents during the Bush years.The agency found 200 violations but showed no interest in pursuing any of them.Cheney himself was crucial in creating these conditions with is National Energy Policy Task Force.By May,2001,the Task Force concluded that many of the protections under which drillers had previously operated were no longer necessary.The legislation they passed expanded the circumstance under which drilling operations could forgo environmental reviews.Bush/Cheney left one time bomb after another and the Obama administration is being held responsible for failing to predict where and when each one will explode.(Alterman)