Hey “Liberals”: Obama Has Nothing On Your Should-be Hero Bush

Marc A. Thiessen recently noted that American “liberals” strongly support President Obama’s counterterrorism policies even though his policies are almost indistinguishable from President Bush’s, which liberals hated.

But what Thiesson dubbed the “Obama-Bush Doctrine” is just an indication of the likeness of these two presidents. If liberals were to take an objective look at the Bush presidency, they would have to adore him as much as they adore Obama. Consider the parallels in the following areas.

• Massive spending: Bush increased the national debt by $4.9 trillion in 8 years; Obama increased the debt by $4.9 trillion in 4 years. Granted, Obama has outspent Bush. But Bush laid the ideological groundwork for such astronomical spending.
• Massive government regulation: Bush gave us “Sarbanes-Oxley”; Obama gave us “Dodd-Frank.”
• Federal intrusion into education: Bush gave us “No Child Left Behind”; Obama gave us “Race to the Top” and the college student loan takeover.
• Expansion of the welfare state: Bush gave us the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act; Obama gave us Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
• Attacks on free speech: Bush signed McCain-Feingold; Obama attacked the Supreme Court for its pro-First Amendment decision in the Citizens United case.
• Keynesian economic “stimulus”: Bush delivered those $1,200 “rebate” checks of 2008; Obama delivered the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
• Corporate bailouts: President Bush gave us TARP; Obama bailed out GM.
• The integration of church and state: Bush gave us Faith-Based Initiatives; Obama “established a White House office of faith-based initiatives with a broader mission than the one overseen by his Republican predecessor.” (So much for the “liberals’” commitment to separation of church and state.)

I could go on, but you get the idea.

If “liberals” love Obama, they should rethink their hatred of Bush. He was their main man first.

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Related:

• Individualism vs. Collectivism: Our Future, Our Choice
• Citizens United and the Battle for Free Speech in America

Image: Wikimedia Commons

About Michael A. LaFerrara

Michael A. LaFerrara resides in New Jersey, where he spent his career in the plumbing, building controls, and construction industries. He writes on a wide variety of topics from an Objectivist perspective at his blog, Principled Perspectives.

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