Is Bush a failure as a president?

This is my reasoning for an affirmative resolution.

1. Tax cuts for the wealthy.
Bush has consistently favored the top 1% when passing tax cuts, see sources.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03E2D6173FF930A2575BC0A9629C8B63
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/16/politics/main636398.shtml

2. Government deficit
Bush took us from a $5.6 trillion deficit to a $9 trillion deficit. Why again is he cutting the taxes for the rich again? Why is he spending an estimated trillion plus dollars in Iraq? Check out the second source for a chart showing how clinton reduced the deficit and bush pushed it back up again.
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0754579020071107
http://zfacts.com/p/318.html

3. Endorsing torture
He has voted against bills banning waterboarding and other forms of torture. Torture is not even an effective interrogation technique because people will give false information to escape the pain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_George_W._Bush#Torture

4. Handling of Katrina
A Canadian search and rescue team was helping trapped residents in a new orleans suburb 5 days before the US military.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_George_W._Bush#Response_to_Hurricane_Katrina
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0908-02.htm

5. Treatment of the Enviroment
Bush has supported dumping of raw sewage into waterways, during his presidency mercury contamination has increased, toxic releases are up, and more.
http://www.nrdc.org/legislation/rollbacks/execsum.asp
http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/2005.asp

6. The War in Iraq
Invading Iraq was not necessary or wise. While Saddam was somewhat of a threat, there were many other more tactful ways to solve the problem.

The cost of the war is incredible, as of now it's over $500 billion and in the years after the war we will have to pay for veterans to go to school, and support injured soldiers. It costs $1500 a year for the government to insure a child, so with the $500 billion spent on Iraq we could insure the 8,000,000 uninsured US children for over 40 years. This is not to mention the 4000 soldiers killed and many more permanently crippled.

The Iraqi's don't even want us there, contrary to what fox might tell you. Here are some of the results from a survey of Iraqi civilians in March.
http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/6308/65232074im3.png
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/8259/39435076tm6.png
Here is the full survey:
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/poll/2008/0308opinion.pdf
Other figures from the survey:
46% of Iraqi's have "No confidence at all" in us forces compared to 4% which have a great deal of confidence.
35% think US forces have done a "very bad job" compared to 6% think we did a "very good job".
7% strongly support troop presence in Iraq versus 41% strongly oppose it.

 

Isn't this a little late?

 

Yea Bush is a shitty President and in Kanye West's words "Does not care about black people", so fuck him pretty much . I just hope the next pres doesn't do as badly as he did..

 

He wasn't a complete failure, but for the most part YES.

 

He is a complete failure. His father is the one who is really good of running US. Hope Obama is an influtential President. He is already gaining a lot of support from the citizens.

 

Ehh i dont think i would call him a failure it just soo happens that he managed to mess a few to many things up...

 

He was made very aware that 9/11 was coming, and he did nothing. He deliberately twisted intelligence (and outright lied) to lead us into an idiotic war in Iraq. He approved the torture of prisoners. Given that that is but a choice sampling of his monstrosities, I'd say he was a massive failure.

 

Kanye West is a douchebag though. He's so quick at labeling whites as racists, yet uses the N-word in numerous times in his music. Hypocrisy much?

Yes, Bush is a failure. He did a piss poor job at running the country, and was considerate enough to leave one hell of an economic mess for the next president to clean up.

 

In 1 word: Yes.

 

bush fails tbh just wants to make more money does care about anyone else

 

We had two options

Option 1: George W. Bush

Option 2: John Kerry



If we had John Kerry as president, our money would be so inflated, gas prices MAY be higher, and treaties with middle eastern countries would be broken. Hence the fact about what he did after he wasn't elected.

 

Two words. Trickle-down Economics, economic policies perceived to benefit the wealthy and then "trickle-down" to the middle and lower classes. Clinton blessed the United States with the "wonderful" North American Free Trade Agreement (aka NAFTA). Basically it gives corporations and businesses the ability to outsource factories and plants in order to increase profits, and increase GDP. Yet is cheap labor the deciding factor when it comes to outsourcing? Absolutely not, but it does play a significant role. The tipping point is the corporate tax which is a tax levied on the profits made by companies. The United States currently has a corporate tax rate of 35%, with the only country higher than us being Japan. Other countries have much lower corporate tax rates, for example, Ireland's is only 11%! So if I'm a business owner, Ireland is looking like a great place to move my business.

So is cutting the tax rates of businesses a bad thing? Absolutely not, in fact, they haven't been cut enough. Business owners do not have to put up with this ridiculous tax system in America, and a lot of them are taking action and outsourcing! Is this what you all concerned about the economy want to happen? Bush did his job as a Republican on this issue, and there was nothing wrong with it.

He did, however, make several mistakes as President. Was he a failure? No. Was he the best President? Absolutely Not. I wouldn't rate him any higher than Jimmy Carter, but he was not a failure. It can be said that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The new conditions he was faced with as President require a new system of judgment.

 

Bush is a complete failure, I agree.

 

For the sake of argument, I find it funny how a majority of the sources posted at the beginning of the thread are liberal sources. If we are allowed to play by those games, can't I post some evidence by Fox News that defend Bush's Presidency?

On another note, concerning the "War" in Iraq. The War in Iraq, by definition, is OVER. The purpose of the "War" was to overthrow Saddam Hussein and that goal has been accomplished, hence the Mission Accomplished title the War was given. Now we are there assuring the newly formed "Democracy" is kept in tact. This is to prevent countries such as Iran from invading and allowing terrorist organizations to take control of an entire country. Those of you who think that war was a failure are stupid and need to take some History courses. The fact is, we have a standing military in about 130 countries out of the 170 that exist. I find it funny that none of those crying for us to leave Iraq are doing the same to get us out of the other 129 countries.

Please refrain from using uneducated arguments in defense of your response to this thread, for your own sake.

Again, the Bush Presidency...not a failure. However, he made a shit load of mistakes and some cannot be forgiven, but let Historians determine whether or not he was a failure...the educated ones...

 

Bush is a failure as a president in some areas. War, religion, emergency aftermaths. but yeah.

 

i dont even live in usa, but geogre bush is a failure imo. look at the war in iraq n shit.

 

Not complete i think he did few things right. not many.

 

1. The rich spend more. IE: pay more tax anyway.
2. Trust me... it's not that bad.
4. FEMA
5. No.
6. /agree

 

Bush is doing fine... let him be.

 

agreed. bush should not have won the presidency in the first place, ralph nader was a sad pjer dreaming big and failed, thus f-ing al gore over and allowing a dumb president to run america. gore won the popular vote by 500,000...the people did not want bush in 2001 and they sure as hell dont want him now. to this day more and more people hate america, we are involved in a war to help other people gain freedom when we barely have our own? think of how many right we have given up to protect us from "terrorists." bush=epic fail.