January 30, 2009
- Because of President Bush’s determination to keep America safe after 9/11, the Bush doctrine was born. We would not wait to be attacked again. The United States would go on the offense and stop our enemies before they had a chance to kill us again.
- Liberation of Afghanistan from the Taliban, and helped establish a democracy.
- Liberation 25 million Iraqis from the dictator of Saddam Hussein.
- Captured Saddam Hussein and placed him on trial for the brutal murder of his own people.
- Reorganized the Department of Justice and the FBI to focus on preventing terrorism.
- Created the National Counterterrorism Center, where personnel from Federal, State, and local departments and agencies work side by side to track terrorist threat reporting and prevent new attacks.
- Captured Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the master mind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on our country.
- Worked with Congress to enact the USA PATRIOT Act – breaking down barriers that had prevented America’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies from sharing vital information on terrorist threats.
- Secured Congressional approval of legislation allowing our intelligence community to effectively monitor foreign terrorist communications – to help us learn who the terrorists are talking to and what they are planning.
- Secured Congressional approval of the Military Commissions Act so that captured terrorists acto justice for their acts.
- Doubled the number of Border Patrol agents to more than 18,000, and increased their funding by more than 60 percent.
- Disrupted terrorist plots and built a coalition of more than 90 nations to fight terrorism.
- Secured a commitment from North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program.
- Persuaded Libya to disclose and dismantle all aspects of its WMD and advanced missile programs and renounce terrorism.
- Withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and operationalized missile defense to keep America safe.
- Dismantled the A.Q. Khan nuclear proliferation network.
- Halved the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile five years ahead of schedule.
- Helped save millions of lives through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the President’s Malaria Initiative.
- Committed $350 million over five years to treat more than 300 million • people suffering from seven neglected tropical diseases and became the first, and largest, contributor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
- Provided more than $16 billion for global food aid and more than $10 billion for disaster relief and other humanitarian efforts worldwide since 2001.
- Held public schools accountable, through the No Child Left Behind Act, for producing results for all students and required highly-qualified teachers in every classroom.
- Increased the size of college Pell Grants to an all-time high and nearly doubled support for the Pell Grant program.
- Provided more than 40 million Americans with better access to prescription drugs through the market-based Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit.
- Created USA Freedom Corps following 9/11 to help Americans volunteer to serve causes greater than themselves.
- Helped millions in need by expanding partnerships with nonprofits and leveling the playing field for faith-based and community organizations.
- Reduced the number of homeless veterans by nearly 40 percent from 2001 to 2007.
- Helped make broadband access available in 99 percent of America’s zip codes.
- Created a new National Space Policy to ensure the continued free access and use of space for peaceful purposes and to help advance America’s economic competitiveness.
- Killed the silly Kyoto Global Warming Treaty.
- rovided more than $6.5 billion to repair and improve our national parks, launched the National Parks Centennial Initiative, and established the Preserve America Initiative with First Lady Laura Bush to protect our cultural and natural heritage.
- Protected the right to vote for generations to come by reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act and advanced civil rights.
- Rescued more than 575 children from sexual exploitation, arrested and convicted thousands of suspects, and helped recover nearly 400 missing children since 2002 by strengthening the AMBER Alert program.
- Enacted the Do Not Call List, which 145 million Americans have utilized to reduce unwanted telemarketing calls.
- Outlawed partial birth abortion, ensured that every infant born alive is protected, established consequences for violence toward unborn children, and took steps to protect the rights of health care providers to act according to their conscience.
- First president to provided government funding for stem cell research while refusing to sanction the destruction of human life.
- Prohibited foreign nongovernmental organizations that receive U.S. tax dollars for family planning from performing or actively promoting abortion.
- By Executive Order (EO), reversed Clinton’s policy of not requiring parental consent for abortions under the Medical Privacy Act.
- Appointed Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito, and more than one-third of all active Federal judges, who will not legislate from the bench.
- See: Bush’s Achievements
- See: Environmental Accomplishments
Posted in Politics | Tagged Accomplishments, George W. Bush, President Bush, War on Terror |
Do you ever do any research on these or do you just recycle Bushco press releases and conservative blog spin?
For example:
1) Pell Grants – The “Expansion” to an all time high amounted to a $500 increase in the maximum amount available; done by squeezing the rate at which banks who fund them can make. They are now deemed so unprofitable that only a handfull of banks now make Pell grant money available. So, while he increased the size of the funding available to students, his method of funding them actually significantly limited their availablity.
When Pell grants were first introduced (by Senator Pell, of course), they financed about 60% oof the cost of a year in college; they now fund a little less than 33% of the average yearly cost of a college education.
2) Stem cell research – Actually, the first funding of stem cell research by the federal government was done in 1993 by President Clinton, coming out of the National Institute of Health Revitalization Act. Congress overrode this 2 years later by passing what was known as the Dickey Ammendment which outlawed Federal funding of stem cell research. President Bush vetoed a law that would overturn the Dickey ammendment. When he agreed to fund stem cell research, that you point out as an accomplishment, he actually limted funding to 16 stem cell “lines” that were already in existence; not to new lines.
3) Secured a commitment from North Korea to end its nuclear arms program – So did President Clinton, only to have PRK renege when they wanted attention or more concessions. Read the paper lately? They’ve already renounced the deal they made with Bushco.
4) Secured Congressional Approval of the Military Commissions Acts to bring terrorists to justice – Only to have it ruled unconstitutional THREE times by the Supreme Court, where it stands now (2004, 2006, 2008).
5) Killed the silly Kyoto Global Warming Treaty…………how about giving us one example of success the Bush Administration has done that has a positive effect on man made global warming impact, rather than effectively killing the only world organized effort to address this very real problem.
And on and on and on………….
There are some very positive items on your list that Bushco should get kudos for, like the amount of AIDS preventative foreigh aid to Africa, No Child left behind, and a few more. But when you make list that’s simply a Karl Rove type propganda statment, it tarnishes the whole list.
made global warming is a myth.
http://electjeff.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/the-planet-is-not-going-anywhere/
[...] View post: Accomplishments of President George W. Bush « Elect Jeff [...]
Full marks for diligence. But an E minus for… what’s the word? err… truth. Even the most pro-Bush neocon loons, not to mention Bush himself, are now admitting he f***ed up royally. Are you Barbara Bush?
Proof of such claim?
Proof? Ask anyone who’s living in the real world as opposed to an ideological construct by Rush Limbaugh. Here’s your hero admitting some failures (remember?) http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/13/bush-admits-mistakes-defends-record/
You’re beginning to sound like one of those Japanese soldiers they kept finding on remote islands after the war who were still fighting WWII. Admit it: your guy screwed up and will go down in history as one of America’s worst presidents. Admit it, move on!
I’d still like you to prove some of the claims on your list that I disputed.
Did you actually read the article, or was the headline all you needed? Of course, every President makes mistakes, are you so foolish not to understand this?
President Bush could have reacted better to Hurricane Katrina, but the state and local government need to take the majority of the blame for that debacle. The mayor letting all those school buses just sit there instead of using them to evacuate residents was disgusting.
The President is dead on when he said, “You know, I remember going to see those helicopter drivers, Coast Guard divers, to thank them for their courageous efforts to rescue people off roofs — 30,000 people were pulled off roofs right after the storm moved through. That’s a pretty quick response.”" (link)
President Bush will be remembered as the man who brought freedom to two countries who had previously been ruled by ruthless dictators. As a man who was the commander in chief during one of the worst terrorist attacks on our country. Any response he took would have pissed off the Democrats and their partners in the mainstream media.
The article you listed as a great quote from him:
“One thing about the presidency is that you can only make decisions based on the information at hand,” Mr. Bush said. “You don’t get to have information after you make the decision – that’s not the way it works. And you stand by your decisions and you explain why you made the decisions you made.”
Its real easy to look back and say he should have done this or he should have done that. When you look at everything Bush accomplished, it’s hard not to see his administration as anything but a glowing success.
Chip –
1) Your quote, “So, while he increased the size of the funding available to students” – that is all I said.
2) Right not new lines that would have come from murdered babies. Problem?
3) I’ve found new paper that says NK has renounced the deal. Have a Link?
4) The accomplishment was he got congressional approval for the Military Commission Act. And Boumediene v. Bush split down ideological lines with Kennedy joining the liberal justices.
The dissent speaks loudly the danger of the Supreme Court’s decision:
“Today, for the first time in our Nation’s history, the Court confers a constitutional right to habeas corpus on alien enemies detained abroad by our military forces in the course of an ongoing war.”
5) No such thing as “man made global warming.”
“The mayor letting all those school buses just sit there instead of using them to evacuate residents was disgusting.”
Err… there were no drivers for the buses because they’d fled the city. Would you stick around for a hurricane and put your family at risk for whatever salary a New Orleans bus driver got back in 2004?
“President Bush will be remembered as the man who brought freedom to two countries who had previously been ruled by ruthless dictators.”
More than 100,000 dead in Iraq, more than 2 million refugees, Afghanistan on the verge of being retaken by the Taliban… blah blah. That’s what your crock of s*** president will be remembered for.
“Any response he took would have pissed off the Democrats and their partners in the mainstream media.”
At least read the comments you automatically disagree with before automatically disagreeing with them. If Bush had actually gone out and caught the guy responsible for killing thousands of Americans, that would have been something liberals and everybody else could have got behind.
Really, are you genuinely this stupid or is this blog some kind of elaborate practical joke?
Did you read what he wrote Fried? Jeff’s point is we did catch the man, “responsible for killing thousands of Americans” when they caught Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
I had never heard of him, if you google him you’ll see he was the guy who virtually planned the entire 9/11 attacks. OBL may get credit, but it looks like it was Mohammed’s brain child.
His wikipedia page
Oh big whuptidoo. We caught the regional manager and let the president and CEO go free. There can be no argument: Bin Laden is free, al Qaeda is as strong as ever, their stated goals have been achieved, Iraq and Afghanistan are f***ed up. You might try to stretch points, exaggerate successes and downplay failures but the truth is not subjective. Bush framed his entire presidency around the war on terror and he failed.
BTW, try asking anyone who lost friends or family members on 9-11 what they think of George Bush and the way he handled things over the past 8 years. If you don’t know anyone, I could send you a few email addresses and let you try to convince them Bush was a success.
When I read your list of accomplishments, I am reminded of the Texas Representative who, out to prove his Legislature rarely read anything before it, offered a resolution praising Albert de Salvo for his work on population control in Boston; De Salvo, of course, being the Boston Strangler. Your list of “accomplishments” has that strong backdoor flavor.
Please help me see the accomplishment in expanding the Pell Grants in name only…………how so very political to claim it an accomplishment.……………when the de facto effect was to make it more difficult for under privileged kids to access them?
Stem cell research is not murdering babies, but I will allow your opinion is not too bizarrely out of some level of mainstream. However, it’s hard to square that opinion by putting on a list of accomplishments that Bush was the first to fund stem cell research……….an erroneous statement as I have shown………as if he moved the ball forward on something you principly disagree with. Should that, if true, be on his list of failures for you? By the way, you should research the position of one of the Republican/Conservative’s own hero, Nancy Reagan, has on stem cell research.
Jeff, link to PRK as requested:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aUEuuYF2.0Lg&refer=home
All Supreme Court decisions have dissenting opinions; not really relevant as it’s the majority that determines what’s constitutional or not. Personally, I had a strong dissenting opinion on Bush V Gore, 2000, but it didn’t change anything. So it is in a “country of laws”. So, basically, the accomplishment here is that Bushco couldn’t slide anything related to Guantanamo past constitutionality.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2004/2004-07-09-10.asp
Interesting article on Bush’s approach to science in his Administration
Jeff, I do want to acknowledge that you’ve started to do some research; research you should have done before simply publishing a Press Release list of accomplishments Karl Rove probably authored. I do acknowledge there are some good things you can say about the Bush Administration…………..just not that list of a fine grade of manure you published.
I will start by saying im not a fan of G.W. Bush but to say he is the worse president is not true and time will tell. I just want to point out one fact you listed i would consider a tremendous failure. I teach math at a medium size highschool and the no child left behind does exactly what he wanted it to do but in the wrong way. What it does is push kids through school regardless of their grades/accomplishments/attendance/etc. Im sure seeing an increase in graduates rise, say from 60% to 100% would sound great but what is the cost? They are not learning, they are not attending, but they are getting a diploma. Does that make sense? NO, but thats what Bush’s No Child left behind has done to our school system.