How long will it take to repair the damge to America done by the Bush regime

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Kramerman


just becasue you are cynical, doesnt mean Bush has no vision. Could there ever be a president that would please you?

McCain, Liebermann, Edwards, Bob Kerrey, Nickles, hell, even Bush sr. - I could come up with quite a few, from both parties.

Bush having a vision isn't a problem - he had lots of them in the 60's, no doubt. It's the content of the vision, and it's correlation to the harsh realities of this universe, where things get to be sticky.

[el freako]

Originally posted by DanS
ef: I would be interested in how that number is disaggregated.

Military Equipment: $80.8bn
(Purchase of ships, planes, tanks, electronics, software etc)

Wages: $102.1bn for military personnel, $52.3bn for civilian

Research & Development: $42bn

Consumables: $11.5bn
(Fuel, Ammunition etc)

Rest: $158.8bn
This is mainly 'services' such as Support of Weapons, Installations & Personel, Transport. It also includes Investment in Structures

[Richard Bruns]

Re: How long will it take to repair the damge to America done by the Bush regime

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
The economy's in the tank. Okay, that's not really his fault, up to a point. However, two of his policies were terrible for the economy.

Tax cuts usually cause short term pain in exchange for long term gain. By lowering the cost of investment and doing business, they expand the economy and allow the government to collect more taxes long term. The tax revenues enjoyed in the 90´s were at least partially the result of Reagan´s tax cuts. Of course, the person who is in office 10 years form now will get credit for any possible good results of this tax cut.

War fears will of course cause short term economic loss. But look to the long term. If this war is really about imperialism and oil, as the lefties and anti-americans claim, them we will come out of it sitting on and controlling huge reserves. That has to be good for the economy. (I don´t believe that the war is about oil, but if you do you must concede that oil would make us rich if we really were to be imperialists.)

Two, Bush has almost completely destroyed America's relationship with the rest of the world.

No arguments there. While I believe that, legalistically, we are entirely correct and justified in most of our actions, the handling of it has been atrocious. The Kyoto Protocol is a pile of garbage, but we could have pulled out of it a but more diplomatically. Same with the current mess, current resolutions and treaties give us the legal right to attack but the diplomacy has been horrible.

But I think that the long-term damage will be surprisingly small, since most of the anti-Americanism is actually anti-Bush sentiment, which will go away when he does.

Three, civil rights:

I heard all of the same things when Clinton passed his anti-terrorism bill, except of course back them the right-wingers were the ones complaining about the abuses of government power. We didn´t turn into a police state then, and I don´t think we will now. But maybe I´m just the proverbial frog in the pot. Only time will tell.

I supported McCain, by the way.

edit: typos

[DuncanK]

Re: Re: How long will it take to repair the damge to America done by the Bush regime

Originally posted by Richard Bruns
By lowering the cost of investment and doing business, they expand the economy and allow the government to collect more taxes long term. The tax revenues enjoyed in the 90´s were at least partially the result of Reagan´s tax cuts.

No, interest rates (cost of investment) increase. Furthermore, deficits cost in the long run because the government has to pay interest on the debt.

[BunnyGrrl]

Originally posted by DuncanK
And I doubt if China will ever reach the economic strength that people are assuming they will. They have serious problems. I'm suprised they have made it this far.

I think China's government is too paranoid to let China really become the humongous world power people are predicting. It's hard to maintain a rigid dictatorship and be a major world player. I think the Soviet Union got "lucky" because of timing.





*edit for typos

[Sava]

BunnyGrrl SIGHTING!! +1

When Bush is voted out in 2004, the economy will really recover once the government gets rid of all his stupid tax cuts and start showing surpluses again. I just feel sorry for whoever is going to be in office 2004 because he'll have to call up all the world leaders and say, "Sorry about that other guy. We're under new management now."

[BunnyGrrl]

Originally posted by Sava
BunnyGrrl SIGHTING!! +1

I just feel sorry for whoever is going to be in office 2004 because he'll have to call up all the world leaders and say, "Sorry about that other guy. We're under new management now."

Maybe they can send apple pies. mcd's usually have a two for one deal.

[Sava]

Nah, McDonalds are everywhere now. Maybe we can send them something from Wendy's 99cent menu.

[MRT144]

FROSTY UBER ALLES!

[Spiffor]

It will be easy to heal the wounds Bush inflicted to US relations with other governments. It will be much more difficult and long to heal the wounds Bush inflicted to the US image in the world's population. Not everyone is eager to agree the sheer arrogance and bloodthirstiness he showed was a feat of his administration, rather than America.
A very long and efficient PR campaign will be needed to restore the image of America as the country of the "good guys".
Only Americans believe they are the good guys now.

[Arrian]

Economy: as Che said, not Bush's fault, but he isn't helping. I'd agree with that assessment.

International Relations: So-so policy, terrible execution of that policy. The Bushies essentially gave the rest of the world the finger.

Civil Liberties: Now that we're out of 9/11 shock, I think we will see more and more opposition to draconian security laws.

-Arrian

[HershOstropoler]

"Now that we're out of 9/11 shock, I think we will see more and more opposition to draconian security laws."

I'm extremely pessimistic (even by my standards) on this. There will be further attacks; I think the Bush admin's policies virtually guarantee something even bigger than 9/11. And then the big question is whether the constitution will go to the shredder (its contents, to be more precise).

[MRT144]

the sad thing is so many people on the right support restrictions of freedom to protect freedom (this was in the words of someone on another forum)

[mindseye]

Great post, Che, dead-on.

The damage to allied relations and antagonizement of the Arab world will be long in healing, as will the swaggering, go-it-alone American charicature-come-true, as others noted.

(Remembering Che furiously ringing the alarm bell about Ashcroft during his nomination..)

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by MRT144
the sad thing is so many people on the right support restrictions of freedom to protect freedom (this was in the words of someone on another forum)

The funny thing is that some of the most extreme conservatives are PO'd about the PATRIOT ACT, including folks like Phyllis Schlaffly (or however it's spelled).