Just How Responsible Is George W. Bush For The State We Are In?

A Comprehensive View of the ongoing Debate

Written by Oxana Tsirelman, Staff Writer

It’s fair to say that George W. Bush left a lot of controversy in his wake when he stepped down and denounced presidency.

Vanity Fair staff writer Joseph E. Stiglitz affirms that “The next president will have to deal with yet another crippling legacy of George W. Bush: the economy. A Nobel laureate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, sees a generation-long struggle to recoup.”

Ladies and gentlemen, when you recall George W. Bush, what things come to mind? The war in Iraq and his alleged damage to the American economy are just a few things to the laundry list about him. A poll determines as a scapegoat for America’s current crippled economic state more so than Barak Obama.

Sabrina Siddiqui from the Huffington Post asserts that “The poll, released by Gallup Thursday, showed that 68 percent of Americans place either a great deal or moderate amount of economic blame on Bush, whereas 52 percent blame Obama. Republicans more universally ascribe the bad economy to the incumbent president, with 83 percent holding Obama responsible and 49 percent attributing the same level of blame to Bush.”

“An overwhelming 90 percent of Democrats still blame Bush for the nation’s economic problems, as opposed to only 10 percent who place blame on Obama, showing that Republicans are far more willing to hold Bush responsible than Democrats are willing to blame Obama” Sabrina adds.

George W. Bush left presidency and left a volatile economic state in his wake, so it’s important to understand the mistakes that were made. After all, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it right? Bush summed up the events leading up to this economic crisis by saying, “Wall Street got drunk and we got a hangover.” Not only does this has an element of humor and truth to it but “It also reveals how little the President comprehends about the source of his Administration’s economic undoing. To extend his metaphor, who does Mr. Bush think was serving the liquor?” says an article online in the Wall Street Journal.

That’s a very good question, and it’s up for debate. We will never fight our way out of this economic crisis until we identify and understand the underlying root of the problem, and whether Bush indeed had anything to do with it or he merely got caught in a problem that was already raging.


While some people like to claim that Bush put an end to America’s golden years, evidence reveals that Bush actually inherited this disaster. “The dot-com bubble had burst in 2000, and the economy was sinking even before the shock of 9/11, the corporate scandals and Sarbanes-Oxley. Mr. Bush’s original tax-cut proposal was designed in part as insurance against such a downturn” explains the article on Wall Street Journal.

Hopefully, I was able to get you to see both sides of the story. Bottom line, this recession is not one sided! Bush isn’t the sole perpetrator of the state we’re in; we have a hand to play in it too. No one is perfect, remember that (and that includes Bush!).

Sources:

- The WallStreet Journal 
- Vanityfair
- TIME

ARB Team

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