No one can deny that Bush has been a spending whore but if you just take a look at Bush's Presidency you have to factor in what has happened...
1. 2001 Dotcom bubble/Wallstreet Scandals: Market went out of control on overspeculation and rapidly rising tech stocks then eventually plummeted. In addition you had numerous acts of fraud from high profile organizations such as Enron.
2. 911. Our market if based very much on percieved value and we took another huge hit in 2001 when the trade towers went down. This has a huge impact on our nation as well as our economy as we increased spending on national security within our borders and created a new cabinet to oversee our homeland security.
3. Afganistan/Iraq: Afganistan was a direct attack on those who purpotrated the attacks agaisnt us. This campaign was an lage expense, then you had the UN resolution that we followed up on to invade Iraq.
Now factor in these things and you can see how the surplus turned to shit. Through all of these crisis, this president has gotten us through with relatively little impact to our daily lives by yes.... spending a shit ton of money. What were the alternatives? This president has arguably faced more aversity than almost any other president in recent history.
Take a look at this latest crisis and you will see very few democrats agrue with his course of action these past few weeks.
I personlly hate his spending policies, but in the long run, I think W will be remember far better than we think today.
I agree with you that Bush was handed many big moments.
He dug his own grave for his legacy though. Why was he cutting trillions in taxes when that money was needed to meet the demands of 9/11 and his illegal war of choice in Iraq? Why was he kneecapping the government right out of the gate?
