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The Jobs President

I highly recommend reading the transcript of Bush's interview with Tim Russert on Meet the Press today. It offered a glimpse of the president's strategy for how he'll deal with his horrendous record during the upcoming campaign. Russert questioned him on several issues, including Iraq, the economy, his military service, and the 2004 election.

One thing of note is the degree to which I think Bush seemed uncomfortable. Many responses began with some bit of stuttering, as if he was trying to remember the spin he's been taught to respond with (unfortunately, the transcript doesn't show this). Most questions were not actually answered, but used as an opportunity to blab the White House line. There were a couple of instances of followup by Russert, but, for the most part, he let the non-answers go. When is someone going to ask this man a question and keep on him until he actually answers it?

The blogosphere will be tearing this transcript apart all day I suspect. I decided to pick just one section I haven't seen covered yet, and offer a few thoughts.

When asked a question about how he can call himself a fiscal conservative when he's run up the largest deficit in history, he said the following (quotes are in boxes). I interject my comments inline:

Russert: But your base conservatives and listen to Rush Limbaugh, the Heritage Foundation, CATO Institute, they're all saying you are the biggest spender in American history.

President Bush: Well, they're wrong.

Russert: Mr. President

President Bush: If you look at the appropriations bills that were passed under my watch, in the last year of President Clinton, discretionary spending was up 15 percent, and ours have steadily declined.

Aha. The 'ol blame-it-on-Clinton trick. Except, oops. Clinton created a surplus to work with, not the worlds largest deficit. And, this is wrong anyway...federal discretionary spending is up over 25% the last two years. It rose an average of 2% a year during the 1990's.

And the other thing that I think it's important for people who watch the expenditures side of the equation is to understand we are at war, ...

Russert: That's a very important point. Every president since the Civil War who has gone to war has raised taxes, not cut them.

President Bush: Yeah.

Russert: Raised to pay for it. Why not say, I will not cut taxes any more until we have balanced the budget? If our situation is so precious and delicate because of the war, why do you keep cutting taxes and draining money from the treasury?

President Bush: Well, because I believe that the best way to stimulate economic growth is to let people keep more of their own money. And I believe that if you raise taxes as the economy is beginning to recover from really tough times, you will slow down economic growth. You will make it harder.

He means the best way for him to keep his job is to make sure his contributors get to keep more of their money. The best way to ruin the economy is to make sure we expand the already all-time record deficit and play accounting tricks (like not including the war costs in the budget) to ensure the goverment will be bankrupt in twenty years. We can't have a war, and a tax cut, and increased spending--all at the same time.

See, I'm more worried about the fellow looking for the job. That's what I'm worried about. I want people working. I want people to find work. ...

Then the loss of 2.5 million jobs, the most since Hoover, would be a good indication that Bush is not capable of following up on his 'worries,' I guess.

Russert: How about no more tax cuts until the budget is balanced?

President Bush: Well, that's a hypothetical question which I can't answer to you because I don't know how strong the economy is going to be.

Uh, I thought the economy was recovering--that the president was in control of these things. How about "no more tax cuts if we don't know how strong the economy will be?"

I mean, the President must keep all options on the table, but I do know that raising the child lowering the child credit thereby raising taxes on working families does not make sense when the economy is recovering, and that's exactly what some of them are calling for up on Capitol Hill. They want to raise taxes of the families with children, they want to increase the marriage penalty.

Here he goes again. 'Don't let those democrats take away the measly little credit we gave them! Even though most of my tax cuts went to the wealthy, and the likely nominee won't rescind the middle-class tax cuts, I'm telling you...you'll be in the poorhouse without me!' State budgets across the country are strapped, sucking more money in taxes and services. The few hundred dollars people supposedly save (without a child you don't necessarily get any relief) doesn't make up for the 2.5 million jobs lost, the higher healthcare costs, the higher tuition at state universities, etc...

He's going to do his best to spin the economy (its growing--you just can't tell yet); the WMD issue (the commission hasn't released its report yet); his military service (if you can find the records, then sure, you can read them, but nobody can find them); and any other criticism of his decisions (its politics at its worst--I'm a uniter, not a divider). Time will tell whether the media reveals the truth behind the spin, or helps to support it.

Posted on February 8, 2004 11:27 AM

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Tracked on February 8, 2004 05:59 PM