Larry Gellman: Bush's Worst Legacy

Larry Gellman in the Huffington Post writes : Bush's Worst Legacy -- The Desecration of "Patriotism". He starts off with a pretty good list of Bush's worst failures:

"After all, he is the president who decided to invade Iraq for reasons that all proved to be false and then proceeded to mismanage that war horribly. With the help of a Republican Congress he proceeded to take the country from a budget surplus to a multi-trillion dollar deficit which our children and grandchildren will have to deal with. He shredded the Constitution as he eliminated the rights of habeas corpus and gave himself the right to spy on American citizens in unprecedented ways for any or no reason at all. In addition, he destroyed our reputation and credibility in the world by presiding over agencies that use torture and treat prisoners in ways that Americans never have in the past. Before Bush, we could rightfully claim to be a moral country that refused to torture and demean people in the same ways as those countries we have criticized in the past. No more."

It is a good list but I have some quibbles. Torture doesn't just destroy our reputation, we've violated the Geneva Convention. I'd also list politicizing the government in violation of federal law. It's hard to make the federal government even more dysfunctional, but Bush has done it.

Gellman also mixes up deficit and debt. Bush inherited a $5.7 trillion debt, it's now $9.5 trillion. The latest estimate I've seen for the deficit is from Bush's OMB: "The Federal budget deficit is now estimated to fall to $205 billion in 2007, a reduction of $43 billion or 18 percent from last year." I believe the 2006 deficit number of $248 billion is an actual number (not estimated) number. This was an interesting table National debt by U.S. presidential terms.

Here's a depressing thing I came across: "Both Vice President Gore and Gov. Bush agree that the total surplus will top $4.56 trillion by 2010. Both also agree that some of the surplus should be used to pay off the national debt, some to shore up Social Security, and some given back to us in the form of tax cuts and credits. Mr. Bush says his formula would pay off the national debt by 2016. Mr. Gore says he can pay that debt by 2012."

Getting back to Gellman, instead of the above he argues, "A strong case could be made for each of these damaging missteps to be designated as the worst. But my vote has to go to the way in which Mr. Bush has twisted the meaning of 'patriotism' and turned a powerful important concept into an empty and meaningless slogan." He goes on and makes an interesting case.