Interesting posts on Bush's efforts to shape the future of US economics

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(Posted on 9/11/14 at 10:51 pm by BennyAndTheInkJets)

I think they'll look to reform entitlements gradually over time through various add on amendments to various seemingly unexciting bill and debates (i.e. highway bills, etc.), with potentially it coming to a head at some point due to lack of political willpower. They've had chances here and there to make actual changes. Presidents get much more blame than they ever really deserve, but one thing I legitimately hold against Bush Jr. Was not taking a shot at entitlement reform in '04-'06, he had a clear mandate and all of Congress. Instead they decided against it because they didn't want to use theor political capital on it. frick.

End result is I'm 50/50 on expecting to receive a dime of social security by the time I'm hopefully old enough to recieve it. I think they'll eventually have to taper out, outright cut, or do some sort of freeze on plans as time goes on with some sort of tax hike and spending cuts. It'll be gradual, piecemeal, and very ugly. But we'll churn on. Not because it's not a big deal, but because other countries will likely have worse problems. Also, technology will continue to mask these issues as living conditions globally will generally improve. So the end result is people still calling for the sky to fall, while "quality of life" will continue to generally improve. By quality I life am referring to technology and health care, personal quality is very ambiguous.

The bigger issue in the US is education. I believe that's by far our biggest issue. Entitlements are #2 but manageable at this point in time. Every day we don't make needed improvements to our education system is a day we lose potential ground globally. If we continue on our trend here for the next 20-30 years then I will be as pessimistic or more than anyone in this thread.

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(Posted by DocFenton on 9/11/14 at 11:48 pm to BennyAndTheInkJets)

Well first, I assume you mean 2005-07, which were years of nearly complete gridlock on Capitol Hill when it took serious logrolling to even continue war funding. But that's not the main point.

To this day, no President has ever done more to try to transform the federal entitlement problem than Bush. Not only did he do it, but he spent the first 6 years of his presidency attacking this problem on every major front--education, health care, Social Security, & immigration.

In every single case, he went beyond the headline grabbing issues that get superficial talking heads fired up, and sought instead to solve the larger term problems. In every case, he tried to find ways to gradually build greater choice into the system.

The goal of standardized testing for schools was to provide a metric that would allow for increasing voucherization.

The goal for the MMA of 2003 was to build market choice into the system so that eventually the Behemoth of federal health care could be tamed by similar voucherizations. He had to twist every arm to get that bill passed, and it ended up watered down and compromised, but then so did everything else during his terms, because he never had very much solid support from his own party for the things he was trying to do.

He went into 2005 with almost zero public support for Social Security reform, and right from the start, that's what he put all his energy into. It had no traction with his own party, so he had to give it up. Ditto for immigration reform in 2006 & 2007.

I mean, my God, look at some of the GOP senators who were holding that tenuous majority together from 2003 to 2007. There is no way in hell they were ever going to come out in favor of serious entitlement reform.

Meanwhile, there's a couple of wars going on (and thank God we entered the one in Iraq, because the entire world would be shite out of luck right now if we hadn't), a stock bubble to recover from, global warming and campaign finance zealots and corporate governance campaigners in his own party to make compromises with, etc., etc., etc.

In other words, he had no political capital to do anything more than what he was barely able to do as it is. He tried as hard as anybody could possibly imagine a person in that situation doing, and one might even criticizing him for wasting too much effort on trying entitlement reform schemes that had no chance of working.

In any case, in terms of U.S. politicians taking serious steps toward resolving the entitlement behemoth since WWII, there is George W. Bush, there is Paul Ryan, and then there is nobody else. Bush in particular pretty much marched up the hill and stormed the castle without anyone else at his side (outside of people at think tanks) to help him lead the charge. Maybe Hensarling deserves a mention, but I can't really think of anyone else.[

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Couldn't be closer to the truth IMO

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Both were excellent arguments IMO.

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Couldn't be closer to the truth IMO. Many of our schools are broken which leads to drop outs which lead to gov't assistance so it's systemic and will continue until we act.

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So wrong and exactly backwards.

It is not the schools per se that are broken, it is the kids who are broken by bad parenting. We spend oodles of money with little to show for it. I don't think the teacher unions care one bit about the children, but teachers are secondary to the role of parents. Until you fix the entitlement system which rewards bad behavior and parents start instilling an appreciation of learning in their children, the results will never improve. Teachers don't make schools, parents do. Schools don't make dropouts needing government assistance, government assistance makes dropouts.

Besides the tired "it's the parents fault, no it's the teachers fault", how about a new angle?

What about a radical change in curriculum that is more utilitarian?

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but one thing I legitimately hold against Bush Jr. Was not taking a shot at entitlement reform in '04-'06, he had a clear mandate and all of Congress. Instead they decided against it because they didn't want to use theor political capital on it. frick.

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That pisses me off to no end. Repubs that use all the rhetoric of cutting spending and reforming welfare....they get control of all 3 branches of Gov't and do nothing. And they wonder why their base won't turn out and vote for them

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no President has ever done more to try to transform the federal entitlement problem than Bush. Not only did he do it, but he spent the first 6 years of his presidency attacking this problem on every major front--education, health care, Social Security, & immigration.

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WTH? Prescription benefits anyone?

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complete waste of time imo.

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Right. Kind of like a blind man discussing video game graphics?