It's Still the Economy, Stupid: George W. Bush, the Gop's CEO

Paul Begala's book, It's STILL the Economy Stupid, is more relevant than ever as we approach the 2004 election. It is clear from his editorializing that Begala is no fan of George Bush, but that shouldn't stop any thinking person who wants to understand who "the only President we have" is and what he stands for from reading this book - Democrat or Republican. The book is well written and well documented. Begala does not make unsupported accusations. He carefully lays out the evidence that makes his case.In this book, Begala goes through Bush's speeches and his record and uncovers a number of disturbing patterns, including George's habit of making promises and then disregarding then days or weeks later and his systematic efforts to cut taxes for ONLY the rich, with the super-rich receiving the vast majority of the benefits.Begala also carefully explains how the Republicans in Congress blocked Clinton's efforts to put reforms in place that would have curbed big business and avoided both the Enron and accounting scandals among others. This was especially interesting to me, as the Republicans have laid the blame for these things at Clinton's feet. Don't take my word for what Begala says. If you want to make an educated choice between Bush and Kerry in November; if you want to understand who you're voting for; if you want to understand the record of the incumbent President, read this book.

Insanity, said Albert Einstein, is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. By this measure, the latest Bush tax cuts qualify as certifiably insane. Where have we seen this deranged fiscal strategy before? Remember Ronald Reagan and Supply Side Economics? In the early 1980s, Reagan promised the nation that if we lowered tax rates on the wealthy, the economy would grow so much the federal budget would be balanced "within three years, maybe even two." Sober people were skeptical-and rightly so. Reagan's Republican opponent for the 1980 presidential election, George H.W. Bush called it "voodoo economics." His own Budget Director, David Stockman, called it a "Trojan horse," a scam intended really to funnel more money to the already rich. Stockman was quickly dismissed.The results, we now know, were a disaster. In 1982, the first full year after the tax cuts were enacted, the economy actually shrank 2.2%, the worst performance since the Great Depression. And the effect on the federal budget was catastrophic. Jimmy Carter's last budget deficit was $77 billion. Reagan's first deficit was $128 billion. His second deficit exploded to $208 billion. By the time the "Reagan Revolution" was over, George H.W. Bush was running an annual deficit of $290 billion per year. Yearly deficits, of course, add up to national debt. When Reagan took office, the national debt stood at $994 billion. When Bush left office, it had reached $4.3 trillion. In other words, the national debt had taken 200 years to reach $1 trillion. Reagan's Supply Side experiment quadrupled it in the next 12 years. Is there anything to compare this to? When Bill Clinton took office he intentionally reversed the Supply Side formula, raising taxes on the wealthy and reducing them on the lowest wage earners. Supply Side true believers predicted the arrival of the Apocalypse. Bob Dole said the stock market would collapse. Newt Gingrich said the world would fall into another Great Depression. What actually happened? Between 1992 and 2000, the U.S. economy produced the longest sustained economic expansion in U.S. history. It created more than 18 million new jobs, the highest level of job creation ever recorded. Inflation fell to 2.5% per year compared to the 4.7% average over the prior 12 years. Real interest rates fell by over 40% producing the greatest housing boom ever. Overall economic growth averaged 4.0% per year compared to 2.8% average growth over the 12 years of the Reagan/Bush administrations. Most impressively, Clinton reversed the mammoth deficits of the Supply Side years, turning them into surpluses. He used these surpluses to begin paying down the national debt. By virtually every meaningful measure-employment, growth, inflation, interest rates, investment, deficits and debt-the economy performed better once the Supply Side experiment was terminated and replaced with a more honest economic policy where we actually pay our bills as we go. This might all be

In this book's most depressing - yet perversely entertaining - passage, Begala provides a shockingly long list of social programs of which George W. Bush has spoken glowingly in public, just before quietly slashing the funding for them. As with most of the "revelations" in this book, those hypocrisies will come as no surprise to anyone who has followed Bush closely, yet you would have to have read the papers very carefully in order to have been aware of them. Such is the paradox of Bush's presidency thus far: he's always had to lie about his record and his stances on the issues in order to remain popular, but the supposedly "liberal" media has condoned - and often even repeated - those lies so consistently as to keep his popularity at record levels throughout much of his term. It's too bad that a book like this is necessary, given that most of the information it provides is a matter of public record and it's in the best interest of most Americans to be aware of it. But as long as the mainstream media continues to shill for Bush, this is probably the single best current source of the truth about his record in office to date.If you're reading this review, you've probably read at least one previous book by Begala or his "Crossfire" partner, James Carville, in which case you know what to expect (unless, of course, you're just here to provide a one-star review with some inarticulate whining about communism). Begala picks up roughly where he left off in "Is Our Children Learning." Where that book (which I also highly recommend) revealed the ugly truth about Bush's record as governor of Texas and as a businessman before entering politics, this one does the same with his first two years as president. Hit especially hard are some of Bush's more inept aides and cabinet members, including the recently departed Paul O'Neill. (The book was published before O'Neill's resignation, but Begala's indictment of his performance makes it clear that he should never have been appointed to begin with.) There is somewhat less overt bashing of Bush himself than last time, but Begala, a former Clinton adviser, never misses an opportunity to compare his former boss favorably to Bush on policy matters. Also, his debunking of the argument that the Monica Lewinsky affair was somehow responsible for the rash of corporate scandals in the past year may be stating the obvious, but it's nonetheless a joy to read in detail just how absurd that idea really is.Begala sticks mostly to economics and environmental issues in his criticism, so those who are mostly interested in cultural issues might find the book less interesting. Additionally, he lashes out more than once at Nader voters in his narrative, but he's hardly alone within the moderate left in his feelings on that matter. While the attitude he presents is unlikely to heal any remaining fissures among progressive voters, his work is still a nice dose of reality for the "not a dime's worth of difference" crowd.Until

When George Bush took the oath of office under extremely controversial circumstances, I was prepared to give him a lot of slack. I think he handled the tragic events of 9/11 very well (although, seriously, wouldn't any president have acted the same way...even a Carter or Ford? I think so), but I haven't been impressed by anything he's done other than that. This book helped me understand why.One of the reasons I respect Begala's work is because he documents his sources so well. Virtually every paragraph is footnoted to a credible (repeat...credible) media source (often a conservative one) or official U.S. government entity. I have checked out many of these sources myself...and they're accurate. That's what makes me appreciate Mr. Begala's book so much.Apart from the accuracy of his information, it's a darn good read. Funny, angry and fast-moving. It's the straw that broke this reader's back in terms of no longer giving the Bush administration the benefit of the doubt. I now believe that everything that was said about Bush being a devious lightweight is frighteningly true. The one exception would be his flawless ability to say "yes" to any corporation who will line his party's pockets (the Democrats, to be sure, are not immune from this themselves, but I've never seen a president jettison the well-being of the population as a whole with such reckless abandon...and lie about it so often, as Begala painstakingly documents).This is a book that needed to be written, yet I fear it only scratches the surface. I look forward to Mr. Begala's next book.

Interesting reviews here from several people who would like us to believe they read the book. Let's see, whose word are you going to take--An admittedly biased author, who nonetheless did research, makes convincing arguments, doesn't mince facts, and includes pages upon pages of footnotes to support his assertions......Or the predictable parroting of the "blame Clinton at all costs because we know George W. Bush is an incompetent fraud but at least he's Republican" crowd?By the way, yes the economy started going South during Clinton's last year. The economy is driven by EXPECTATIONS. Investors began hitting the brakes when Al Gore was getting flakey and it seemed like Bush had a chance to win (which he didn't, but he came close enough to be able to fraudulently manipulate his way into office). As you know, he promised a "new direction" away from Clinton's economic policies and he's delivered--no big surprise there! Hey, the rest of us told you so! The economy was due for a correction anyway, but not the drastic drop and recession that came about because of the Bush regime's calculated bungling. If you support the "party of personal responsibility", rather than blaming Clinton you should take the opportunity to blame Bush (and yourselves for backing him).I've read some of this book in the store. I give it 5 stars based on an incomplete read to balance out at least one of the uninformed 1-star votes.