Becoming His Father

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Becoming His Father
by James Hall, Senior Associate Editor

October 2, 2002

"Leaning Left"

James Hall "There's some rough spots in our economy." --- President George W. Bush

It's called "becoming our parents," and it's something we all fear, at least a little. As we age, we start looking more like Dad or Mom, or adopt a tone of voice or expression that reminds us of a parent. It's as if there's no free will, no choice we can make to be different, be ourselves, or at least dodge our parents' worst mistakes.

Perhaps it's inevitable that we recapitulate our parents' lives. We take up the same tasks our parents undertook---raising children, holding down a job, paying bills, and we adopt the attitudes and practices our parents had that we could never understand or agree with when we were children.

Occasionally we realize that despite our best intentions, we're on the same path to trouble that our parents have taken before us. Increasingly it appears that this is happening to President George W. Bush as he recapitulates his father's short career as president.

President George H. W. Bush's expertise was foreign affairs, a skill honed by years as Ambassador to China and the UN and as Director of the CIA. The 41st President was always more comfortable dealing with a series of foreign problems that included the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Israel/Palestinian conflict, and what became the centerpiece of his administration, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

Domestically, Bush 41 was far less experienced. Many of his actions were moderate and isolated him from his conservative base. He made a budget deal with Congress to lower increasing budget deficits, but this involved him breaking his "no new taxes" pledge. He kept insisting the economy was all right, would improve, and if we just made things better for the wealth class, benefits would "trickle down" to the middle and lower classes. But they never did. During his watch, the economy went into a recession and it didn't come out until the year after he was defeated.

His son, George W. Bush, the 43rd President, took great pains when he entered office to be a different George Bush. His campaign was heavy on domestic issues, including a tax cut, Social Security reform, and a prescription drugs benefit for seniors. On foreign policy the new Bush was cautious, pulling back from Clinton's personal involvement in the Arab-Israeli peace process, decrying "nation-building" and American involvement in foreign wars.

9/11 changed all that. George W. Bush suddenly found himself commander-in-chief of a war against terrorism. He found himself building coalitions like his father, building a nation in Afghanistan, and eventually he ended up wanting to finish his father's unfinished business in Iraq.

Like his dad after Desert Storm, the new Bush is deservedly popular for his efforts to combat al-Qaeda. He's banking on that popularity to expand the war to Saddam Hussein and Iraq. But also like his father, he's taken his eye off of the domestic problems of the nation to prosecute these wars overseas.

There's a crisis of confidence in the American economy. In September, the US stock market dropped 13%, the worst loss since 1937, and had its worst quarter since 1987, during the tenure of Bush 41. For the first time since 1993, the number of people below the poverty line increased significantly. The average American family has lost $1,000 dollars in annual income in the past two years. A million Americans lost their health care insurance last year, and now over 41 million Americans have no health insurance, putting them one serious illness from bankruptcy.

The new Bush hasn't kept his promise to make Social Security solvent, nor has he delivered a prescription drug program for America's seniors. The national budget has begun to show a series of budget deficits, due in part to the declining economy, in part to the Bush tax cuts. Government expenses for needed homeland security are up, and the war on Iraq will cost the taxpayers at least $100 billion if we can't get the rest of the world on board and find some sponsors to underwrite us, as we did for Desert Storm.

In other words, hard times are ahead us of economically if we don't declare war on corporate irresponsibility, on poverty, on the loss of jobs overseas, on mending the holes in the social safety net. President Bush must understand that there are consequences to neglecting these battles to fight wars overseas.

In 1990, President George H. W. Bush won victory abroad against Iraq, led a world coalition, but let his economy and domestic programs lag at home. The result was a victory by Bill Clinton in 1992. In 2002, President George W. Bush is winning the fight against al-Qaeda and will likely win a bloody and expensive confrontation with Saddam Hussein. Meanwhile his domestic agenda is on hold and the economy is in a freefall.

Has George W. Bush become his father, after all? ***

Photo of the author courtesy of staff files
Photo of President George W. Bush (R-TX) courtesy of the Associated Press