2007 Was A Good Year For Bush

December 26, 2007 · Filed Under Economy, Opinion, Politics, U.S. News

Larry Kudlow wrote a good piece in today’s Washington Times in which he rightly points out that 2007 has been a pretty good year for President Bush, and a pretty good year for America.

This has been the year of the much maligned “Troop Surge” in Iraq, which thanks to General David Petraeus is succeeding despite the best efforts of Congressional Democrats.

America has yet to be attacked again since 9/11, and that much to the chagrin of many is mainly due to the President’s aggressive War on Terror.

Regardless of what professional haters like Paul Krugman continue to say, the Goldilocks economy truly has performed better than all expectations.

As Larry Kudlow again rightly points out, 2007 looks set to produce 3 percent growth in real gross domestic product, nearly 3 percent growth in consumer spending, and more than 3 percent growth in after-tax inflation-adjusted incomes.

President Bush has successfully stopped the Democrats cold this year from precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, overspending on S-CHIP, and increasing taxes on the American people.

While President Bush apparently misplaced his veto pen during his first term, he has since either found it or been given a new one, because he has not hesitated to veto anything this term, or as Kudlow calls it, “doing God’s work.”

Bush and his Republicans can also take credit for outmaneuvering the Democrats on a patch for the AMT. The Democrats were made to waive the pay-as-you-go budget rule that might have forced tax increases on businesses and investment pools. Stopping this tax hike is a singular Republican achievement, while the AMT will now be indexed for inflation, thereby sparing more than 20 million taxpayers.

Riding high on the successes of 2007, you can look for President Bush to take on Congressional earmarks in 2008, starting with the obscene omnibus spending bill sitting on his desk even as I type this.

A spending bill chalk full of such gems as rodent control in Alaska ($113,000); olive fruit-fly research in France ($213,000); a hunting and fishing museum in Pennsylvania ($200,000); a bike trail in Minnesota ($700,000); a post office museum in Las Vegas ($200,000); and a $2 million monument to Rep. Charlie Rangel in New York.

Many Americans are no doubt suffering from some form of the dreaded “Bush Derangement Syndrome,” but for the unaffected or cured there are many things on a variety of fronts to be thankful for in 2007 and to thank President Bush for.

-Chris Jones