GWB - A Presidency to Forget

Here is a good quick read by Doug Casey summarizing some of the "highlights" of G.W. Bush's presidency.

Baby Bush: The Worst President in History?

Contrary to all the rhetoric in the media, from his oppponents, and even from Mr. Bush himself, this president presided over one of the biggest expansions of government in history. His administration presided over massive increases in spending on social programs, subsidies, corporate bailouts, and no-win wars. There were massive new bureaucracies introduced, more regulations introduced to further burden already beleaguered financial markets , and chilling new intrusions foisted upon people's liberties and privacy.

What is curious to me is that all of this damage was accomplished in the name of such principles as "American values", "free markets", "capitalism", and "conservatism", and fooled many people into believing this is what it looks like when those words are used. Nothing could be further from the truth. After a couple of decades of incremental advances, statism took major steps forward under the G.W. Bush Administration. In the meantime, the springboard was provided for current administration to launch their brand of statist socialism, while proclaiming the failures of liberty, capitalism, and free markets. Unfortunately, that will be Bush's legacy in the end.