posted on July 8, 2004 11:57:19 PM newOn Bush....he may not have had much success in business...I'm not real familiar with all his business dealings....but he was a successful governor of Texas.
Bush did, indeed, have high approval ratings while governor of Texas. But popularity doesn't always equate with success. Bush brags about his successes in education while governor of Texas---turns out his brag is based on lies and exaggerations: http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=181 "Bush released an ad May 12 claiming "dramatic results" from his Texas school reforms and touting his "No Child Left Behind" law as "the most significant education reforms in 35 years." But some of those Texas claims were scaled back last year after school officials were shown to be fudging the numbers to disguise high drop-out rates. And many state officials are complaining that Bush's policies impose expensive new requirements without a large enough increase in federal aid to pay for them...."
"Environmentalists point to the fact that during Bush's tenure, Texas has achieved the dubious distinction, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, of having the dirtiest air in America, of ranking 47th in water quality, and having the seventh-highest rate of release of toxic industrial byproducts onto its land..."
Bush didn't do all that well in regards to taxes as governor, either:
http://www.ctj.org/pdf/bush.pdf (read the whole thing, makes interesting reading) "Response to Bush’s plan was nearly universally critical. Columnist Dave McNeely said
Texans’ responses to Bush’s tax plan “ranged from muted applause to obscene gestures” [Austin American-Statesman 3/2/97]. “This looks like a sinking missile,” political analyst Harvey Kronberg predicted. “What the governor tried to do is ambitious, but mechanically he can’t get there” [Dallas Morning News 2/21/97]. ...As for reform: In 1995, Bush came to the governorship of a state with one of the most regressive tax systems in the country. His 1997 proposal would have made the tax system even more regressive. In 1999 Governor Bush again pushed tax legislation that, while having
progressive elements, appears to have mainly helped businesses and their well-off owners. Texas still has one of the most regressive tax systems in the country. When it comes to tax policy, Governor Bush does have a record, but it’s hardly one of accomplishing reform.
does this sound familiar? ..."Back in January, when Comptroller Carol Keeton Rylander announced a revenue surplus of $5.6 billion for the next biennium, the Governor called for $2 billion in property tax cuts, plus another $600 million in sales and business tax cuts and credits. What surplus money remained, he said, should be applied to a pay raise for teachers. But as the appropriations process revealed over the weeks and months to follow, the initial budget prepared by the Legislative Budget Board didn’t allocate enough money to maintain current service levels; $3 billion of the "surplus" was not really surplus. Thus began the crunch, as $5.6 billion was reduced to $2.6 billion."
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