Today in Bush's Presidency (2001-07-02)

[adamuu]

Today is Day 163 in Obama's presidency. What was going on at the same point (day 163) in Bush's presidency?

Day 163 is yet another boring day for Bush. He faces continuing decline in his poll numbers, and continues to be his own worst enemy. Only 5 months in, and it seems that the president is losing enthusiasm. Without control of the congress and the legislative agenda, a discouraged Bush backs off some of his earlier ambitions. Proposed ideas regarding energy crisis solutions, social security reform, and the Middle East are quickly revealed by the press to overlook important details. His ideas are half baked

The last article, below, is a nice recap appearing in USA Today. I quoted the whole thing.

Ongoing stories:
1. Cheney's heart condition
2. Rove under suspicion regarding Intel
3. Bush met with Koizumi and this may have smoothed the Kyoto thing over somewhat

Emerging stories for day 163:
How Bush Lost the GOP on Health Care
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,166139,0...

But then the White House seemed to go on vacation. "On the other stuff moving through the Congress" such as the patients bill of rights, energy measures, and key appropriations bills, "there has not been the day-to-day event planning and messaging," complains a senior House GOP aide. "They haven't been as good as in the past."

Bush's Tax Cut: Nickels and Dimes for the Working Poor
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_27/b373...

Bush approval rating down 10 points since April
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/july01/2001-07-...

Bush puts federal overhaul on hold
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/july01/2001-07-...

Court rebounds from Bush v. Gore: Watermark case of '01 term did not diminish justices in public's eyes. But legal analysts still stew.
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-76113666.html

The 40% Social Security Cut: Letting people invest retirement money in stocks may be all well and good, but it's no magic cure for our biggest social program.(National Affairs)(Brief Article)
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-10678...

Bush yields on some major policy initiatives
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/raasch/r100.htm

WASHINGTON — Although the first checks from the Bush tax cuts are due in taxpayers' pockets by summer's end, the president has seen other parts of his agenda trimmed or changed by a closely divided Congress.
From health care to energy to education, Bush either has acquiesced to or been forced to confront significant changes in his policies. In some cases, the changes have been dramatic enough to send him back to his bully pulpit with a new message. And in others, the changes have elicited threats of a presidential veto.
The latter is the case with the patients' bill of rights health care debate that has rumbled through the Senate this past week. Bush's desire to limit damage awards in lawsuits against health care providers has run up against a solid Democratic wall in the Senate and provoked hints of a veto.
Other examples of Bush's agenda being trimmed or changed:
• On energy, a series of votes in Congress over the past two weeks have made it clear that Bush's push to drill domestically for more oil and natural gas has serious opposition in Congress.
In successive weeks, the House voted to delay offshore drilling leases off Florida in the Gulf of Mexico and prohibit drilling on federal monument lands and in the Great Lakes.
In the Gulf of Mexico vote, 70 Republicans joined 167 Democrats and one independent to vote for the ban.
The White House argued that Bush did not propose drilling in the Great Lakes, so it was not a rebuff of his energy policy.
"There is nothing in the president's energy plan that deals with the Great Lakes," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "That is a state matter."
• Also on energy, the White House rewrote its message to focus more on conservation measures after criticism that Bush appeared eager to drill while ignoring conservation. The president went to the Department of Energy on Thursday to announce $108 million for new research to develop fuel cells, advanced engines and hydrogen power designed to save energy.
But after being criticized initially for not responding rapidly enough to California's energy crisis, Bush is now facing the prospect that the crisis itself may be easing, thus taking away the impetus for his energy initiatives.
Fleischer told reporters that falling gas prices and reports of adequate worldwide supplies of energy should not deter the United States from forming a comprehensive energy policy to reduce foreign energy dependence.
"This nation still has fundamental energy imbalances that can only be addressed, in the president's opinion, through greater conservation and through increased exploration and through fixing America's infrastructure," he said.
• In an Energy and Water Appropriations bill passed by the House, Bush's proposal to keep a lid on federal spending for beach projects was rejected. Under the bill, which still must pass the Senate, $150 million would be spent on beach improvements next year, $62 million more than Bush wanted. The House rejected Bush's request to reverse the current 65 percent federal, 35 percent local cost-sharing formula with state and local governments.
• Bush is expected to win final congressional approval of a bipartisan education plan that demands greater accountability from educators and requires new reading and math tests for millions of students. But the White House made concessions on key Bush proposals to appease both conservatives and liberals.
To win Democratic backing, Bush relented on a campaign pledge to allow use of taxpayer funds for private-school tuition, and he trimmed a plan to allow states to spend school subsidies free from Washington interference. The concession enraged some conservatives in his own party.
But conservatives have left their mark on Bush's plan, too. Bowing to concerns about local control of education, the bills no longer require uniform statewide exams in reading and math. A conference committee to work out differences between House and Senate versions of the education reforms has yet to be named.
• While Bush got high marks from economic conservatives for his $1.35 trillion tax cut over 10 years, social conservatives have become increasingly vocal about fears that Bush is trimming his social agenda.
Gary Bauer, a social conservative who opposed Bush in the 2000 Republican primaries, chided the president Thursday for not deciding whether to fund medical research using human embryos. Bauer and other social conservatives oppose such research.
The White House reportedly is divided between those who believe that such research could help find cures for deadly diseases and those who see it as an extension of the abortion debate. Bush opposed human embryo research in the 2000 presidential campaign.
"We are just hearing a lot of agonizing going on, and there should not be, because the campaign promise was so clear," Bauer told GNS.
Bauer said there was increased concern among conservatives about the ground Bush has yielded.
"There are a lot of things that are beginning to trouble the folks that gave him the narrow win," Bauer said. "I think that one thing that every White House has to learn, and it is particularly true of Republican White Houses, is that it is better sometimes to lose on an issue, but in losing remind the public of your philosophy and the philosophy of your opponents."

(Prev: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph... )
(Raw: http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=Bush&num=10&as_p... )

[lindisfarne]

1. Just think how different the world could have been if #1 on the list had been otherwise.

[deaniac21]

2. Damn, with each and every day passing we have less of bush to

kick around. I really miss it.

[adamuu]

3. No amount of entertainment was worth the trouble he caused. n/t