George W. Bush: He Gave Rise to the Tea Party

[DonViejo]

WHO BROKE WASHINGTON?

George W. Bush: He Gave Rise to the Tea Party

The rebellion against big government really began more than a decade ago with a growing sense of betrayal among conservatives over Bush's runaway spending habits.

By Michael Hirsh
October 3, 2013

During his five years in office, President Obama has often blamed his problems on what George W. Bush left him with: two wars, a historic recession, an out-of-control financial system and a huge budget deficit. But W.'s most enduring legacy to his successor may have been the tea party movement, and the political dysfunction that it has brought.

That may seem an odd conclusion. Today Obama is the central villain in tea-party rhetoric, and Bush is hardly ever mentioned. Yet the rebellion against Big Government that the tea party has come to embody really began more than a decade ago with a growing sense of betrayal among conservatives over Bush's runaway-spending habits. Conservatives were angered by his refusal to veto any spending bills, especially in his first term, not to mention what happened during the nearly six years of GOP control of the Senate and House from 2000 to '06, when federal spending grew to a record $2.7 trillion, more than doubling the increase during Bill Clinton's two terms. The final outrage that lit the brushfires of tea-party fervor was Bush's sponsorship of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program in the fall of 2008, just before he left office, in order to bail out Wall Street.

It is arguably true that President Obama's decision in 2009 to pile a giant stimulus and a new national health-care program on top of TARP transformed those brushfires into a true national conflagration—and a movement. But in reality Obama's actions were more like a tipping point, many conservatives say. "This social and political phenomenon of the tea partiers was burning all through the Bush years," Reid Buckley, brother of the late William F. Buckley and the self-appointed keeper of his flame as a father of modern conservatism, said in a 2010 interview. "It's a long-term slow boil that has disaffected most people who call themselves conservatives. There's nothing I have against President Obama that in this I wouldn't charge Bush with."

It wasn't just spending of course. Bush also built the intrusive post-9/11 national-security state that Obama has embraced, and which a growing number libertarian tea partiers have come to hate, including National Security Agency surveillance and a program of frequent but secret drone strikes.

full article
http://www.nationaljournal.com/who-broke-washington/george-w-bush-he-gave-rise-to-the-tea-party-20131003

[Avalux]

1. Ah yes, the Decider.

Although I'm not sure I agree with the article.

[warrant46]

7. Found this photo of the decider

[CJCRANE]

2. The Tea Party was a way for the GOP base to disassociate itself from Bush

by pretending to be a nonpartisan movement.

They went home to the Republican party when the time came for the 2010 elections.

[Dawson Leery]

3. The teakooks are same bastards who demanded conformity with the Bush administration

after 9/11. They were the same older white cons who attended the pro-Iraq war rallies.

[CJCRANE]

6. Exactly, they only became self-styled nonpartisan fiscal conservatives

after the '08 election loss.

[Filibuster Harry]

4. Ah, yes Mr. Bush. But how about those R congressman and senators who helped pass Mr. Bush's

spending and who only now, under President Obama, have turned the page on spending. Spending increases always happen under an R president and it will always continue. Another shame on R presidents and another shame on the Rs in office under Bush who never complained about spending levels back then.

[Benton D Struckcheon]

5. The TARP is what did it.

They were seething before that, but the TARP made them nuts. I can't blame them at all for going crazy over that fiasco. Thing is, it gave them a legit cudgel with which to beat the government. I'll probably get flamed for saying this, but Obama didn't help by naming Geithner as Treasury Secretary. The man was head of the NY Fed while all this crap was going down. Exactly the wrong person to name. Only Summers would have been worse. Or Robert Rubin.
Although, they would have beat him up anyway for the GM/Chrysler bailout and of course Obamacare. Buncha whackos any way you slice it.

[apnu]

10. I won't stone you over that.

There was enormous industry pressure on President-Elect Obama to select Geithner. He was, we were told every 5 minutes, the only man who understood that "stuff." It was quite amazing really.

Our financial Masters of the Universe were going to win no matter who won in 2008. That game is rigged like the roulette wheel in Vegas.

[justgamma]

8. It's the 2 Santa Claus theory

Cut taxes, raise the debt, and when Dems get in office yell about the debt and force them to cut the budget. Thom Hartmann talks about it all the time.

[apnu]

11. Yup, the Chimp left quite a trud on the White House steps to clean up.

And they bitched about the mess the Clintons left in 2000.

No matter who was President after him. Obama, McGramps, or God... they were buggered before they were sworn in.

[CJCRANE]

9. The original idea came from Ron Paul who was a pariah in the GOP

during the Bush era.

His followers and Alex Jones' followers were the fringe of the fringe.

[pansypoo53219]

12. i call bullshit. they did no raise their ill spelled bullshit til scary black president.

not til the crash. so BULLSHIT!

[GatorOrange]

13. Don't agree with this article...

Sure there were a few Libertarian/New World Order types that kept pictures of David Koresh on the nightstand; but it was very isolated and virtually ignored. Most of the Right marched lockstep with that walking Skidmark until January 2009. The Bircher fringe planted some of the seeds over time; but the Conservative Media Echo Chamber realized they could galvanize the lowest common denominators into a ratings/profit/influence enhancing "movement" it really gained steam. Now it's Frankenstein's Monster and it's completely uncontrollable. Heck, the echo chamber even knows it holds true power over the Tea Baggers. Glenn Beck is even begging Louie Gohmert to take out Cornyn and run for the Senate. Just need a Castro Brother to run and the flipping of Texas can take place ahead of schedule.