While media outlets and television talking heads were ...



It is easy to forget the diabolical actions of the Bush-Cheney years after nine months of witnessing the behavior of President Trump. This fact was made all-too-clear last week when many observers were praising George W. Bush for a speech in which he was highly critical of the political culture of the current president.

The former president spoke at a conference in New York hosted by his foundation, the George W. Bush Institute, which he set up to promote democracy. In his 15-minute talk, he did not mention Trump’s name but was obviously referring to him in his critique of the national trend toward more “cruelty and bigotry.”

Bush said, “bigotry seems emboldened” and “our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication.”

But despite all the lies that have come out of Trump and his administration, not one has been as catastrophic as the Bush-Cheney falsehood that led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The deadliest conspiracy theory in American history was that Iraq was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks and that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Bush and Cheney used those lies to dupe Congress and most Americans into supporting a war that cost the lives of thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

And the Iraq war led to the rise of ISIS, which is one reason why in 2017 we are still fighting in the Middle East.

Last week, Bush said, “We've seen the return of isolationist sentiments, forgetting that American security is directly threatened by the chaos and despair of distant places.”

So, it is easy to understand why Bush might attack Trump’s more-isolationist foreign policy. Bush and Cheney were all about invading other nations for reasons that may or may not have been legitimate.

Back on the home front, when Bush said last week that “bullying and prejudice in our public life sets a national tone and provides permission for cruelty and bigotry,” we must not forget about the USA Patriot Act that his administration pushed through Congress in those paranoid weeks following 9/11.

Apparently the former president was suffering from amnesia about those infringements on civil liberties when he said, “the only way to pass along civic values is to first live up to them.”

You can’t really disagree with Bush’s criticism of President Trump because much of what he said is accurate. However, you have to be aware the remarks were coming from a former president who in many ways set the stage for the rise of what’s becoming known as Trumpism.

And, yes, in some ways Bush was much worse, so let’s hold off on too much praise for his critique and keep our memories in tact.

And now there’s the budget

The GOP-controlled Senate last week passed a $4 trillion budget measure that would give huge tax cuts to corporations and the rich while slashing funding for social programs, health care, education and affordable housing.

The budget resolution is non-binding, but creates a scenario for the House to take up a similar stance, which could occur as early as this week. Naturally, Trump is thrilled and will be playing cheerleader as the budget and his tax-reform plan move forward.

The vote on the Senate measure was 51-49, with deficit foe Sen. Rand Paul the only Republican to vote no.

While future deficits should be a major concern, most of the budget criticism was focused on the funding cuts for programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and the fiction offered by Trump that the middle class would enjoy much of his proposed tax cuts.

Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon tweeted: “Another dark deed done: GOP passes obscene budget to slash Medicare/Medicaid & explode the deficit -- all in the name of tax cuts for the 1%.”

So, like with most issues in Washington these days, it seems that the truth about a new budget and proposed tax reform is going to be elusive. It will all depend on whom to believe and that usually means the people will lose because they won’t know whom to trust.

At this point, I tend to agree with ’s Ben Wikler, who wrote the budget deliberations are the “starting gun for what might be the most consequential legislative fight of the Trump era: the looting of the U.S. treasury to reward billionaire GOP donors and mega-corporations, at the expense of the rest of us.”

Cary Brunswick, of Oneonta, is a freelance writer and editor. He can be reached at brunswick@ or at . The views expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of The Daily Star and its editorial board.

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