Richard Cohen Quotes
George W. Bush, a charming and utterly gracious man, was a catastrophic twofer. He took the United States to war in Iraq, a wrenching debacle: more than 4,000 Americans dead, nearly 32,000 wounded, and the Middle East destabilized with Iranian influence enhanced.
Cohen, Richard. "Why conservatives are so eager to forget George W. Bush." The Washington Post, 9 Mar. 2015.
The first non-PRI President in over 70 years.
The attack on the World Trade Towers and our military reaction to that could not fairly be blamed on Bush. However, the Iraq War was certainly a policy choice he made. And he also made the decision to cut taxes (mostly for the rich) on the assumption that this would stimulate the economy and produce even more taxes. It did not. And also on Bush’s policy responsibility was his decision not to raise taxes to pay for a war. This had never been done in American history. And Bush was fighting two wars. In addition when he took office Bill Clinton had balanced the budget and left a substantial surplus. Instead of using the surplus to pay for his other policy decisions, he spent it.
Richard Martin Cohen is an American writer best known for his syndicated column in The Washington Post, which he wrote from 1976 to 2019.
