Decision Points

George W. Bush, “Decision Points”, 2010, Crown, 512 pp. (Read Kindle version).


I just don’t quite know what to say. All through Juniors’ presidency I tended to think he was the stupidest, shoot-from-the-faith-based-hip person to ever live on Pennsylvania avenue. Now I’m not so sure he was all that stupid. I do know that he generally appointed very capable people like Rumsfeld and Cheney (no emails please). I appreciated the ghost writers’ division of this book into themes (decisions) rather than a strict chronological presentation. Many of these decisions were truly important and the effects will be felt for some time.

Anyway, it is a book that needs reading. Of course the book puts every controversy in a favorable light for the author or ignores it all together (think Terry Schiavo).

My Notes:

Pg 38: The free market provides the fairest way to allocate resources. Lower taxes reward hard work and encouraged risk taking which spurs job creation. Eliminating barriers to trade creates new export markets for American producers and more choices for our consumers. President Jimmy Carter exercised the opposite. They had plans to raise taxes, tighten government control over the energy sector, and substitute federal spending for private-sector job creation. Americas was drifting left, toward a version of welfare-state Europe, where central government planning crowded out free enterprise.

Pg. 81: The Supreme Court voting 7-2 found that Florida’s chaotic, inconsistent recount procedure had violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution. Then by a vote of 5-4, the Court ruled that there was no fair way to recount the votes in time for Florida to participate in the Electoral College. The election results would stand. By a tally of 2,912,790 to 2, 912, 253 Bush won Florida.

Pg. 110: The Clinton administration adopted a novel interpretation of the Dickey Amendment. Lawyers argued that taxpayer dollars could be used to support stem cell research on lines derived from destroyed embryos so long as the destruction itself was funded by private sources.

Pg. 111: Embryonic stem cell research takes us onto a path that would transform our perception of human life into a malleable, marketable natural resource—akin to a cattle herd or copper mine—to be exploited for the benefit of the born and breathing. Bush ultimately authorized federal funding for embryonic stem cell research but solely for existing stem cell lines. Federal tax dollars would not be used to support the destruction of life for medical gain. (This defines a stem cell as human life).

Pg. 124: In early 2008 researchers discovered away around the stem cell controversy. The researchers had reprogrammed an adult skin cell to behave like an embryonic stem cell. By adding just four genes to the adult cell, scientists were able to replicate the medical promise of embryonic stem cells without moral controversy.

Pg. 155: Bush was keenly aware after 9/11 that presidents had a history of overreaching during war. John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which banned public dissent. Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War. Franklin Roosevelt ordered Japanese Americans interned during WWII.

Pg. 156: In June 2002 Bush called on Congress to create a new Department of Homeland Security. It was rough sledding as Democrats held up the legislation by insisting that the new department grant its employees extensive collective bargaining rights that did not apply in any other government agency. During the intervening time the congressional election took control away from the Democrats and the bill was passed.

Pg. 167: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, and Franklin Roosevelt faced the dilemma of how to bring captured enemy combatants to justice during wartime. All had instituted a court operated by the military. On November 13, 2001 Bush signed an executive order establishing military tribunals to try captured terrorists. The ordered tribunals were based on the structure FDR had used—a structure later approved by the Supreme Court in FDR’s time.
Pg. 169: Bush authorized waterboarding of senior al Qaeda leaders. One of those leaders, Zubaydah, later explained to interrogators why he started answering questions again. His understanding of Islam was that he had to resist interrogation only up to a certain point. Waterboarding was the technique that allowed him to reach that threshold, fulfill his religious duty, and then cooperate. “You must do this for all the brothers,” he said.

Pg. 171: Of the thousands of terrorists captured in the years after 9/11, about a hundred were placed into the CIA program. About a third of those were questioned using enhanced techniques. Three were waterboarded. The information the detainees in the CIA program revealed constitute more than half of what the CIA knew about al Qaeda. Their interrogations helped break up plots to attack American military and diplomatic facilities abroad.

Pg. 187: Between 196 and 2001, bin Laden established camps in Afghanistan that trained an estimated ten thousand terrorists. In return, bin Laden drew on his personal fortune to fund the Taliban. By 9/11, Afghanistan was not only a state sponsor of terror, but a state sponsored by terror. On 9/11, Pakistan was one of only three countries that recognized the Taliban. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were the other two.

Pg. 189: Before 9/11, Saddam Hussein’s brutal dictatorship was widely considered the most dangerous country in the world. At the time, Don Rumsfeld said “dealing with Iraq would show a major commitment to antiterrorism.”

Pg. 297: Facts concerning social security in book are very erroneous. Bush states that at a conservative rate of return of 3 percent, an individually held account would double every twenty-four years. By contrast, Social Security’s return of ½ percent would take sixty years to double. (He leaves out SS COL adjustments, survivor benefits, children coverage, etc…).

Pg. 300: Our government would be more productive—and our politics more civilized—if congressional districts were drawn by panels of nonpartisan elders instead of partisan state legislatures. It is the primaries that control elections in highly partisan districts; because of this the extreme elements of the party are appealed to.

Pg. 308: Under the Stafford Act, passed by Congress in 1988, state and local officials were responsible for leading the initial response to natural disasters, with the federal government playing a supporting role if requested to enter by the State. That approach had worked during the eight hurricanes, nine tropical storms, and more than two hundred tornadoes, floods, wildfires, and other emergencies faced since 2001. It worked in Alabama and Mississippi as well after Katrina. But authorities in Louisiana could not or would not lead.
Pg. 320: The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prohibited active-duty military from conducting law enforcement within the U.S. There was one exception, used by Eisenhower in Arkansas. The President could declare a state of insurrection and then deploy troops equipped with full law enforcement powers. Bush continued to try and get Democratic Governor Blanco, with no success.

Pg. 345: Transmitted by a mosquito bite, malaria accounted for 9 percent of all deaths in Africa, even more than AIDS. In 2005 Bush announced a five-year $1.2 billion program that would fund malaria-eradication efforts in fifteen countries. The goal was to cut mortality rates by 50 percent over the next five years. On one Zanzibar Island, the number of malaria cases dropped more than 90 percent in a single year. Through the distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, indoor spraying, and the delivery of medicine for infected and pregnant mothers, the Malaria Initiative helped protect twenty-five million people from unnecessary death. Several countries, including Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia, were ahead of schedule in meeting the goal of cutting malaria infection rates by more than 50 percent.

Pg. 350: When Bush took office, America had free trade agreements in place with three countries: Canada, Mexico, and Israel. When he left office the U.S. had agreements with seventeen, including developing countries such as Jordan, Morocco, Oman, and the young democracies of Central America.

Pg. 397: At the end of WWII, there were about two dozen democracies in the world. When Bush took office in 2001 there were 120. However, the great tide of freedom that swept much of the world during the second half of the twentieth century had largely bypassed the Middle East. A 2002 report revealed that in this bypassed region, one in three people were illiterate, unemployment averaged 15 percent, less than 1 percent had access to the internet. The authors of this UN report, a group of respected Arab scholars, attributed the depressing results to three deficits: a deficit in knowledge, a deficit in women’s empowerment, and, most important, a deficit in freedom. This area has become a fertile recruiting ground for terrorists.

Pg. 412: The triumph of democracy in Lebanon came two months after the free elections in Iraq and the election of President Abbas in the Palestinian Territories. Never before had three Arab societies made so much progress toward democracy. Lebanese political leader Jumblatt said: “I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, it was the start of a new Arab world and the change started because of the American invasion of Iraq. The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say something is changing.

Pg. 432: In 2001 Bush informed Putin that America would unilaterally cut its’ arsenal of strategic nuclear warheads by two thirds. The U.S. then decreased deployed warheads from 6,600 to between 1,700 and 2,200 by 2012. America would also withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

Pg. 442: In 2001 Bush signed a $1.35 trillion tax cut, the largest since Regan’s signed in his first term. The bill reduced marginal tax rates for every income taxpayer, doubled the child tax credit from $500 to $1,000, reduced the marriage penalty, and eliminated the lowest tax bracket, which removed five million low-income families from the tax rolls. The bill also phased out the death tax. The average deficit-to-GDP ratio during Bush’s administration was 2.0 percent, below the fifty-year average of 3.0 percent.
Pg. 448: Between 1993 and 2007, the average American home price roughly doubled.