Friday, December 26, 2008
A Bush legacy you have never heard of
Betcha didn't know this:
Although the number of uninsured and the cost of coverage have ballooned under his watch, President Bush leaves office with a health care legacy in bricks and mortar: he has doubled federal financing for community health centers, enabling the creation or expansion of 1,297 clinics in medically underserved areas....
As governor of Texas, Mr. Bush came to admire the missionary zeal and cost-efficiency of the not-for-profit community health centers, which qualify for federal operating grants by being located in designated underserved areas and treating patients regardless of their ability to pay. He pledged support for the program while campaigning for president in 2000 on a platform of “compassionate conservatism.”
In Mr. Bush’s first year in office, he proposed to open or expand 1,200 clinics over five years (mission accomplished) and to double the number of patients served (the increase has ended up closer to 60 percent). With the health centers now serving more than 16 million patients at 7,354 sites, the expansion has been the largest since the program’s origins in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on poverty, federal officials said.
Considering the source, it is a remarkably positive story. The only thing unremarkable is the timing. Insofar as essentially the same story might have been written at any time in the last three years, why wasn't it?
10 Comments:
By 
Gary Rosen, at
Fri Dec 26, 01:53:00 AM:
"Insofar as essentially the same story might have been written at any time in the last three years, why wasn't it?"
Uh, gee whiz, lemme think about it for a minute ...
By 
, at
Fri Dec 26, 02:15:00 AM:
He pledged support for the program while campaigning for president in 2000 on a platform of “compassionate conservatism.”
A foolish mistake far too often repeated by conservatives, for it cedes the moral high ground to liberals by agreeing with them that conservatism is not compassionate.
In Mr. Bush’s first year in office, he proposed to ... double the number of patients served (the increase has ended up closer to 60 percent).
Government got involved and efficiency went down. Big surprise.
By smitty1e, at
Fri Dec 26, 07:57:00 AM:
You apparently missed the "no decent press for Bush" memo.
By , at
Fri Dec 26, 10:04:00 AM:
I agree with Randian that "Compassionate Conservatism" was just about the stupidest campaign ever run.
The fact that this article never saw the light of day when it would have helped Bush in the polls is one more nail in the coffin of the MSM. I am reminded many times of the Presidents 4,000 sq. ft. energy efficient home and how seldom it is mentioned by the "green" lobby.
For the rest of my life I will doubt all knowledge that I ever got from the AP.
By , at
Fri Dec 26, 02:32:00 PM:
"The federal program, which was first championed in Congress by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts...."
Yup, holding back positive press for a Kennedy for as long as they could, until forced to do a legacy examination.
By chuckchuck, at
Fri Dec 26, 07:57:00 PM:
Whatever good Mr. Bush did or didn't do... I think of my oldest son who served and fought in two different wars that we had no business in. PERIOD.
By Assistant Village Idiot, at
Fri Dec 26, 09:33:00 PM:
chuckchuck - a lot of folks said the same in 1864, though. That you have an opinion that we had NO business there seems rather oversimplified.
By , at
Fri Dec 26, 10:12:00 PM:
George W. Bush’s pitiful legacy
“The Failed Presidency of George W. Bush: A Dismal Legacy Part I” (Professor Rodrigue Tremblay. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/5648/32/).
“The Failed Presidency of George W. Bush: A Dismal Legacy, Part II” (Professor Rodrigue Tremblay. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2008/10/25/the-failed-presidency-of-george-w-bush-a-dismal-legacy-part-ii-by-prof-rodrigue-tremblay/).
“George Bush's Legacy: A Failed Presidency” (Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.geocities.com/bill_dietrich/GeorgeBushLegacy.html).
“President Bush regrets his legacy as man who wanted war - Times Online” (Tom Baldwin and Gerard Baker (in Ljubljana). Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4107327.ece).
“Jeet Heer on the Bush legacy: The most damaging president since Herbert Hoover” (Posted by Kelly McParland. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/11/28/jeet-heer-on-the-bush-legacy-the-most-damaging-president-since-herbert-hoover.aspx).
“The Lethal Legacy of George W. Bush!” (Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://tvnewslies.org/blog/?p=490).
“Editorial: Bush presidency: Bitter legacy” (Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=116056&d=4&m=11&y=2008).
“Bush’s lawless legacy will outlast his presidency” (By: Justyn Dillingham. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2008/12/04/Opinions/Bushs.Lawless.Legacy.Will.Outlast.His.Presidency-3569397.shtml).
“George W. Bush’s Legacy Will Include Two Things: Cocaine and Charity” (By Timothy Sexton. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/506799/george_w_bushs_legacy_will_include.html).
“Bush’s trip a reminder of a failed foreign policy legacy” (Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.nsnetwork.org/node/1139).
“Bush’s Legacy: not pretty” (By Nick Ragone. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://donklephant.com/2008/10/11/bushs-legacy-not-pretty/).
“Midwest Voices: President Bush’s laughable legacy” (By Ivo Ivanov (Kansas City Star Midwest Voices panelist). Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://voices.kansascity.com/node/2816).
“A legacy of damage to America: The president’s vile precedents etcetera” (By Douglas Drenkow. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2006031613.html).
“Bush’s Legacy of Failure” (Robert Scheer. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/bushs-legacy-of-failure_b_92259.html).
“Bush’s inane legacy . . . Today President Bush put the final stamp on his failed presidency by inflicting his misguided Christian moral agenda on our reproductive health care system. His conscience clause regulation is a draconian attempt at implementing his theocratic agenda. It will not stand. History will highlight this as the final incompetent act of desperately stupid presidency” (Posted by MO JOEY. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://mojoey.blogspot.com/2008/12/bush-inane-legacy.html).
“America Disgraced! George Bush’s Legacy” (By Ted Lang. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/04/05/03/lang.htm).
“A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency (Hardcover)” (By Glenn Greenwald (Author). Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.amazon.com/Tragic-Legacy-Mentality-Destroyed-Presidency/dp/0307354199).
“Bush to leave a troubled legacy” (By Rob Winder (in St Paul, Minnesota). Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/09/20089334344771155.html).
“George W. Bush And His Legacy Of Debt” (Posted by: Eric Ames. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/blogs/investorcentric/2008/11/george-w-bush-and-his-legacy-of-debt.html).
“George Bush’s toxic legacy” (Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/6568).
“Olbermann Demolishes Bush Legacy Talking Points” (Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.democrats.com/olbermann-demolishes-bush-legacy-talking-points).
“BUSH’S LEGACY: FISCAL MELTDOWN, WEAK ECONOMY” (Prepared by the Office of Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://majorityleader.house.gov/docUploads/BUSH-BUDGET-FY09.pdf).
“Historians: Bush legacy ‘battered,’ ‘incompetent’” (Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://news.theroot.com/theroot/2008/11/07/243634608-historians-bush-legacy-battered-incompetent).
“Good riddance, Mr Bush: sadly, your legacy remains . . . It’s over. The formalities will not be complete until January and the inauguration, but the era of George W Bush has passed. Launched with hubristic conviction, it ends strangely, as though an eerie silence has settled over the White House and its forgotten tenant. The fair-weather friends have quit the ship. His party has no further use for ‘the most powerful man in the world’. No-one wants to know. The Bush coalition itself has collapsed. Theocratic impulses, globalised capitalism, geopolitical exceptionalism, appropriated patriotism, hegemonic wars on terrorism: one by one, the tenets have crumbled. It is likely that the president has not yet found a need to read Ozymandias, but he would surely get Shelley’s gist. The legacy, as Americans call it, is a mess. Barely one in five of his compatriots now ‘approves’ of Mr Bush. International opinion is less indulgent. Even among those still attempting to salvage something from his brand of conservatism, there are few straws left for clutching” (Ian Bell. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/featuresopinon/display.var.2465620.0.Good_riddance_Mr_Bush_sadly_your_legacy_remains.php).
“The Lexicon Legacy of George W. Bush . . . As the U.S. lurches towards the end of President George Bush’s reign of terror, it can look back at a number of Mr. Bush’s ‘accomplishments:’ transforming a record-breaking budget surplus into a record-breaking deficit; starting two wars for no good reason, and generally making fascism fashionable again” (Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.counterpunch.org/fantina05102008.html).
“YOUR VIEW: Bush’s war legacy will not be forgiven” (By Bruce C. Ditata (Mr. Ditata lives in Wareham). Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/OPINION/801030307/1015/TOWN14).
“The Bitter Bush Legacy: In Gall, We Trust” (By Doug Bandow. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5156).
Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993
“GEORGE W. BUSH IS THE WORST PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY” BLOG OF ANDREW YU-JEN WANG
http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/12/george-w-bushs-pitiful-legacy.html
By Gary Rosen, at
Sat Dec 27, 03:46:00 AM:
Lotta unimpeachable (heh) sources there, "anonymous" - Democrats, Socialists, HuffPo, Counterpunch etc.
By , at
Mon Dec 29, 10:06:00 AM:
The Social networking are increasingly changing and developing the Presence of the young people into the society,and here "Mr Obama" thats a great exemplo,have people like you helping and working for a better community! I hope that would help for a better future
