Revision 589442 of "George_W._Bush" on enwiki

[[de:George W. Bush]][[fr:Georges Bush]][[pl:George W. Bush]][[eo:George W. BUSH]]
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" align="right">
<caption><font size="+1">'''George W. Bush at a glance'''</font></caption>
<tr>
<td>'''Rank:'''</td>
<td>43rd ([[2001]]-)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>'''Predecessor:'''</td>
<td>[[Bill Clinton]]</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>'''Date of Birth:'''</td>
<td>[[July 6]], [[1946]]</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>'''Place of Birth:'''</td>
<td>[[New Haven, Connecticut]]</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>'''[[First Lady]]:'''</td>
<td>[[Laura Welch Bush|Laura Welch Pierce]]</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>'''[[Profession]]:'''</td>
<td>[[businessman]]</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>'''[[Political party|Political Party]]:'''</td>
<td>[[United States Republican Party|Republican]]</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>'''[[Vice President]]:'''</td>
<td>[[Richard Cheney]]</td>
</tr>
</table>
'''George Walker Bush''' (born [[July 6]], [[1946]]) became the 43rd and current [[President of the United States of America]] in [[2001]]. Immediately prior to attaining the office, he was [[Governor of Texas|Governor]] of the [[U.S. States|State]] of [[Texas]]. Bush was the winner of one of the closest elections in American history, defeating one of the other candidates, [[United States Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[Vice President of the United States of America|Vice President]] [[Al Gore|Albert Gore]], by only 5 [[U.S. Electoral College|electoral]] votes. (''See'' [[U.S. presidential election, 2000]].) The election was contested and on [[January 6]], [[2001]] the [[US Supreme Court]] had to certify the results of the election.

Among his cabinet appointees have been: [[Colin Powell]], [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]]; [[Donald Rumsfeld]], [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]]; [[Spencer Abraham]], [[United States Secretary of Energy|Secretary of Energy]]; [[Gale Norton]], [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]]; and [[Tommy Thompson]], [[United States Secretary of Health and Human Services|Secretary of Health and Human Services]]. His controversial appointee for [[US Attorney General]] was [[John Ashcroft]]. [[Condoleeza Rice]] is his [[United States National Security Advisor|National Security Advisor]].

Bush comes from a family with a long history of success in politics. His grandfather [[Prescott Bush]] served as [[United States Senate|senator]] from [[Connecticut]], his father [[George Bush]] was the 41st President of the United States, and his brother [[Jeb Bush]] is the [[governor of Florida]]. Bush is the second U.S. President to be the son of a President; [[John Quincy Adams]] was the first.

In order to differentiate President Bush from his father, [[George Bush]], many Americans have humorously used his middle initial to identify him: "W" or "Dubya" (phonetic pronunciation).  Critics have often used this nickname to refer to him as "President Dubya."

== Personal Life and Education ==

Bush was born in [[Connecticut]] and grew up in [[Midland, Texas|Midland]] and [[Houston]], Texas. He has four younger siblings: Jeb, [[Neil Bush|Neil]], Marvin, and Dorothy. A younger sister, Robin, died of leukemia in 1953, at the age of three.

He followed his father and grandfather in education at [[Andover Academy]] and [[Yale University]], where he received a bachelor's degree in [[1968]] and where he joined [[Delta Kappa Epsilon]] and the [[Skull and Bones Society]]. He then received a [[Master of Business Administration]] (MBA) from [[Harvard Business School]]. He is the first president with an MBA degree. 

He enrolled in the Texas Air [[National Guard]] during the [[Vietnam War]] and served as an [[F-102]] pilot for a period until he was grounded after failing to appear for a mandatory physical exam and drug test. Controversy exists over whether he broke the law by going [[AWOL|Absent Without Leave]] (AWOL). Bush insists that he did serve as a pilot during his entire tour of duty. However, no documents confirming this have been made available. 

He had serious problems with alcohol for years after college, including a drunk driving arrest in [[Maine]] in 1976. 

Bush married Laura Welch in [[1977]] and in [[1986]], he foreswore alcohol and became a [[born-again Christian]], converting from [[Episcopal Church|Episcopalian Christianity]] to his wife's religion, [[Methodist Church|Methodist Christianity]]. They have twin daughters, [[Barbara and Jenna Bush|Barbara and Jenna]]. 

== Business and Political Career ==

Bush began his career in the [[oil industry]] in [[1975]] when he formed the oil and gas exploration company [[Arbusto]] and continued working in the energy industry until [[1986]]. His forays into the industry were disastrous, losing millions of dollars. 

In 1978 Bush ran for [[U.S. House of Representatives]] and was defeated by the Democratic State Senator [[Kent Hance]]. 

After working on his father's successful [[U.S. presidential election, 1988|1988 presidential campaign]], he assembled a group of partners from his father's close friends and purchased the [[Texas Rangers]] baseball franchise in [[1989]].

Bush was involved in controversial stock trades while serving on the board of directors of Harken Energy Corp. in [[1990]]. Bush has claimed that he sold Harken stock on the assumption of a positive corporate outlook. However, on [[April 20]] of that year, company President Mikel D. Faulkner told the directors that the company was facing grave financial problems, including a serious cash crisis that was exasperated by pressure from lenders, as well as a slumping oil market. After receiving this dire news, in June Bush sold 212,140 shares of Harken stock. Shortly thereafter, on [[August 20]], Harken reported a a $23.2 million quarterly loss. Bush waited 36 weeks to file an SEC form about his sale. An SEC investigation, conducted while Bush's father was President of the United States, cleared Bush of wrongdoing.

The sale of Harken stock helped pay off a loan for his purchase of a partial interest in the [[Texas Rangers]] baseball team. He served as managing general partner of the Texas Rangers until he was elected [[Governor of Texas]] on [[November 8]], [[1994]] over [[incumbent]] [[Ann Richards]]. When the team was sold in [[1998]], Bush had earned $15,000,000.

He went on to become the first Texas governor to be elected to consecutive four-year terms. His tenure in office featured a reputation for bipartisan leadership, and some controversy, even international controversy. During Bush's tenure, [[Texas]] saw a sharp rise in [[capital punishment]].

His career is remarkable for his rapid political ascent; for example, both the previous president, [[Bill Clinton]], and Bush's opponent, Al Gore, had spent their entire adult lives in politics. 


=== Public Image and Personality ===

In both America and Britain, Bush is commonly referred to as "Dubya", in imitation of his pronunciation of the middle initial of his name. As the elder Bush child, "Junior" is a more common nickname with close associates. Bush himself bestows nicknames on nearly everyone he meets.

Criticism of Bush the candidate centered less around policy than on the perception that he was not intelligent. This perception was based on his dissipated youth, his [[Bushisms|verbal gaffes]], his lack of interest in policy details, and also on his embrace of Texan culture. See [[Internet humor/George W. Bush lexicon]] for an example of the association of Bush with stereotypes of Texans.

Questions about Bush's intelligence also became an issue during the [[2000]] election. Some supporters of Bush's chief opponent in that campaign, Al Gore, often portrayed Bush as intellectually inferior to Gore. Some have attempted to compare their current respective intellectual capacities by going decades back to their academic achievements. According to that criterion, Bush's academic record and background was by and large comparable to Gore's. For example, Bush's verbal [[SAT]] score was 566, Al Gore's was 625. In addition, Gore received lower grades in his sophomore year at [[Harvard]] than any semester recorded on Bush's transcript from Yale, and Gore earned no degrees higher than a Bachelor of Arts in Government, while Bush earned a Master's degree in Business Administration from Harvard. However, neither the correlation between SAT verbal scores and academic excellence, nor between academic excellence and intelligence, can be established; for example, [[Rhodes Scholar]] [[Bill Bradley]]'s SAT was a low 485, and an academic record does take into account the difficulty of the classes taken or other factors that might impinge on a college record.

Following the [[September 11]] attacks, President Bush enjoyed the highest approval ratings in history. High approval ratings are historically common for war time Presidents. Bush maintained his high approval ratings a year later, and as of [[November]], [[2002]], had the highest approval rating of any President during a mid-term election, since [[Dwight Eisenhower]]. However, one poll showed that only a minority of the electorate would vote to reelect him, thus suggesting that the support may be more for his office as commander-in-chief than for him as a leader. That same poll showed that "nearly half either say they'll likely back a Democrat, or that their choice 'depends' on Bush's rival." Democratic and Republican pollsters believe that his campaign for reelection would be as competitive as the 2000 race was. Some polls, on the other hand, show Bush winning easily against likely Democratic rivals such as senator [[John Kerry]], former first lady [[Hillary Clinton]], and his 2000 opponent, former Vice President [[Al Gore]]. 

Some also suggested that Republican Party's historic victory in the [[2002]] mid-term elections were due to Bush's presumed popularity. Historically, the party in the White House loses seats. But in [[2002]], during what was expected to be an extremely tight election, the Republicans ended up gaining seats in both houses, and retaking control of the Senate in the process. The party in control of the White House had not gained seats in both the Senate and the House of Representatives in a mid-term election for 100 years. However, others have argued that the Democrats lost the election because of their timidity in criticizing Bush as a "wartime" President. A New York Times poll taken a month after the midterm elections showed 37% of voters pleased with the outcome, as opposed to nearly 50% who had been pleased with the outcome 1994 midterm election. The poll also found that voters disagreed with Bush's positions on a number of important issues, including the environment.[http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/26/politics/26POLL.html]

== Platform ==
Bush's original platform, before the [[2001 recession]], the [[September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack]], and the [[War on Terrorism]] (though domestic policy has not changed significantly):

* [[Economy]]: His slogan was, "Whoever pays taxes gets a tax break". The rich pay the most taxes, and the current system weighs the income tax against the upper income brackets; Bush's proposed tax plan reduces the taxes on the top income brackets by a greater percentage than middle-income brackets. Bush also supported raising the [[Earned Income Tax Credit]], which would primarily affect the lower brackets of income-tax-affected citizens. 
:His 2003 tax proposal offers a sweeping package of tax cuts and incentives that would eliminate all federal taxes on stock dividends, quick tax relief for married couples and a $400-per-child increase in the tax credit for families with children. Economists are divided on the effectiveness of Bush's proposals for helping the economy. John Leonard, the chief of North American equities for [[UBS Global Asset Management]], said eliminating the dividends tax would spur the economy by sending more money into the economy; on the other hand, other economists, including Allen Sinai of Decision Economics and Andrew F. Brimmer, a former Federal Reserve Board member who heads a consulting firm, argued that the dividends tax cut would be largely ineffective [http://msnbc.com/news/855356.asp?0bl=-0&cp1=1] . The administration's proposal would also give tax relief to small businesses owners by expanding the amount of equipment purchases they can write off as deductions from the current $25,000 to $75,000.  Opponents argue that this tax proposal would primarily benefit the rich.  The Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center produced the following table describing the impact of Bush's plan on average taxpayers:
<blockquote>
<table border="1">
<tr>
<th>Income Group (thousands of dollars)
<th>Average Savings (dollars)
<tr>
<td>0-10<td>5
<tr>
<td>10-20<td>63
<tr>
<td>20-30<td>204
<tr>
<td>30-40<td>351
<tr>
<td>40-50<td>500
<tr>
<td>50-75<td>820
<tr>
<td>75-100<td>1,776
<tr>
<td>100-200<td>2,710
<tr>
<td>200-500<td>5,527
<tr>
<td>500-1000<td>17,605
<tr>
<td>1000+<td>88,873
</table>

</blockquote>
* [[Education]]: policy named [[No Child Left Behind]], includes mandatory national testing and some support for school vouchers.

* Drilling in the [[Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]] and other domestic fields is claimed to decrease dependence on oil imports, particularly from the Middle East. However, many environmentalists hold that it will produce such small amounts of petroleum as to be effectively useless and will certainly do far greater harm to irreplaceable and finite resources of the planet than good.

Opponents of such drilling recommend alternate courses of action such as to complete research on and implement as a matter of urgency alternative, safe and renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind and tidal power - but not nuclear. Although perhaps requiring greater initial investment, in the long run these are now accepted by many informed environmentalists and scientists as being the most viable alternative to what they see as the vigorously anti-environmental approaches of the Bush administration. 

* Redesign of military with emphasis on supermodern hardware, flexible tactics, speed, less international deployment, fewer troops. This includes developing a system to defend against ballistic missile attacks, despite strong objections both domestically and internationally.

=== Foreign policy ===

Bush's most significant foreign policy platform before coming to office involved support of a stronger economic and political relationship with Latin America, in particular Mexico, and a reduction in involvement in "nation-building" and other small-scale military engagements. 

Bush's withdrawal from global initiatives such as the [[Kyoto Protocol]] have convinced many that he (and his administration) are evading international responsibilities. Many governments have expressed their concern and dismay at what they see as a failure to ratify what they consider to be a key international [[environmental treaty]] and many nations (including the composite national grouping, the [[European Union|EU]]) are actively considering imposing sanctions against the US.

A change of focus immediately followed the [[September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack]]. His foreign (and domestic, to a lesser degree) policy was subsequently defined, above all, by the "[[War on Terrorism]]". This was first announced in a special "Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People" on [[September 20]], [[2001]] in which war on terrorism was declared. This policy is marked by a move away from U.N. led efforts and thus, towards a coercive unilateralism. 

Americans on the political left as well as citizens and leaders of a number of other countries, particularly in Western Europe, complain that Bush has tended to act without first consulting them. Key objections include rejecting the [[Kyoto Protocol]], and threatening to invade countries such as [[Iraq]] with or without UN support.

On October 16, 2002 Bush signed a congressional resolution which allows him to start war with Iraq without further permission from Congress. Critics argue that this has given him far too much power and some people argue: "What we really need is not a regime change in Iraq, but rather one in the USA."

On [[November 8]], [[2002]] the UN Council voted unanimously in favor of the administration's resolution forbidding Iraq from producing or using [[Iraqi production and use of weapons of mass destruction|weapons of mass destruction]]. The resolution, which says that Iraq will face ''tough consequences'' if it fails to disarm, had support from a larger number of countries than the [[1991]] Gulf War Resolution. 

In July, 2002, Bush cut off $34 million in funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). This funding had been allocated by Congress the previous December. Bush claimed that the UNFPA supported forced abortions and sterilizations in China. His justification came from a bipartisan group of antiabortion members of Congress and an antiabortion organization called [[The Population Research Institute]], which claimed to have obtained first-hand video taped evidence from victims of forced abortion and forced sterilization in county where the UNFPA operates in China. The decision was praised by many in pro-life movement, including the United States' largest public policy women's organization, [[Concerned Women For America]]. 

Pro-choice critics criticize the decision and point out that the PRI refused to release information that would allow the team to locate the women, and thus no independent verification of PRI's claims was possible. Nor was it possible to confirm that UNFPA funding was actually behind the abortion and forced sterilizations alleged in the video. However, he sent a fact finding team to China to investigate the situation there, and the team reported that UNFPA funding did not go towards forced abortions or sterilizations. Bush thus disregarded the findings of his own investigatory mission on this matter. See [http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/4170956.htm] for more information on the PRI.

=== Civil Liberties ===

Civil Libertarians have criticized the Bush administration for scaling back civil liberties in the United States. Among the concerns are:

* The "Total Information Awareness" program will collect information on every American into a large database. All sorts of personal data--magazine subscriptions, college transcripts, credit card purchases, and other information--will be collected on every American and used for "data mining" purposes. Critics see this as a "Big Brother" style operation that effectively subjects the American people to a massive government spying campaign.

* "The Homeland Security Act", strongly supported by Bush, exempts many activities of the [[Department of Homeland Security]] from the [[Freedom of Information Act]], thus increasing government secrecy and exempting its actions from scrutiny by the American people.

* The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review gave the Bush Administration the authority to spy on Americans, including such actions as reading their e-mail, listening to their telephone conversations, or otherwise searching their private property even if they have not been suspected of terrorism.

* The FBI instituted "Project Lookout", which distributed "watch lists" of people alleged to be suspicious. These watch lists, culled from sometimes unreliable sources, were sent to prospective employers and other destinations, sometimes. Innocent people, sometimes subjected to harassment or discrimination, were unable to get their names off these lists.

* The federal government distributed "No-fly" lists to airports, which caused people to be repeatedly singled out at airports, forced to miss flights or undergo special scrutiny. Many of the people on these lists included peace activists or other critics of the Bush administration.

* The [[United States Department of Justice]] proposed "Operation TIPS", which would have created a vast network of amateur spies, in which Americans would spy on one another. This proposal was rejected after an initial outcry.

* The [[Washington Post]] reported, in an investigation, that the Bush administration is using [[torture]] against suspected terrorists in [[Afghanistan]]. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37943-2002Dec25.html]

Bush has also been criticized for increasing government secrecy and government control over the flow of information.

* According to a [[New York Times]] investigative report, the Bush administration has been criticized by "historians, legal experts, and lawmakers of both parties" for drastically clamping down on openness in government. [http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/03/politics/03SECR.html]

* Researchers from major universities have been pressured by the Bush administration to subject their research findings to government scrutiny, along with other restrictions on academic freedom. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/01/03/MN222846.DTL]

* The Bush administration cancelled a Labor Department program that tracked potentially embarrassing statistics on mass layoffs by American companies. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/01/03/MN120712.DTL]

See [http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=11355&c=206]



* 

== Legislation signed ==

''Partial list:''
* [[May 13]], 2002: [[Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002]] (aka H.R. 2646, 2001 Farm Bill)
* [[USA PATRIOT Act]]

See also: [[Environmentalism and George Bush]], [[US Election 2000]]

== External Links ==
* [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020129-11.html 2002 State of the Union Address]
* [http://bushfiles.com/bushfiles/bush_toc.html history of his political career] - partisan
* [http://bushnews.com bushnews.com] - Anti Bush News Site