The Bush Record

A look at the ups and downs of George W. Bush's presidency on some of the biggest issues of the day:

___

BUDGET

Bush inherited a federal budget that had just posted a record $236 billion surplus, but the U.S. government's fiscal picture deteriorated sharply on his watch. The deficit for the recently completed 2008 budget year registered a record $455 billion, and the 2009 deficit is sure to be far worse as slumping revenues, the costs of the fiscal bailout and a huge economic stimulus bill promise to produce a deficit exceeding $1 trillion — the latest estimate is $1.2 trillion.

The flood of red ink has almost doubled the national debt during Bush's tenure in office. The gross debt was $5.8 trillion in 2001, but now registers $10.7 trillion. Interest payments on the debt cost $451 billion in 2008.

The deficit has been fueled by ever-increasing spending, including a wartime defense budget that has doubled since 2001 — from $290 billion to $594 billion in 2008. Overall, the budget has grown from $1.9 trillion in 2001 to $3 trillion in 2008.

On taxes, Bush's landmark 2001 and 2003 tax cut bills have reduced taxes on income, investments and large estates. The child tax credit was doubled to $1,000 per child and the so-called marriage penalty was eased.

__

CONGRESS

Bush's two terms are in many ways a study in contrasts. For the first four years, his popularity and role as a wartime president translated into notable successes in Congress. In his second term, Bush was never able to cash in on the "political capital" he claimed after his re-election.

His first term was defined by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, coming just eight months after his inauguration. He oversaw the revamping of homeland security and took the lead in the war on terrorism. With the backing of Congress, he initiated military action in Afghanistan and Iraq.

On the homefront, Bush, enjoying Republican majorities in Congress for most of the term, moved quickly to enact more than $1 trillion in tax cuts and pass the No Child Left Behind education reforms. At the end of 2003, he advocated and signed the Medicare prescription drug benefit act, vastly expanding the federal role in health care. He also pushed through Congress a much-hailed program to help AIDS victims in Africa.

Things quickly turned after his 2004 re-election. Despite a personal national campaign, his effort to privatize some aspects of Social Security went nowhere in Congress. Hurricane Katrina and bad news from Iraq sent his popularity plummeting and in the 2006 election Democrats captured control of Congress. He was unable to advance major immigration legislation and last spring was unable to stop Republicans from joining Democrats in overriding his veto of a $290 billion farm bill. The most lasting achievement of his second term may be his appointment of two conservatives to the Supreme Court: John Roberts as chief justice and Samuel Alito as associate justice.

___

ECONOMY

Bush has endured economic travails the likes of which no president has seen since the days of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt. There have been two recessions during his time in office. The first was a relatively mild downturn that began in March 2001, just after he took office, and lasted eight months, ending in November 2001.

The second downturn began December 2007 and has already lasted longer than any recession in a quarter century. If it does not end until the second half of this year, which many economists believe is likely, the current recession will have surpassed in length all other downturns of the post-World War II period.

The current recession has been accompanied by the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression, prompting the government to provide hundreds of billions of dollars in an attempt to spur banks to resume more normal lending, an effort that so far has had mixed results. Despite the massive amounts of assistance, some big names on Wall Street collapsed in 2009 or were taken over by competitors. American households have seen trillions of dollars in savings evaporate while job losses have steadily mounted. The Dow Jones industrial average fell by 33.8 percent in 2008, the biggest decline since 1931.

Since the start of the recession, the economy has lost nearly 2 million jobs. Even when the economy has not been in recession, job creation has been anemic. While the recession ended in late 2001, there was a long stretch of a "jobless recovery" in which job losses continued even though economic output was growing again. Job growth did not resume on a sustained basis until September 2003, continuing until January 2007, a period of 52 months.