George W. Bush has done more to wreck US economic policy than any other President in American history, exceeding even his mentor, Ronald Reagan. In just three years in office, he has destroyed a fragile political consensus that had taken a decade to construct, and that could take another decade to re-create. In doing so, Bush has risked America's long-term economic health and social stability. Because the long-term budgetary challenges that the US is so badly mismanaging are not unique, America's fiscal blunders provide important lessons for other countries.
George W. Bush has done more to wreck US economic policy than any other President in American history, exceeding even his mentor, Ronald Reagan. In just three years in office, he has destroyed a fragile political consensus that had taken a decade to construct, and that could take another decade to re-create. In doing so, Bush has risked America's long-term economic health and social stability. Because the long-term budgetary challenges that the US is so badly mismanaging are not unique, America's fiscal blunders provide important lessons for other countries.