Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy [Hardcover]

Bruce Bartlett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 2006

George W. Bush came to the presidency in 2000 claiming to be the heir of Ronald Reagan. But while he did cut taxes, in most other respects he has governed in a way utterly unlike his revered predecessor, expanding the size and scope of government, letting immigration go unchecked, and allowing the federal budget to mushroom out of control.

Despite their strong misgivings, most conservatives remained silent during Bush’s first term. But a series of missteps and scandals, culminating in the ill-conceived nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, has brought this hidden rift within the conservative movement crashing to the surface.

Now, in what is sure to be the political book of the season, Bruce Bartlett lays bare the incompetence and profligacy of Bush’s economic policies. A highly respected Washington economist—and true-believing Reaganite—Bartlett started out as a supporter of Bush and helped him craft his tax cuts. But he was dismayed by the way they were executed. Reagan combined his tax cuts with fiscal restraint, but Bush has done the opposite. Bartlett thus reluctantly concluded that Bush is not a Reaganite at all, but an unprincipled opportunist who will do whatever he or his advisers think is expedient to buy votes.

In this sober, thorough, and utterly devastating book, Bartlett attacks the Bush Administration's economic performance root and branch, from the "stovepiping" of its policy process to the coercive tactics used to ram its policies through Congress, to the effects of the policies themselves. He is especially hard on Bush’s enormous new Medicare entitlement…and predicts that within a few years, Bush's tax cuts and unrestricted spending will produce an economic crisis that will require a major tax increase, probably in the form of a European-style VAT.

Bartlett has surprisingly kind words for Bill Clinton, whose record on the budget was far better than Bush’s. Whatever else one may think of him, Bartlett argues, Clinton cut spending, abolished a federal entitlement program, and left a budget surplus. By contrast, Bush has increased spending, created a massive entitlement program, and produced the biggest deficits in American history.

In fact, Bartlett concludes, Bush is less like Reagan than like Nixon: an arch-conservative Republican, bitterly hated by liberals, who vainly tried to woo moderates by enacting big parts of the liberal program. It didn't work then, and it won't work now—and may have similar harmful effects for the GOP.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Liberal commentators gripe so frequently about the current administration that it's become easy to tune them out, but when Bartlett, a former member of the Reagan White House, says George W. Bush has betrayed the conservative movement, his conservative credentials command attention. Bartlett's attack boils down to one key premise: Bush is a shallow opportunist who has cast aside the principles of the "Reagan Revolution" for short-term political gains that may wind up hurting the American economy as badly as, if not worse than, Nixon's did. As part of a simple, point-by-point critique of Bush's "finger-in-the-wind" approach to economic leadership, Bartlett singles out the Medicare prescription drug bill of 2003— "the worst piece of legislation ever enacted"—as a particularly egregious example of the increases in government spending that will, he says, make tax hikes inevitable. Bush has further weakened the Republican Party by failing to establish a successor who can run in the next election, Bartlett says. If the Reaganites want to restore the party's tradition of fiscal conservatism and small government, he worries, let alone keep the Democrats out of the White House, they will have their work cut out for them. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Bartlett, an economist and former Reagan administration official, attacks the Bush administration hard but from the political Right. Challenging Bush's conservative principles of operation and credentials, Bartlett actually gives former president Clinton more credit for following conservative economic principles. In contrast, the Bush administration has been marked by shortsightedness, if not anti--intellectualism, too willing to reward friends without regard to competency and to punish as enemies those who deviate from the party line. Bush's shortcomings include his drug bill, trade policies, and expanded regulatory requirements. Interestingly, Bartlett concludes that Bush's relentless effort to cut taxes will leave an unenviable legacy for a conservative--the need for America's largest tax increase. Bartlett also takes the administration to task for corruption that violates the principles of difference the Republican Party declared during the campaign against Clinton. This is a worthy critique, one that the administration will not be able to dismiss as liberal propaganda. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; First Edition edition (February 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385518277
• ISBN-13: 978-0385518277
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #449,392 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bruce Bartlett is a columnist for The Fiscal Times, an online newspaper covering public and personal finance, and Tax Notes, a weekly magazine for tax practitioners and policymakers. He also contributes a weekly post to the Economix blog at the New York Times, and writes regularly for the Financial Times. Bartlett was previously a columnist for Forbes magazine and Creators Syndicate. His writing often focuses on the intersection between politics and economics and attempts to inform politicians about economics, and economists about the current nature of politics.

Bartlett's work is informed by many years in government, including service on the staffs of Congressmen Ron Paul and Jack Kemp and Senator Roger Jepsen, as executive director of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, senior policy analyst in the Reagan White House, and deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department during the George H.W. Bush administration.

Bruce is the author of eight books including the New York Times best-seller, Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy (Doubleday, 2006). His last book was The New American Economy: The Failure of Reaganomics and a New Way Forward (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). His new book, The Benefit and the Burden, will be published by Simon and Schuster in 2012 and is a history and review of issues related to tax reform.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

337 of 348 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful indictment from a voice we cannot ignore, February 21, 2006

By 

J. A Magill (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy (Hardcover)

When pundits for years complained about the excess of ideology in politics, they did not consider what might replace it once gone. Bruce Bartlett, a conservative economist with impeccable credentials dating back to President Reagan's White House, answers that question in this important book with disturbing results. Analyzing the administration of the current President Bush he concludes that lacking a coherent ideology, what comes to reign in its place is a crass political opportunism. While coming from a liberal writer such attacks might seem old hat, Bartlett moves from his home on the right, arguing not only that the current White House shows signs of frequent incompetence, but in fact has betrayed the principles that the conservative movement embraced for the last forty years.

Taking the competence question first, Bartlett examines how little appetite the current administration has for serious analysis and research. Citing sources on issues ranging from national security, to economics, to healthcare, the author offers examples to prove a pattern of stifling debate, cajoling, sidelining, and even threatening those who would question the policy conclusions determined mostly by political handlers instead of policy experts. Surrounding himself with "political hacks" whose main ability rests in the ability to "say yes and ignore the obvious," the administration often begins with policy and then searches out justifications. Thrashing dissent and ignoring the traditional policy experts who work from positions of expertise, Bartlett sees the President's failure on important issues as Social Security, healthcare, and perhaps even Iraq arising from this dysfunctional process. Thus the author looks to the rough treatment of both the Treasury Secretaries and the Council of Economic advisors, used not to formulate thoughtful policy, but instead to sell an often incoherent program to the public.

Troubled by the current White House's obsession with secrecy, the author further wonders how the notion of an imperial presidency overthrew a conservative commitment to openness and reliance on legislative authority. Sadly, the timing of this work's publication does not allow us to hear Mr. Bartlett's musing on the current question of domestic surveillance without judicial approval and what that means for the libertarian ideas Conservatives for so long cherished.

On the issue of breaking with conservative ideals, Bartlett proves even more adroit in his criticism. Time and again, Bartlett points out how President Bush ignores fundamental issues such as a fiscal discipline and the desire for smaller government in order to avoid tough decisions and opportunistically score political points. Thus the author wonders about the greatest expansion of the social welfare state since the new deal with the Medicare Drug Benefit under a supposedly Conservative President. Again, the competence issue comes into play, as the White House suppresses the analysis of dissenting experts with grave concerns that the cost estimates of the program were woefully inadequate. History speaks for itself, as the cost estimates of those experts that we never learned of proved to be correct.

Bartlett further stares aghast at the exploding federal deficit and wonders how President Bush can add new spending to a budget already flooded with red ink. That this President now hold a record for going the longest without wielding his veto pen, especially in the face of pork laden budget busters like the recent highway bill, leaves Conservatives like Bartlett truly dumbstruck. Indeed, the author commits a deep herasy when praising the budget discipline of the Clinton White House in contrast to the policies of the current administration.

If the author's work falls short in one area, it is his failure to examine why so much of the conservative movement follows in lock-step behind policies that clearly violate long cherished beliefs. Supposedly Conservative Congressmen passed the drug benefit. Conservative intellectuals and officeholders actively defend the President as he spies on some American citizens and holds others without due process, both affronts to the very idea of personal liberty do crucial to libertarian ideals. Fox News and Talk Radio overflows with once conservative voices now turned to mere shills defending whatever policy the White House happens to roll out.

Conservatives should look to Mr. Bartlett's fine book as a wake up call. No doubt, White House attack dogs will do all they can to savage this fine, thoughtful disciple of Reagan, but if the rank and file allow that to happen it will leave their party in grave jeopardy. Just as the Democrats find themselves adrift, having abandoned philosophy for the expediency of power and in the end finding them selves bereft of both, Republicans may end up walking the same plank.

158 of 173 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Honest Conservative, February 24, 2006

By 

Nebraskan (Omaha, NE) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy (Hardcover)

Very rare, to find someone on the right who speaks the truth about this administration.

He brings an insider's view, from the right, and documents his claims.

I've waited several years for a conservative "small government" supporter to explain to me how Bush inherited a $5.1 trillion deficit and is currently (per his own White House) expected to leave office with an $11.5 trillion deficit, a better than 100% growth in our national debt in eight years!

War without an exit strategy, based on lies; largest expansion of the "welfare" system since Medicare was founded; spying on Americans in violation of Federal law...Yet so many who claim they are conservative just look the other way or make excuses.

Bartlett does a great job, and I recommend this to anyone (especially someone who considers him/herself a conservative)! Read it, then see if you still think George W. Bush is a "conservative"!

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Corroboration, March 13, 2006

By 

Lance B. Sjogren (San Pedro, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy (Hardcover)

Much of what Bartlett says will already be familiar to people who follow politics to some degree. To me an important purpose this book serves is that it represents a well-respected conservative confirming what anyone who follows politics honestly will have concluded on their own by now about the Bush administration: that it is not conservative, that it fails to represent Republican principles, that it engages in grandiose and reckless initiatives that are not grounded in reality, and that a good case can be made that essentially everything it has undertaken has been a failure.

One particularly good point made by Bartlett is that many of Bush's initiatives have been geared toward winning popular support for the Administration and the Republican Party, rather than serving the public interest (e.g. Medicare drug program), yet they have turned out not only (as expected) to be policy failures, but political failures as well.

It is heartening that the public is finally becoming more fully aware of just how complete a failure the Bush administration has been, as can be seen in the public opinion polls.

A couple of the most devastating indictments in Bartlett's book are those relating to the Medicare drug benefit and the drive to reform Social Security.

As Bartlett points out, the Social Security reform effort became divorced from the original supposed purpose of shoring up the long-term fiscal soundness of the system by the fact that it wound up simply being about private accounts, which, under the most charitable assessment, would not do a great deal to shore up the system.

However, Bush continued to pitch his reforms as being geared toward that goal. And not only did Bush's proposals not address the problem, they ignored the far bigger long-term problem of the fiscal soundness of Medicare. Bush instead put through a hugely expensive Medicare drug benefit that greatly exacerbated the Medicare insolvency problem.

Thus, Bush's handling of Medicare and Social Security has been absolutely incoherent.

During all this time, however, Republican loyalists were standing with Bush, extolling the virtues of these proposals, which to any moderately intelligent layman were clearly absurd.

It was frustrating that for so long a time Bush loyalists were able to maintain an intellectual climate in which any attempt to interject reason into these policy matters was simply dismissed out of hand, lest a broader awareness develop that "the emperor has no clothes". But by now, the smoke and mirrors aren't working much any more, and the public is becoming increasingly aware that the emperor is naked.

Bartlett does not cover the immigration issue a great deal in his book but that is another issue upon which Bush has proposed policies that fly in the face of reason. On that issue, however, Bush at least has company- the far left advocate "open borders" policies that share much in common with those proposed by the far right.

For more discussion of that issue, keep an eye out for my upcoming book "Immigration Politics" which should be in print by late April to May of this year. I include considerable material documenting the myriad ways in which the Bush administration has brazenly refused to enforce the immigration laws, endangering the public safety and even the very viability of the United States as a sovereign nation.