Bush Presidency Marked By Missed Opportunities

George W. Bush leaves office with a decidedly mixed record. He can justly claim to have kept the United States safe from a repeat of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. But he would have had a more successful presidency had he more closely adhered to conservative principles.

Those principles can be summarized in one word: judiciousness. The test for any president is the judicious use of public dollars and of military force.

When it comes to the use of public dollars, George W. Bush was not conservative. He either initiated or acquiesced in major increases in public spending, budget deficits and national debt. As a result, the financial situation of the nation is weaker as it confronts a recession.

As the London Economist notes, when he came to office, Bush inherited a budget surplus that amounted to 1 percent of the nation's gross domestic product or total economic output. Last year, the budget deficit totaled more than 2 percent of gross domestic product. A Heritage Foundation analysis projects the 2009 budget deficit at 8.6 percent of gross domestic product, a record for the years since the end of World War II.

To be fair, a significant part of this latest deficit increase comes from economic stimulus packages that have already been adopted or are expected. But the run-up in both federal spending and deficits when the economy was growing has made confronting this recession that much more difficult.

Between fiscal 2001 and fiscal 2007, spending on federal programs increased by nearly 50 percent. During roughly the same period, a Cato Institute analysis notes, federal subsidy programs increased to 1,696 from 1,425, a rise of 19 percent.

Federal entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid threaten to engulf the federal budget over time. While Bush tried unsuccessfully to ease the pressure on Social Security by giving workers a chance to have a small portion of their Social Security taxes diverted to personal investment accounts, he also created a new entitlement of prescription drugs for seniors within the Medicare program.

The Heritage Foundation projects that this program alone will cost more than $56 billion by the end of President-elect Barack Obama's term. Heritage notes that Medicare spending grew 40 percent faster than inflation during Bush's second term.

None of this reflects conservative principles that encourage people to be self-reliant and emphasize the careful use of public funds.

Bush's foreign policy is the subject of heated controversy. If Iraq becomes stable and self-governing, the centerpiece of Bush's policy will ultimately be judged a success. That question remains unresolved.

The decision to topple Saddam Hussein has to be judged on the basis of the best information available to President Bush. That's also still a matter of debate.

Once the decision was taken, however, the question becomes whether U.S. military force was used as wisely as it should have been. It was not. The more than 4,000 U.S. fatalities resulting from the invasion and occupation of Iraq pale in comparison to the more than 58,000 military lives lost in Vietnam, but a truly conservative president would have been more attuned to the inherent weakness of human nature, with its tendency toward faction, strife and irrationality, which has certainly been on exhibit in Iraq.

For too long during the occupation, Bush and his team attempted to control Iraq with a military force that was too small for the task, which may well have protracted the need to maintain troops there. Only when Bush decided on a troop "surge" did prospects for some success in Iraq improve.

In sum, Bush's presidency may well get better grades than it has received so far, but it has also been marked by missed opportunities to streamline the federal government, control federal spending and reform entitlement programs that will strain the federal budget for years to come.

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