A Sacrifice Too Far
President Bush continued his trek through the acronymically named channels with an appearance on PBS's NewsHour on Tuesday night. While many have noted how out of touch Dubya seems or his silly euphemism about cracked eggs, much more than just the callousness with which he speaks of sacrifice was revealed during the interview.
Think Progress has the video of the relevant exchange (emphasis mine):
Bush's continued opposition to doing what most would consider common sense, raising taxes to pay for a war, has nothing to do with keeping the economy healthy. On the contrary, it has everything to do with his legacy. There are so few positive things one can note about the Bush II years that he's desperate to maintain the one thing he will be known for besides Iraq. For him to roll back those tax cuts would mean being remembered as a president who was too quick in bringing war but not quick enough in bringing the peace.
(Filed at State of the Day)
Think Progress has the video of the relevant exchange (emphasis mine):
LEHRER: Let me ask you a bottom-line question, Mr. President. If it is as important as you’ve just said - and you’ve said it many times - as all of this is, particularly the struggle in Iraq, if it’s that important to all of us and to the future of our country, if not the world, why have you not, as president of the United States, asked more Americans and more American interests to sacrifice something? The people who are now sacrificing are, you know, the volunteer military - the Army and the U.S. Marines and their families. They’re the only people who are actually sacrificing anything at this point.
Bush: Well, you know, I think a lot of people are in this fight. I mean, they sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images of violence on TV every night. I mean, we’ve got a fantastic economy here in the United States, but yet, when you think about the psychology of the country, it is somewhat down because of this war.
Now, here in Washington when I say, “What do you mean by that?,” they say, “Well, why don’t you raise their taxes; that’ll cause there to be a sacrifice.” I strongly oppose that. If that’s the kind of sacrifice people are talking about, I’m not for it because raising taxes will hurt this growing economy. And one thing we want during this war on terror is for people to feel like their life’s moving on, that they’re able to make a living and send their kids to college and put more money on the table. And you know, I am interested and open-minded to the suggestion, but this is going to be -
LEHRER: Well -
BUSH: — this is like saying why don’t you make sacrifices in the Cold War? I mean, Iraq is only a part of a larger ideological struggle. But it’s a totally different kind of war, than ones we’re used to.
Bush's continued opposition to doing what most would consider common sense, raising taxes to pay for a war, has nothing to do with keeping the economy healthy. On the contrary, it has everything to do with his legacy. There are so few positive things one can note about the Bush II years that he's desperate to maintain the one thing he will be known for besides Iraq. For him to roll back those tax cuts would mean being remembered as a president who was too quick in bringing war but not quick enough in bringing the peace.
(Filed at State of the Day)
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