Yes, the guy who our current president blames for driving America into a ditch has just displayed more maturity and wisdom than either of the two candidates...
The former president, who was confronted with a recession early in his first term and then presided over a long period of sustained though not particularly robust growth before 2008, does not use the book to defend his record, but instead tries to move forward.
“While the causes of the 2008 crisis will be debated by scholars for decades to come, we can all agree that excessive risk-taking by financial institutions, irresponsible decisions by lenders and borrowers, and market-distorting government policies all played a role,” Mr. Bush wrote in the foreword. “The question now is which policies we should adopt to fix the problems, speed the recovery, and lay the foundation for another long, steady expansion.”
James K. Glassman, executive director of the George W. Bush Institute, which assembled the book, said the former president did not want to rehash the past. “This is not a backward-looking book,” Mr. Glassman said. “We hope that the book will be a centerpiece of conversation and debate about economic policy in the campaign and beyond.”
The book tries to reorient the economic debate away from how many jobs are created each month to a focus on stimulating growth that will generate worthwhile jobs. Government programs can create jobs that do not mean much to the country, the book argues, and it would be better to figure out how to expand the private sector.
At the same time, while warning of the consequences of spiraling federal debt, the book cautions against deficit reduction as an immediate goal, saying tax increases and spending cuts in the short term could strangle growth. “Reducing the debt is critical,” Mr. Glassman wrote in the book’s introduction, “but growth comes first.”What a novel concept, dropping the blame game and looking ahead.
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