Captain Bush

I recently read an article that disparaged President Bush's eight years in office to a degree that made me cringe. What editorials like the one I read fail to recognize is the job responsibilities of the President can be condensed into a series of negotiations. These negotations take place between the President and Congress and the American people (lately the American people's voice has become less and less a factor). When the President wishes to wage a war in order to halt the advance of a philosophy that seeks to rule the world, he must first consult with Congress. Congress then either agrees with him, or does not. In the majority of circumstances, Congress allows the President to conduct the war, approves the funding for the war and in return gets more flexibility to do what Congress wants, which is to spend more of the American people's money. Sometimes, this is a good thing. When we have been attacked on American soil and thousands of citizens have died, then of course we must reciporcate. If we do not, then the perpetrators of such evil deeds will feel emboldened and will continue to press their advantage. However, many in Congress could not care less about protecting the citizenry. The way they see it is they now have carte blanche to spend more dollars on other programs, thereby cementing their reelections. The additional spending on the war coupled with the additional spending on new and existing government programs adds up to billions (and now) trillions of dollars. If the economy goes into recession because of this spending, is anyone surprised? I'm certainly not. It's human nature to blame the 'Captain', but in this case, blame can be equally porportioned to Congress as well.