Talk:George W. Bush

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Biography Section (First Section)

The first sentence of the third paragraph states: "As president, Bush signed into law a US$1.35 trillion tax cut program in 2001,[3]" It should be followed with "This tax cut was not accompanied by reduced spending and resulted in the National Debt increasing for only the second time in 50 Years (Reagan's Administration being the other time).[226]

226. National Debt History by President. White House Data on Gross National Debt. http://zfacts.com/p/318.html

Factsonly1 (talk) 20:26, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Hmm. May be worth mentioning, but we also don't want to poison the well. Could go either way. My reasoning: we already mention the national debt rising below. We don't want to be redundant, necessarily. Perhaps, instead, we could make mention in the national debt part that "many economists attribute the rise to a failure to cut spending coupled with the tax cuts". The Evil Spartan (talk) 20:55, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Could go either way. I find it hard to imagine a reliable economist would say that the national debt rising is in anyway due to tax cuts though. The federal government has been collecting record tax reciepts ever since those tax cuts went into effect. Finding an economist stating that the rise in national debt is at least partially due to failure to cut spending shouldn't be to hard to find though. Elhector (talk) 21:06, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

In fact, I read an article from the AP the other day that stated as much in just as many words. It stated directly that the tax cuts were not enough, by themselves, to reduce debts. They made it sound like they used some sort of metrics and mathematical data. I'm sensitive to the fact that the media is quite eager to make Bush look bad, but it still is a reliable source; now, finding it would be another issue. The Evil Spartan (talk) 21:12, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

The problem there I presume is the assumption the rising tax collection was because of the tax cuts. In reality many countries without tax cuts have rising tax collection, probably because of growing economies etc and therefore there's no reason to presume that the US tax collection wouldn't have gone up more were it not for the tax cuts. Of course I'm not suggesting that all economists agree I'm sure many wouldn't but I'm also sure many would in fact question how effective the Bush tax cuts have been at growing the economy and reducing US debt Nil Einne (talk) 09:42, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

From a quick search I came across this [1]. Also this [2] while obviously not a RS may have some helpful links Nil Einne (talk) 09:47, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm sure we can find just as many reliable sources saying the tax cuts have helped grow the econonmy and increased tax revenue as we can find reliable sources stating the tax cuts have not helped grow the economy and have had no effect on tax revenue. It seems to be more and more of a problem for Wikipedia as a whole now. It's possible to find reliable sources that completely contradict each other even though they both meet all reliability guidlines. I'm even starting to notice situations where 2 peices from the same source completely contradict them selves. I guess that's the issue here. Is it really a good idea to go that in depth in analysis of 1 small part of GW's domestic policy on an article that is meant to be more of an overall biography of his entire life? I think this would be more appropriate for a different article. That's just my opinion though. Elhector (talk) 19:02, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Perceptions & Polls

The sections dealing with "perceptions" are per se suspect. While I do not doubt that the cited polls took place and I accept the results of those polls as correctly cited, it should be noted that polls are easily manipulated. What questions are asked and what information is given along with the question can tilt the result one way or another. Also, if the party that conducted the poll has an agenda the poll results should be taken with a grain of salt.--Repeal 16-17 (talk) 22:48, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

I have retitled the "Criticism and public perception" section to "Public perceptions." All perceptions are either critical, complimentary, a mix of those two, or are strictly factual (e.g. "It's raining outside"). Placing the word "Criticism" in the title of this section is superfluous at best and biased at worst. The new title removes the emphasis on the critical perceptions.--Repeal 16-17 (talk) 01:20, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

Category

May I ask how George Bush is in the category American Cheerleaders? Hatmatbbat10 (talk) 22:17, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

He was a cheerleader in school. -- Dougie WII (talk) 22:18, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Ok....Hatmatbbat10 (talk) 22:21, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I just have to say that I cannot believe that even though this is a locked article, a fairly obvious act of vandalism exists at the top of the page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.45.239.13 (talk) 21:33, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

this article is not locked, it is merely restricted. the vandalism was autoreverted by a bot moments after it was done. Anastrophe (talk) 21:40, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

actually, I think it's still there...