administered by
Chief Justice William Rehnquist at
the Capitol, January 20, 2001. Bush had originally outlined an ambitious domestic agenda, but his priorities were significantly altered following the
September 11 attacks. Wars were begun in Afghanistan and Iraq, and there were significant domestic debates regarding immigration, healthcare, Social Security, economic policy, and treatment of terrorist detainees. Over an eight-year period, Bush's once-high approval ratings steadily declined, while his disapproval numbers increased significantly. In 2007, the United States entered the longest post-
World War II recession.
Domestic policy Economic policy Bush took office during a period of economic recession in the wake of the bursting of the
dot-com bubble. The September 11 terrorist attacks also
impacted the economy. His administration increased federal
government spending from $1.789trillion to $2.983trillion (66%), while revenues increased from $2.025trillion to $2.524trillion (from 2000 to 2008). Individual income tax revenues increased by 14%, corporate tax revenues by 50%, and customs and duties by 40%. Discretionary defense spending was increased by 107%, discretionary domestic spending by 62%, Medicare spending by 131%, social security by 51%, and income security spending by 130%. Cyclically adjusted, revenues rose by 35% and spending by 65%. The increase in spending was more than under any predecessor since
Lyndon B. Johnson. The number of
economic regulation governmental workers increased by 91,196. The surplus in fiscal year 2000 was $237billionthe third consecutive surplus and the largest surplus ever. In 2001, Bush's budget estimated that there would be a $5.6trillion surplus over the next ten years. Facing congressional opposition, Bush held town hall-style meetings across the U.S. to increase public support for his plan for
a $1.35trillion tax cut program, one of the largest tax cuts in U.S. history. Treasury Secretary
Paul H. O'Neill opposed some of the tax cuts on the basis they would contribute to budget deficits and undermine
Social Security. O'Neill disputes the claim, made in Bush's book
Decision Points, that he never openly disagreed with him on planned tax cuts. By 2003, the economy showed signs of improvement, though job growth remained stagnant. Between 2001 and 2008, GDP grew at an average annual rate of 2.125%, less than for past business cycles. Bush entered office with the
Dow Jones Industrial Average at 10,587, and the average peaked in October 2007 at over 14,000. When Bush left office, the average was at 7,949, one of the lowest levels of his presidency. Only four other U.S. presidents have left office with the stock market lower than when they began. and
debt increased from 2001 to 2009. Gross debt increased over $500billion each year after the 2003 fiscal year. Unemployment originally rose from 4.2% in January 2001 to 6.3% in June 2003, but subsequently dropped to 4.5% in July 2007. Adjusted for inflation,
median household income dropped by $1,175 between 2000 and 2007, while Professor Ken Homa of
Georgetown University noted that "Median real after-tax household income went up two percent". The poverty rate increased from 11.3% in 2000 to 12.3% in 2006 after peaking at 12.7% in 2004. By October 2008, due to increases in spending, the
U.S. national debt had risen to $11.3trillion, more than doubling it since 2000. Most debt was accumulated as a result of what became known as the "
Bush tax cuts" and increased national security spending. In March 2006, then-senator
Barack Obama said when he voted against raising the
debt ceiling: "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure." By the end of Bush's presidency, unemployment climbed to 7.2%.
2008 financial crisis In December 2007, the United States entered the longest post–
World War II recession, and in November, over 500,000 jobs were lost, which marked the largest loss of jobs in the United States in 34 years. The
Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in the last four months of 2008, 1.9 million jobs were lost. By the end of 2008, the U.S. had lost 2.6 million jobs. To aid with the situation, Bush signed a $170billion economic stimulus package which was intended to improve the economic situation by sending tax rebate checks to many Americans and providing tax breaks for struggling businesses. The Bush administration pushed for significantly increased regulation of
Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac in 2003, and after two years, the regulations passed the House but died in the Senate. Many Republican senators, as well as influential members of the Bush Administration, feared that the agency created by these regulations would merely be mimicking the private sector's risky practices. In September 2008, the
2008 financial crisis intensified, beginning with the
Federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac followed by the
bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and a federal bailout of
American International Group for $85billion. Many economists and world governments determined that the situation had become the worst financial crisis since the
Great Depression. Additional regulation over the housing market would have been beneficial, according to former Federal Reserve chairman
Alan Greenspan. Bush, meanwhile, proposed
a financial rescue plan to buy back a large portion of the U.S. mortgage market. Vince Reinhardt, a former Federal Reserve economist now at the
American Enterprise Institute, said "it would have helped for the Bush administration to empower the folks at Treasury and the Federal Reserve and the comptroller of the currency and the
FDIC to look at these issues more closely", and additionally, that it would have helped "for Congress to have held hearings". into law, January 8, 2002 One of the administration's early major initiatives was the
No Child Left Behind Act, which aimed to measure and close the gap between rich and poor student performance, provide options to parents with students in low-performing schools, and target more federal funding to low-income schools. This landmark education initiative passed with broad bipartisan support, including the support of Senator
Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. It was signed into law by Bush in early 2002. Many contend that the initiative has been successful, as cited by the fact that students in the U.S. have performed significantly better on state reading and math tests since Bush signed "No Child Left Behind" into law. Critics argue that it is underfunded and that NCLBA's focus on "high-stakes testing" and quantitative outcomes is counterproductive. On November 1, 2005, Bush launched a
National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza, which culminated in an implementation plan published by the Homeland Security Council in May 2006. After being re-elected, Bush signed into law a
Medicare drug benefit program which, according to
Jan Crawford, resulted in "the greatest expansion in America's
welfare state in forty years" – the bill's costs approached $7trillion. Bush viewed the legislation as a move toward
socialized health care, and asserted that the program could benefit families making as much as $83,000 per year who did not need the help. On May 21, 2008, Bush signed into law the
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, aimed to protect Americans against health insurance and employment discrimination based on a person's genetic information. The issue had been debated for 13 years before it finally became law. The measure is designed to protect citizens without hindering genetic research.
Social services and Social Security Following Republican efforts to pass the
Medicare Act of 2003, Bush signed the bill, which included major changes to the
Medicare program by providing beneficiaries with some assistance in paying for prescription drugs, while relying on private insurance for the delivery of benefits. The retired persons lobby group
AARP worked with the Bush Administration on the program and gave their endorsement. Bush said the law, estimated to cost $400billion over the first ten years, would give the elderly "better choices and more control over their health care". Bush began his second term by outlining a major initiative to
reform Social Security, which was facing record deficit projections beginning in 2005. Bush made it the centerpiece of his domestic agenda despite opposition from some in the U.S. Congress. Nevertheless, public support for the proposal declined, and the House Republican leadership decided not to put Social Security reform on the priority list for the remainder of their 2005 legislative agenda. The proposal's legislative prospects were further diminished by autumn 2005 due to political fallout from the response to
Hurricane Katrina.
Environmental policies Upon taking office in 2001, Bush stated his opposition to the
Kyoto Protocol, an amendment to the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which seeks to impose mandatory targets for reducing
greenhouse gas emissions, citing that the treaty exempted 80% of the world's population and would have cost tens of billions of dollars per year. He also cited that the Senate had voted 95–0 in 1997 on a resolution expressing its disapproval of the protocol. In May 2001, Bush signed an
executive order to create an interagency task force to streamline energy projects, and later signed two other executive orders to tackle environmental issues. In 2002, Bush proposed the
Clear Skies Act of 2003, which aimed at amending the
Clean Air Act to reduce air pollution through the use of
emissions trading programs. Many experts argued that this legislation would have weakened the original legislation by allowing higher emission rates of pollutants than were previously legal. The initiative was introduced to Congress, but failed to make it out of committee. Later in 2006, Bush declared the
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a national monument, creating the largest
marine reserve to date. The
Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument comprises 84 million acres (340,000km2) and is home to 7,000 species of fish, birds, and other marine animals, many of which are specific to only those islands. The move was hailed by conservationists for "its foresight and leadership in protecting this incredible area". Bush has said he believes that
global warming is real and has noted that it is a serious problem, but he asserted there is a "debate over whether it's man-made or naturally caused". The Bush Administration's stance on global warming remained controversial in the scientific and environmental communities. Critics have alleged that the administration misinformed the public and did not do enough to reduce
carbon emissions and deter global warming.
Energy policies In his
2006 State of the Union Address, Bush declared, "America is addicted to oil" and launched his
Advanced Energy Initiative to increase
energy development research. , June 18, 2008 In his
2007 State of the Union Address, Bush renewed his pledge to work toward diminished reliance on foreign oil by reducing
fossil fuel consumption and increasing
alternative fuel production. Amid high gasoline prices in 2008, Bush lifted a ban on
offshore drilling. However, the move was largely symbolic because there was still a federal law banning offshore drilling. Bush said: "This means that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil reserves is action from the U.S. Congress." In his
2008 State of the Union Address, Bush committed $2billion over the next three years to a new international fund to promote clean energy technologies and fight climate change, saying, "Along with contributions from other countries, this fund will increase and accelerate the deployment of all forms of cleaner, more efficient technologies in developing nations like India and China, and help leverage substantial private-sector capital by making clean energy projects more financially attractive." He also presented plans to reaffirm the United States' commitment to work with major economies, and, through the UN, to complete an international agreement which will slow, stop, and eventually reverse the growth of greenhouse gases; he stated, "This agreement will be effective only if it includes commitments by every major economy and gives none a free ride."
Stem cell research and first veto Federal funding for medical research involving the creation or destruction of human embryos through the
Department of Health and Human Services and the
National Institutes of Health has been forbidden by law since the passage of the
Dickey–Wicker Amendment in 1995. Bush has said he supports adult
stem cell research and has supported federal legislation that finances adult stem cell research. However, Bush did not support
embryonic stem cell research. On August 9, 2001, Bush signed an executive order lifting the ban on federal funding for the 71 existing "lines" of stem cells, but the ability of these existing lines to provide an adequate medium for testing has been questioned. Testing can be done on only 12 of the original lines, and all approved lines have been cultured in contact with mouse cells, creating safety issues that complicate development and approval of therapies from these lines. On July 19, 2006, Bush used his veto power for the first time in his presidency to veto the
Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. The bill would have repealed the Dickey–Wicker Amendment, thereby permitting federal money to be used for research where stem cells are derived from the destruction of an embryo.
Immigration near
El Paso, November 2005 Nearly eight million immigrants came to the U.S. from 2000 to 2005, more than in any other five-year period in the nation's history. Almost half entered illegally. In 2006, Bush urged Congress to allow more than twelve million
illegal immigrants to work in the United States with the creation of a "temporary guest-worker program". Bush also urged Congress to provide additional funds for border security and committed to deploying 6,000
National Guard troops to the
Mexico–United States border. From May to June 2007, Bush strongly supported the
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, which was written by a bipartisan group of senators with the active participation of the Bush administration. The bill envisioned a legalization program for illegal immigrants, with an eventual path to citizenship; establishing a guest worker program; a series of border and worksite enforcement measures; a reform of the
green card application process and the introduction of a point-based "merit" system for green cards; elimination of "
chain migration" and of the
Diversity Immigrant Visa; and other measures. Bush argued that the lack of legal status denies the protections of U.S. laws to millions of people who face dangers of poverty and exploitation, and penalizes employers despite a demand for immigrant labor. Bush contended that the proposed bill did not amount to amnesty. A heated public debate followed, which resulted in a substantial rift within the Republican Party, most conservatives opposed it because of its legalization or amnesty provisions. The bill was eventually defeated in the Senate on June 28, 2007, when a
cloture motion failed on a 46–53 vote. Bush expressed disappointment upon the defeat of one of his signature domestic initiatives. The Bush administration later proposed a series of immigration enforcement measures that do not require a change in law. On September 19, 2010, former Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert said that Bush offered to accept 100,000 Palestinian refugees as American citizens if a permanent settlement had been reached between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Hurricane Katrina , September 2, 2005
Hurricane Katrina struck early in Bush's second term and was one of the most damaging natural disasters in U.S. history. Katrina formed in late August during the
2005 Atlantic hurricane season and devastated much of the north-central
Gulf Coast of the United States, particularly New Orleans. Bush declared a state of emergency in
Louisiana on August 27 and in
Mississippi and
Alabama the following day. The eye of the hurricane made landfall on August 29, and New Orleans began to flood due to
levee breaches; later that day, Bush declared a major disaster in Louisiana, officially authorizing FEMA to start using federal funds to assist in the recovery effort. On August 30, DHS Secretary
Michael Chertoff declared it "an incident of national significance", triggering the first use of the newly created
National Response Plan. Three days later, on September 2, National Guard troops first entered the city of New Orleans. The same day, Bush toured parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama and declared that the success of the recovery effort up to that point was "not enough". As the disaster in New Orleans intensified, Bush received
widespread criticism for downplaying his administration's role in the inadequate response. Leaders attacked Bush for having appointed incompetent leaders to positions of power at FEMA, notably
Michael D. Brown; federal resources to respond were also limited as a result of being allocated to the
Iraq War, and Bush himself did not act upon warnings of floods. Bush responded to mounting criticism by claiming to accept full responsibility for the federal government's failures in its handling of the emergency.
Midterm dismissal of U.S. attorneys During Bush's second term, a controversy arose over the
Justice Department's midterm dismissal of seven
United States Attorneys. The White House maintained that they were fired for poor performance. Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales later resigned over the issue, along with other senior members of the Justice Department. The
House Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas for advisers
Harriet Miers and
Josh Bolten to testify regarding this matter, but Bush directed Miers and Bolten not to comply with those subpoenas, invoking his right of
executive privilege. Bush maintained that all his advisers were covered under a broad executive privilege protection to receive candid advice. The Justice Department determined that the President's order was legal. Although congressional investigations focused on whether the Justice Department and the White House were using the U.S. Attorney positions for political advantage, no official findings have been released. On March 10, 2008, the Congress filed a federal lawsuit to enforce their issued subpoenas. On July 31, 2008, a
United States district court judge ruled that Bush's top advisers were not immune from congressional subpoenas. In all, twelve Justice Department officials resigned rather than testify under oath before Congress. They included Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales and his chief of staff
Kyle Sampson, Gonzales' liaison to the White House
Monica Goodling, aide to the president
Karl Rove and his senior aide
Sara Taylor. In addition, legal counsel to the president
Harriet Miers and deputy chief of staff to the president
Joshua Bolten were both found in
contempt of Congress. the firings were "inappropriately political" but not criminal. According to the prosecutors, there was insufficient evidence to pursue prosecution for any criminal offense.
Foreign policy During his presidential campaign, Bush's
foreign policy platform included support for stronger economic and political relationships with Latin America, especially Mexico, and a reduction of involvement in "
nation-building" and other small-scale military engagements. The administration pursued a
national missile defense. Bush was an advocate of China's entry into the
World Trade Organization. Bush began his second term with an emphasis on improving strained relations with European nations. He appointed long-time adviser
Karen Hughes to oversee a global public relations campaign. Bush lauded the pro-democracy struggles in Georgia and Ukraine. In March 2006, Bush visited India in a trip focused particularly on areas of
nuclear energy, counter-terrorism co-operation, and discussions that would eventually lead to the
India–United States Civil Nuclear Agreement. This was in stark contrast to decades of U.S. policy, such as the stance taken by his predecessor, Bill Clinton, whose approach and response to India after the 1998 nuclear tests has been characterized as "sanctions and hectoring". Midway through Bush's second term, questions arose whether Bush was retreating from his freedom and democracy agenda, which was highlighted in policy changes toward some oil-rich former Soviet republics in central Asia. in Shanghai, October 21, 2001. Russia had cooperated with the U.S. in the war on terror. Bush signed the
Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty with Russia. He withdrew U.S. support for several international agreements, including, in 2002, the
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) with Russia. This marked the first time in post-World War II history that the United States had withdrawn from a major international arms treaty. Russian president
Vladimir Putin stated that American withdrawal from the ABM Treaty was a mistake. Bush emphasized a careful approach to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians; he denounced
Palestine Liberation Organization leader
Yasser Arafat for his support of violence, but sponsored dialogues between Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon and Palestinian National Authority president
Mahmoud Abbas. Bush supported Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, and lauded the democratic elections held in Palestine after Arafat's death. Bush also expressed U.S. support for the defense of Taiwan following the stand-off in April 2001 with China over the
Hainan Island incident, when an
EP-3E Aries II surveillance aircraft collided with a
People's Liberation Army Air Force jet, leading to the detention of U.S. personnel. From 2003 to 2004, Bush authorized U.S. military intervention in Haiti and Liberia to protect U.S. interests. Bush condemned the
militia attacks Darfur and denounced the killings in Sudan as genocide. Bush said an international peacekeeping presence was critical in Darfur, but he opposed referring the situation to the
International Criminal Court. On June 10, 2007, Bush met with
Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha and became the first president to visit Albania. He later voiced his support for the
independence of Kosovo. In early 2008, Bush vowed full support for admitting
Ukraine and
Georgia into
NATO despite Russia's opposition to the further
enlargement of NATO. During the
2008 Russo-Georgian diplomatic crisis, Bush condemned Russia for recognizing the separatist government of
South Ossetia. When Russian troops invaded Georgia later that summer, Bush said: "Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century."
September 11, 2001 attacks at 8:30 pm ET The September 11 terrorist attacks were a major turning point in Bush's presidency. That evening, he addressed the nation from the
Oval Office, promising a strong response to the attacks. He also emphasized the need for the nation to come together and comfort the families of the victims. Three days after the attacks, Bush visited
Ground Zero and met with then-New York City Mayor
Rudy Giuliani, firefighters, police officers, and volunteers. Bush addressed the gathering via a megaphone while standing on rubble: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." In a September 20 speech, Bush condemned
Osama bin Laden and his organization
al-Qaeda, and issued an ultimatum to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, where bin Laden was operating, to "hand over the terrorists, or... share in their fate". The Taliban's leader,
Mullah Omar, refused to hand over bin Laden. The continued presence of U.S. troops in
Saudi Arabia after the 1991
Gulf War was one of the stated motivations behind the September 11 attacks. In 2003,
the U.S. withdrew most of its troops from Saudi Arabia.
War on terror In Bush's September 20 speech, he declared that "our war on terror begins with Al Qaeda, but it does not end there." In his January 29,
2002 State of the Union Address, he asserted that an "
axis of evil" consisting of
North Korea,
Iran, and
Ba'athist Iraq was "arming to threaten the peace of the world" and "pose[d] a grave and growing danger". The Bush Administration asserted both a right and the intention to wage
preemptive war, or
preventive war. This became the basis for the
Bush Doctrine, which weakened the unprecedented levels of international and domestic support for the United States that had followed the September 11 attacks. Dissent and criticism of Bush's leadership in the war on terror increased as the war in Iraq continued. The Iraq war sparked many protests and riots in different parts of the world. In 2006, a
National Intelligence Estimate concluded that the Iraq War had become the "
cause célèbre for
jihadists".
Afghanistan invasion of Afghanistan in Kabul, March 1, 2006 On October 7, 2001, U.S. and British forces initiated bombing campaigns that led to the arrival of
Northern Alliance troops in
Kabul on November 13. The main goals of the war were to defeat the
Taliban, drive
al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan, and capture key al-Qaeda leaders. In December 2001, the Pentagon reported that the Taliban had been defeated, but cautioned that the war would go on to continue weakening Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders. Efforts to kill or capture al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden failed as he escaped
a battle in December 2001 in the mountainous region of
Tora Bora, which the Bush Administration later acknowledged to have resulted from a failure to commit enough U.S. ground troops. It was not until May 2011, two years after Bush left office, that
Bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces under the Obama administration. Despite the initial success in driving the Taliban from power in Kabul, by early 2003 the Taliban was regrouping, amassing new funds and recruits. The 2005 failure of
Operation Red Wings showed that the Taliban had returned. In 2006, the
Taliban insurgency appeared larger, fiercer and better organized than expected, with large-scale allied offensives such as
Operation Mountain Thrust attaining limited success. As a result, Bush commissioned 3,500 additional troops to the country in March 2007.
Iraq invasion Lieutenant Ryan Philips, after landing on the USS
Abraham Lincoln prior to his
Mission Accomplished speech, May 1, 2003 Beginning with his January 29, 2002
State of the Union address, Bush began publicly focusing attention on Iraq, which he labeled as part of an "
axis of evil" allied with terrorists and posing "a grave and growing danger" to U.S. interests through possession of
weapons of mass destruction. In the latter half of 2002, CIA
reports contained assertions of
Saddam Hussein's intent of reconstituting nuclear weapons programs, not properly accounting for Iraqi
biological and
chemical weapons, and that some Iraqi missiles had a range greater than allowed by the UN sanctions. Contentions that the Bush Administration manipulated or exaggerated the threat and evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities would eventually become a major point of criticism for the president. In late 2002 and early 2003, Bush urged the United Nations to enforce Iraqi
disarmament mandates, precipitating a
diplomatic crisis. In November 2002,
Hans Blix and
Mohamed ElBaradei led UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, but were advised by the U.S. to depart the country four days prior to the U.S. invasion, despite their requests for more time to complete their tasks. The U.S. initially sought a
UN Security Council resolution authorizing the use of military force but dropped the bid for UN approval due to vigorous opposition from several countries. The Bush administration's claim that the Iraq War was part of the war on terror had been
questioned and contested by political analysts. More than 20 nations (most notably the United Kingdom) designated the "
coalition of the willing" joined the United States in invading Iraq. They launched the invasion on March 20, 2003. The Iraqi military was quickly defeated. The capital,
Baghdad, fell on April 9, 2003. On May 1, Bush declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq. The initial success of U.S. operations increased his popularity, but the U.S. and allied forces faced a growing insurgency led by sectarian groups; Bush's "
Mission Accomplished" speech was later criticized as premature. From 2004 until 2007, the situation in Iraq deteriorated further, with some observers arguing that there was a full-scale
civil war in Iraq. Bush's policies met with criticism, including demands domestically to set a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq. The 2006 report of the bipartisan
Iraq Study Group, led by
James Baker, concluded that the situation in Iraq was "grave and deteriorating". While Bush admitted there were strategic mistakes made in regard to the stability of Iraq, he maintained he would not change the overall Iraq strategy. According to
Iraq Body Count, some 251,000 Iraqis have been killed in the civil war following the U.S.-led invasion, including at least 163,841 civilians. In January 2005, elections recognized by the West as free and fair were held in Iraq for the first time in 50 years. This led to the election of
Jalal Talabani as president and
Nouri al-Maliki as Prime Minister of Iraq. A referendum to approve a constitution in Iraq was held in October 2005, supported by most
Shiites and many
Kurds. On January 10, 2007, Bush launched a
surge of 21,500 more troops for Iraq, as well as a job program for Iraqis, more reconstruction proposals, and $1.2billion (equivalent to $billion in ) for these programs. On May 1, 2007, Bush used his second-ever veto to reject a bill setting a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, saying the debate over the conflict was "understandable" but insisting that a continued U.S. presence there was crucial. In March 2008, Bush praised the Iraqi government's "bold decision" to launch the
Battle of Basra against the
Mahdi Army, calling it "a defining moment in the history of a free Iraq". He said he would carefully weigh recommendations from his commanding General
David Petraeus and Ambassador
Ryan Crocker about how to proceed after the end of the military buildup in the summer of 2008. He also praised the Iraqis' legislative achievements, including a pension law, a revised de-Baathification law, a new budget, an amnesty law, and a provincial powers measure that, he said, set the stage for the
Iraqi elections. By July 2008, American troop deaths had reached their lowest number since the war began, and due to increased stability in Iraq, Bush withdrew of additional American forces. Al-Zaidi yelled that the shoes were a "farewell kiss" and "for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq". In March 2010,
Center for Public Integrity released a report that President Bush's administration had made more than 900 false pretenses in a two-year period about the alleged threat of Iraq against the United States, as his rationale to engage in war in Iraq.
Surveillance Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, Bush issued an executive order that authorized the
President's Surveillance Program. The new directive allowed the
National Security Agency to monitor communications between suspected terrorists outside the U.S. and parties within the U.S. without obtaining a warrant, which previously had been required by the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. , the other provisions of the program remained highly classified. Once the
Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel questioned its original legal opinion that FISA did not apply in a time of war, the program was subsequently re-authorized by the President on the basis that the warrant requirements of FISA were implicitly superseded by the subsequent passage of the
Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists. The program proved to be
controversial; critics of the administration and organizations such as the
American Bar Association argued that it was illegal. In August 2006, a U.S. district court judge ruled that the
NSA electronic surveillance program was unconstitutional, but on July 6, 2007, the ruling was
vacated by the
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked
standing. On January 17, 2007, Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales informed U.S. Senate leaders that the program would not be reauthorized by the President, but would be subjected to judicial oversight. Later in 2007, the NSA launched a replacement for the program, referred to as
PRISM, which was subject to the oversight of the
United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. This program was not publicly revealed until reports by
The Washington Post emerged in June 2013. Between 2002 and 2003, the CIA considered certain enhanced interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, to be legal based on secret Justice Department legal opinions arguing that terror detainees were not protected by the
Geneva Conventions' ban on torture, which was described as "an unconstitutional infringement of the President's authority to conduct war". The CIA had exercised the technique on certain key terrorist suspects under authority given to it in the
Bybee Memo from the Attorney General, though the memo was later withdrawn. While not permitted by the
U.S. Army Field Manuals which assert "that harsh interrogation tactics elicit unreliable information", Critics, such as former CIA officer
Bob Baer, have stated that information was suspect, "you can get anyone to confess to anything if the torture's bad enough." On October 17, 2006, Bush signed the
Military Commissions Act of 2006 into law. The new rule was enacted in the wake of the
Supreme Court's decision in
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, , which allowed the U.S. government to prosecute
unlawful enemy combatants by military commission rather than a standard trial. The law also denied the detainees access to
habeas corpus and barred the torture of prisoners. The provision of the law allowed the president to determine what constitutes "torture". a bill that would have expanded congressional oversight over the intelligence community and banned the use of waterboarding as well as other forms of interrogation not permitted under the
United States Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations, saying that "the bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the War on Terror". In April 2009, the ACLU sued and won release of the secret memos that had authorized the Bush administration's interrogation tactics. One memo detailed specific interrogation tactics including a footnote which described waterboarding as torture and stating that the form of waterboarding used by the CIA was far more intense than authorized by the Justice Department.
North Korea condemnation Bush publicly condemned
Kim Jong-il of North Korea and identified North Korea as one of three states in an "
axis of evil". He said that "the United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons." North Korea's October 9, 2006,
detonation of a nuclear device further complicated Bush's foreign policy, which centered for both terms of his presidency on "[preventing] the terrorists and regimes who seek chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons from threatening the United States and the world". On May 7, 2007, North Korea agreed to shut down its nuclear reactors immediately pending the release of frozen funds held in a foreign bank account. This was a result of a series of three-way talks initiated by the United States and including China. On September 2, 2007, North Korea agreed to disclose and dismantle all its nuclear programs by the end of 2007. By May 2009, North Korea had restarted its nuclear program and threatened to attack South Korea. On June 22, 2010, Bush said: "While South Korea prospers, the people of North Korea have suffered profoundly," adding that communism had resulted in dire poverty, mass starvation, and brutal suppression. "In recent years," he went on to say, "the suffering has been compounded by the leader who wasted North Korea's precious few resources on personal luxuries and nuclear weapons programs."
Syria sanctions Bush expanded economic sanctions on Syria. In 2003, Bush signed the
Syria Accountability Act, which expanded sanctions on Syria. In early 2007, the
Treasury Department, acting on a June 2005
executive order, froze American bank accounts of Syria's Higher Institute of Applied Science and Technology, Electronics Institute, and National Standards and Calibration Laboratory. Bush's order prohibits Americans from doing business with these institutions suspected of helping spread
weapons of mass destruction and being supportive of terrorism. Under separate executive orders signed by Bush in 2004 and later 2007, the Treasury Department froze the assets of two Lebanese and two Syrians, accusing them of activities to "undermine the legitimate political process in Lebanon" in November 2007. Those designated included:
Assaad Halim Hardan, a member of Lebanon's parliament and former leader of the Syrian Socialist National Party;
Wi'am Wahhab, a former member of Lebanon's government (Minister of the Environment) under Prime Minister
Omar Karami (2004–2005);
Hafiz Makhluf, a colonel and senior official in the
Syrian General Intelligence Directorate and a cousin of Syrian president
Bashar al-Assad; and
Muhammad Nasif Khayrbik, identified as a close adviser to Assad.
AIDS Relief In the
State of the Union address in January 2003, Bush outlined a five-year strategy for global emergency AIDS relief, the
President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Bush announced $15billion for this effort, which directly supported life-saving antiretroviral treatment for more than 3.2 million men, women and children worldwide. The U.S. government had spent some $44billion on the project since 2003 (a figure which includes $7billion contributed to the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, a multilateral organization), which saved an estimated five million lives by 2013.
The New York Times correspondent
Peter Baker wrote in 2013 that "Bush did more to stop AIDS and more to help Africa than any president before or since."
Security incidents 2001 White House shooting On February 7, 2001, while Bush was in the residence area of the White House, Robert W. Pickett, standing outside the perimeter fence, discharged a number of shots from a Taurus .38 Special revolver "in the general direction" of the White House. Pickett was shot in the knee by a
U.S. Secret Service agent and arrested. Furthermore, he was initially charged with discharging a firearm during a crime, carrying a 10-year mandatory sentence, but following a plea agreement, Pickett instead entered a guilty plea to a firearms violation and an
Alford plea to assaulting a federal officer. He was sentenced to three years at the
Federal Medical Center, Rochester followed by three years of probation.
2005 Tbilisi grenade attack On May 10, 2005, while President Bush was giving a speech in
Freedom Square,
Vladimir Arutyunian, a native
Georgian who was born to a family of ethnic
Armenians, threw a live Soviet-made RGD-5 hand grenade toward the podium. It landed in the crowd about from the podium after hitting a girl, but it did not detonate because a red tartan handkerchief was wrapped tightly around it, preventing the safety lever from detaching. Georgian president
Mikheil Saakashvili was seated nearby. After escaping that day, Arutyunian was arrested in July 2005. During his arrest, he killed an Interior Ministry agent. He was convicted in January 2006 and given a
life sentence.
2008 Baghdad shoe-throwing incident On December 14, 2008,
Muntadhar al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist, threw both of his shoes at Bush during a press conference in Baghdad. Bush was not injured, having ducked the pair of shoes. However, White House press secretary
Dana Perino received a bruise on her face after being hit by a microphone boom knocked over by security. Al-Zaidi received a three-year prison sentence which was reduced to one year. On September 15, 2009, he was released early for good behavior. On October 3, 2005, Bush nominated
White House Counsel Harriet Miers to succeed O'Connor; however, Miers withdrew her nomination on October 27 after encountering significant opposition from both parties, who found her to be ill-prepared and uninformed on the law.
Other courts In addition to his two Supreme Court appointments, Bush appointed 62 judges to the
United States courts of appeals and 261 judges to the
United States district courts.
Cultural and political image Image Bush's upbringing in
West Texas, his accent, his
vacations to his Texas ranch, and his penchant for country metaphors contribute to his folksy, American cowboy image. "I think people look at him and think
John Wayne", said
Piers Morgan, editor of the British
Daily Mirror. Bush has been
parodied by the media, comedians, and other politicians. Detractors tended to cite linguistic errors made by Bush during his public speeches, which are colloquially referred to as
Bushisms. In contrast to his father, who was perceived as having troubles with an overarching unifying theme, Bush embraced larger visions and was seen as a man of larger ideas and associated huge risks.
Tony Blair wrote in 2010 that the caricature of Bush as being dumb is "ludicrous" and that Bush is "very smart". In an interview with
Playboy,
The New York Times columnist
David Brooks said Bush "was 60 IQ points smarter in private than he was in public. He doesn't want anybody to think he's smarter than they are, so he puts on a Texas act."
Job approval /
USA Today Bush public opinion polling from February 2001 to January 2009: Bush began his presidency with
approval ratings near 60 percent. After the
September 11 attacks, Bush gained an approval rating of 90 percent, maintaining 80–90 percent approval for four months after the attacks. It remained over 50 percent during most of his first term and then fell to as low as 19 percent in his second term. In 2000 and again in 2004,
Time magazine named George W. Bush as its
Person of the Year, a title awarded to someone who the editors believe "has done the most to influence the events of the year". In May 2004,
Gallup reported that 89 percent of the Republican electorate approved of Bush. However, the support waned due mostly to a minority of Republicans' frustration with him on issues of spending, illegal immigration, and Middle Eastern affairs. Within the United States armed forces, according to an unscientific survey, the president was strongly supported in the 2004 presidential elections. While 73 percent of military personnel said they would vote for Bush, 18 percent preferred his Democratic rival,
John Kerry. Bush's approval rating went below the 50 percent mark in
AP-
Ipsos polling in December 2004. Thereafter, his approval ratings and approval of his handling of domestic and foreign policy issues steadily dropped. After his re-election in 2004, Bush received increasingly heated criticism from across the political spectrum for his handling of the Iraq War, his
response to Hurricane Katrina, and to the
Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse,
NSA warrantless surveillance, the
Plame affair, and
Guantanamo Bay detention camp controversies. Amid this criticism, the
Democratic Party regained control of Congress in the
2006 midterm elections. Polls conducted in 2006 showed an average of 37 percent approval ratings for Bush, the lowest for any second-term president at that point in his term since
Harry S. Truman in March 1951 (when Truman's approval rating was 28 percent), which contributed to what Bush called the "thumping" of the Republican Party in the 2006 elections. Throughout most of 2007, Bush's approval rating hovered in the mid-thirties; the average for his entire second term was 37 percent, according to Gallup. in New London, Connecticut on May 23, 2007 By the beginning of 2008, his final year in office, Bush's approval rating had dropped to a low of just 19 percent, largely from the loss of support among Republicans. Bush would say, "I make decisions on what I think is right for the United States based upon principles. I frankly don't give a damn about the polls." There were
calls for Bush's impeachment, though most polls showed a plurality of Americans would not support such an action. The arguments offered for impeachment usually centered on the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy, the Bush administration's justification for the war in Iraq, and alleged violations of the
Geneva Conventions. Representative
Dennis Kucinich (D-
OH), who had run against Bush during the 2004 presidential campaign, introduced 35 articles of impeachment on the floor of
the House of Representatives against Bush on June 9, 2008, but
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-
CA) declared that impeachment was "off the table". In April 2008, Bush's disapproval ratings reached the highest ever recorded for any president in the 70-year history of the
Gallup poll, with 69 percent of those polled disapproving of the job Bush was doing as president and 28 percent approvingalthough the majority (66 percent) of Republicans still approved of his job performance. In polls conducted in the fall, just before the 2008 election, his approval ratings remained at record lows of 19 to 20 percent, while his disapproval ratings ranged from 67 percent to as high as 75 percent. In polling conducted January 9–11, 2009, his final job approval rating by Gallup was 34 percent, which placed him on par with
Jimmy Carter and
Harry S. Truman, the other presidents whose final Gallup ratings measured in the low 30s (
Richard Nixon's final Gallup approval rating was even lower, at 24 percent). According to a
CBS News/
New York Times poll conducted January 11–15, 2009, Bush's final approval rating in office was 22 percent, the lowest in American history. Views of him within the international communityeven in France, a close ally of the United Stateswere more negative than those of most previous American presidents. Bush was described as having especially close personal relationships with Tony Blair of the United Kingdom and
Vicente Fox of Mexico, although formal relations were sometimes strained. Other leaders, such as
Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan,
Yoweri Museveni of Uganda,
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of Spain, and
Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, openly criticized the president. Later in Bush's presidency, tensions arose between him and
Vladimir Putin, which led to a cooling of their relationship. In 2006, most respondents in 18 of 21 countries surveyed around the world were found to hold an unfavorable opinion of Bush. Respondents indicated that they judged his administration as negative for world security. In 2007, the
Pew Global Attitudes Project reported that during the Bush presidency, attitudes towards the United States, and towards Americans, became less favorable around the world. The
Pew Research Center's 2007 Global Attitudes poll found that in only nine countries of 47 did most respondents express "a lot of confidence" or "some confidence" in Bush: Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Israel, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, and Uganda. A March 2007 survey of public opinion in six Arab nations conducted by Zogby International and the
University of Maryland found that Bush was the most disliked world leader. During a June 2007 visit to the predominantly Muslim
Albania, Bush was greeted enthusiastically. Albania has a population of 2.8 million, has troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and the country's government is highly supportive of American foreign policy. A huge image of the President was hung in the middle of the capital city of
Tirana flanked by Albanian and American flags while a local street was named after him. A shirt-sleeved statue of Bush was unveiled in
Fushë-Krujë, a few kilometers northwest of Tirana. The Bush administration's support for the unilateral
declaration of independence of Albanian-majority
Kosovo, while endearing him to the Albanians, troubled U.S. relations with Serbia, leading to the February 2008 torching of the U.S. embassy in
Belgrade. == Post-presidency (2009–present) ==