Did Jeb Bush really say today’s GOP would spurn Reagan?
A lot of people seem much more confident than I about what Jeb Bush meant in this rambling statement he made to Bloomberg:
“Ronald Reagan would have, based on his record of finding accommodation, finding some degree of common ground, similar to my dad, they would have a hard time if you define the Republican Party — and I don’t — as having an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement.”
Come again?
Streamline the statement, and it would appear the former Florida governor said:
“Ronald Reagan … based on his record of finding … common ground, similar to my dad … would have a hard time if you define the Republican Party … as having an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement.”
That’s how it’s being interpreted on the left, anyway. But Bush himself doesn’t even agree with that statement, as the “and I don’t” interjection makes clear. Instead, he appears to be agreeing with liberals that their common complaint that today’s GOP is out of step with Reaganism would be true, if only it weren’t false. Why he would put himself in the position of confirming a liberal straw man only to knock it down — knowing the confirmation would get more press — I do not know.
As we discussed just Friday, however, context is always helpful. And Bush book-ended the aforementioned statement with these:
“They got a lot of things done with bipartisan support, but right now it’s just difficult to imagine.”
and
“We’re in a political system in general that is in a very different place right now.”
Well, if Republican presidents used to be able to accomplish things “with bipartisan support,” and now that’s “difficult to imagine,” whose fault might that be? Bipartisanship requires two parties, so we can only guess he can’t see the Democrats going along if Reagan or Bush’s father were president today. Which is very different from the interpretation that today’s Republicans are out of step with their own predecessors.
The current president is a Democrat, so was Bush chiding the Republican members of Congress? Maybe, but that’s not necessarily what the rest of the Bloomberg report indicates:
Bush also criticized Obama for placing political gain ahead of negotiation in Washington — citing the failure of the president’s task force on debt and spending led by former Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming and Erskine Bowles, a former chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton.
“If he was a transcendent figure, which is what he ran as, I think he’s failed,” Bush said of Obama.
The president “had a chance” to address the long-term deficit with the remedy that Simpson and Bowles recommended, a package of taxes and spending cuts, he said, but didn’t “for political reasons.”
“It was purely a political calculation,” he said. “He created Simpson-Bowles and then abandoned it at birth.”
In other words, you have an elder statesman of the Republican Party saying a Democratic president failed to lead on an important issue. Which isn’t much of a story — or wouldn’t be, if a certain elder Democratic statesman hadn’t had so much trouble staying on message lately.
As for Bush’s line about having “a political system in general that is in a very different place right now,” I agree. Once upon a time, both sides in an argument presented their solutions, upon which they could negotiate a compromise. Today, we have a House Republican budget that is dismissed out of hand by Senate Democrats; transparently base-pandering budgets from the president which Senate Democrats have declined to endorse; and the failure of Senate Democrats to produce any kind of budget of their own for more than three years running.
Do you notice a common thread there?
Senate Democrats, and White House aides giving them cover, like to blame GOP obstructionism for this abdication of their responsibilities. But budget bills are not subject to cloture rules. Harry Reid could bring a budget to a vote any time he wanted and pass it with just 51 votes, or 50 votes plus Vice President Biden as a tiebreaker. Of course, that would require his fellow Democrats running the chamber’s committees to produce a budget that could be voted upon.
Instead, they seem to adopt the stance Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner took earlier this year toward the House GOP plan on behalf of the Obama administration:
We’re not coming before you to say we have a definitive solution to our long-term problem. What we do know is we don’t like yours.
If Bush, or anyone else, wants to complain about do-nothingism and the lack of compromise, they ought to recognize that each side has to declare what it wants before the other can meet it halfway.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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174 comments Add your comment
Progressive Humanist
June 11th, 2012
11:20 pm
Kyle- You talk about Bush’s rambling statement. It’s difficult to imagine a more rambling piece than the one you’ve written here. It’s full of obfuscation and rationalizations in an attempt to twist and distort Bush’s words until you eek out a meaning you can live with. Very poor work, even for you.
And it’s simply a farce to suggest that Democrats have had a hand in the dysfunction. The problem is that the Democrats met the Republicans halfway from the get-go, and the Republicans would go off and sulk in a corner until they got everything they wanted, 100%. Democrats initially wanted a public option on healthcare, which would have been much more cost effective and far better for the country than the giveaway to private healthcare companies we ended up with. But in order to try and compromise right off the bat, Obama dropped the public option at the beginning, only to have Republicans try to block everything until we got the poor piece of legislation we finally got.
Cap and trade was initially a Republican idea, and the Republican presidential candidate endorsed it less than 4 years ago. But as soon as Democrats decided to compromise and try it out, the Republicans decided it’s now “cap and tax”.
Former Republican presidents Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II all implemented government stimulus packages and increased public sector employment when the economy was in trouble. Now Republicans call that communism.
No, Republicans are doing their very best to try to sabotage the U.S. economy and they’re doing a decent job of it. They don’t want compromise and have no intention of going that route. As the new Republican Senate candidate from Indiana said, compromise for them means having Democrats agree to everything the Republicans want.
No matter how you try to spin it, Republicans started this mess we’re in and are responsible for willfully keeping it going as long as Obama is in office. Now that’s patriotism (or more accurately sedition).
td
June 11th, 2012
11:21 pm
JFK would lose in a primary battle today.
“I did not leave the Democratic party, they left me” Zell Miller
Sam Nunn could not win a primary battle today in Georgia.
Here is a question for you libs: Could Bill Clinton win a primary battle with Obama in today’s Democratic party?
Hillbilly D
June 11th, 2012
11:23 pm
“I did not leave the Democratic party, they left me” Zell Miller
I’m not a fan of Zell’s but the man had a point.
Progressive Humanist
June 11th, 2012
11:30 pm
Real Athens,
Well, I heard Kyle was the top student at UGA while he was there (but calling a journalism student the top student at a research university is like calling a massage therapy student the top student at a medical college). But I agree with your assessment of his work here.
Progressive Humanist
June 11th, 2012
11:32 pm
It’s pretty clear that sanity left Zell before he left the Democratic party.
td
June 11th, 2012
11:36 pm
Real Athens
June 11th, 2012
9:54 pm
Are you freaking serious? You come on here and try to call out Kyle for (IYO) is something that every Lib journalist does everyday and far, far worse. You have to get the prize today for the dumbest post.
Progressive Humanist
June 11th, 2012
11:36 pm
td- A recent analysis out of UGA showed that Democrats have gotten more moderate than they were a generation ago while Republicans have gone off the deep end to the right. So your questions at 11:21 don’t really make any sense unless you’re living in your Faux News fishbowl. Or you’ve got a crush on Rush. I’m guessing it’s both with you.
td
June 11th, 2012
11:37 pm
Progressive Humanist
June 11th, 2012
11:32 pm
It’s pretty clear that sanity left Zell before he left the Democratic party.
Zell never left the Democratic party and I do not think they kicked him out.
td
June 11th, 2012
11:40 pm
Progressive Humanist
June 11th, 2012
11:36 pm
td- A recent analysis out of UGA showed that Democrats have gotten more moderate than they were a generation ago.
If this study was true then were have all the Blue dogs went too? What happened to Bill Clinton’s conservative Democratic caucus? How much has the progressive caucus grown in the past 10 years?
I think your study was flawed. Can you provide a link to the study?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
7:08 am
“Cap and trade was initially a Republican idea…But as soon as Democrats decided to compromise and try it out, the Republicans decided it’s now “cap and tax”.
——–
Cap and trade IS a great idea…for solving actual problems. When applied to phony Marxist schemes being pushed to destroy capitalism, it’s just another government money grab.
hryder
June 12th, 2012
7:12 am
Stop the purchasing of the votes of the ignorant with tax funds and VOTE OUT OF OFFICE ALL INCUMBENTS IN THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS.
To Tell the Truth
June 12th, 2012
7:23 am
I love how all of you STUPID MORONS that voted for Barry still want to point fingers at Bush!! LMAO, that Dumb A#@ in the White House has done nothing but try to Socialize America!!!
Barry is gone in November!!!!
iggy
June 12th, 2012
7:53 am
Not to worry, kiddys. The GOP will take the Whitehouse, House and Senate.
HELP IS ON THE WAY!!
Progressive Humanist
June 12th, 2012
8:00 am
iggy, you may want to look at an electoral map before you make your silly predictions.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
8:01 am
To vote for Obozo, you have to put party above country.
Act like Americans, Democrats, and help President Romney heal our country and fix the economy Obozo has trashed.
iggy
June 12th, 2012
8:05 am
“iggy, you may want to look at an electoral map before you make your silly predictions.”
You have the Nov 2012 electoral map? Impressive Sir.
Not to worry…HELP IS ON THE WAY!!
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 12th, 2012
8:05 am
The last thing people need to do is to back and take any college course recommended by Progressive Humanist.
The old saying, “Those who can, do – those who can’t, teach” never applied so much as when referencing a Progressive Humanist post.
Former Reagan Republican
June 12th, 2012
8:09 am
Kyle, Jeb Bush is exactly right. I voted for Reagan twice and I don’t fit into the GOP any more either. Unless you are a gun toting,Bible beating,homophobe who is married to the military-industrial complex you no longer fit into the GOP.Jeb is also right about the tax debate. I would gladly take a small tax increase with large cuts in spending including the scared cows of the Demos and the GOP. We can’t get out of this debt problem without both increases in taxes and across the board cuts. Go Jeb !!!
Progressive Humanist
June 12th, 2012
8:33 am
iggy- Here’s a look at an electoral map site run by a hardcore Republican: http://www.electionprojection.com/2012elections/president12.php
Tiberius- So I guess a lot of scientific research gets done in the private sector, huh? And because I can’t cut it there I have to teach as a professor because no scientific research ever comes out of universities? You should have listened to your unemployed momma and never dropped out of 8th grade. Such a sad case.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 12th, 2012
8:39 am
Progressive Humanist, trying to decide a Presidential election based on a map 5 months before the actual election, and one using data at least 3 weeks to as much as 6 months out of date is a fool’s errand, which is why you like to cite them, I’m sure.
And I’m sure that some real scientific research comes out of universities; just not any research you’re associated with.
I’d say you should have listened to your father, but you and your momma probably never knew who he was.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
8:40 am
You simply have no credibility if you claim to support Reagan and find Obozo preferable to Romney.
We all know you’re lying.
iggy
June 12th, 2012
8:42 am
Darn. And to think I was gonna vote in the 2012 Pres election. Silly me.
td
June 12th, 2012
8:58 am
Lil’ Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
8:40 am
You simply have no credibility if you claim to support Reagan and find Obozo preferable to Romney.
We all know you’re lying.
Best post I have read on these blogs in months. Only a total moron could think Obama has anything philosophically in common with the best President we had in the 20th century.
SBinF
June 12th, 2012
9:00 am
Awesome Kyle,
I’m so glad that we have you around to tell us that what Jeb said is not really what he meant. I don’t know how I’d get through life without you.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 12th, 2012
9:06 am
“I’m so glad that we have you around to tell us that what Jeb said is not really what he meant.”
I think the point is, SBinF, that Kyle is simply warning people to not believe the libs when they jump on those comments, and is simply providing the materials for some of you to use so that you can think for yourselves for the first time in many of your lives.
Think of it as the kind of real-world education people such as Progressive Humanist just cannot provide.
Glenn
June 12th, 2012
9:13 am
Wow this is a pretty incredible article .
Why did Evan Bayh & Olympia Snowe leave office ? What moderates aren’t leaving or being voted out ? How many blue dog dems & established republicans are being removed by Tea Party supported candidates ? Are you really ignoring the Tea Party influence ?
What is a filibuster ? Who is called the party of no ?
Your own boy Kyle loves his title of Godfather of Gridlock . And this is my favorite Newt quote .
“What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]?”
Read that quote & tell me they are ready to work with this President . This article is about as out of touch .
Ronald Reagan would be bullied by the rightwing today if there was any give or compromise on any major issue at all . Actually Mitt Romneys biggest virtues for Republicans are that he is spineless and stands for nothing . In theory he should be easy to pound into place .
SBinF
June 12th, 2012
9:15 am
Haha, whatever you say.
That might be true if he didn’t, in the same interview, say that the hyper partisan rhetoric is only temporary. Why would he say it’s only temporary if he didn’t believe it existed in the first place?
Kyle’s neglecting to mention that fact is a little disingenuous.
SBinF
June 12th, 2012
9:16 am
“Back to my dad’s time and Ronald Reagan’s time – they got a lot of stuff done with a lot of bipartisan suport,” he said. Reagan “would be criticized for doing the things that he did.”
—————-
Please Kyle, tell us what Jeb meant there, because it must be something completely different than what he said.
SBinF
June 12th, 2012
9:17 am
Bush said that Mitt Romney’s move to channel Republicans’ anger over immigration in the primary has put him “in somewhat of a box” in the general election. He advised Romney to offer a “broader and more intense” approach to the issue. He suggested Romney continue to campaign in Hispanic communities, that he recast immigration as an economic issue, and that he focus on the question of education.
“I do feel a little out of step with my party on this,” he said.
——————————-
Kindly translate this for us too.
Misty Fred
June 12th, 2012
9:20 am
Who cares what jeb bush thinks?
ragnar danneskjold
June 12th, 2012
9:21 am
Jeb perceives that Reagan was great because he compromised with PATCO, and with the Soviets at Reykajavik. Suppose that is why Tip O’Neil supported the Reagan tax cuts that drove the economy so well for 20 years. What a doofus.
iggy
June 12th, 2012
9:27 am
“Read that quote & tell me they are ready to work with this President . This article is about as out of touch .”
One doesnt compromise with little dictaters like ObaManure.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
9:29 am
How many blue dog dems & established republicans are being removed by Tea Party supported candidates ?
————
Not enough.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
9:36 am
“Back to my dad’s time and Ronald Reagan’s time – they got a lot of stuff done with a lot of bipartisan suport,” he said.
—————-
Please Kyle, tell us what Jeb meant there
—————————
He meant that Democrats used to compromise. Now, they either obstruct, or flee across state lines.
Progressive Humanist
June 12th, 2012
9:40 am
Tiberius- The next piece of scientific research you come in contact with will be the first. Please don’t embarrass yourself by trying to go that route. Your idea of science is getting a charlatan to tell you why there’s scientific “proof” that a magical primate telepathically created all energy and matter. Good stuff if you can’t tell the difference between fiction and science, but not the kind of stuff that a rational person would be suckered into believing.
You’re in denial if you think electoral predictors have no validity. You simply want an outcome that does not conform to what the data currently says so you deny the data and value your uniformed opinion to a greater degree. That’s typical and is how you function on most issues. You may want to go back and check the accuracy of certain electoral vote predictors. They have tended to be accurate on about 48 states and are only off by about 3% or so on the one or two they miss. But you’d need to know something about statistics to process that information, which means you’d need a college degree and maybe even a little background in research, so once again it’s likely over your head.
Don't Tread
June 12th, 2012
9:42 am
…or get their lawyers to file a bogus lawsuit.
td
June 12th, 2012
9:51 am
Lil’ Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
9:36 am
“Back to my dad’s time and Ronald Reagan’s time – they got a lot of stuff done with a lot of bipartisan suport,” he said.
—————-
Please Kyle, tell us what Jeb meant there
—————————
He meant that Democrats used to compromise. Now, they either obstruct, or flee across state lines.
Libs have never compromised they just lied. See the Reagan and GHWB grand bargains of tax hikes for spending cuts in which the Dems refused to cut the spending after getting the tax hikes.
Oblama
June 12th, 2012
9:53 am
How can anyone reason with that nut case Nanny Pelosi You can’t converse with a MORON.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 12th, 2012
9:55 am
“That might be true if he didn’t, in the same interview, say that the hyper partisan rhetoric is only temporary. Why would he say it’s only temporary if he didn’t believe it existed in the first place?”
SBinF, if you actually read the comments and understood the English language, you’d know that Jeb was speaking about BOTH sides, not just Republicans.
Oblama
June 12th, 2012
9:55 am
“W” compromised with the Dems ………. Big spending on socialist programs in return for Dems cooperation on Iraq – and where did that get us?
Oblama
June 12th, 2012
9:58 am
Dems don’t know what compromise means……. to them it means do it our way. You can’t bargain with the devil.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 12th, 2012
10:04 am
“Your idea of science is getting a charlatan to tell you why there’s scientific “proof” that a magical primate telepathically created all energy and matter.”
How many times can you be wrong in a day, Progressive Humanist?
I’m an Agnostic.
“You’re in denial if you think electoral predictors have no validity.”
They have great validity – about 3 weeks before the actual election, as state polls tend to lag behind national polls. You’d know that if you actually knew – well – anything.
“You may want to go back and check the accuracy of certain electoral vote predictors.”
I actually have. At the points when they become valid. Not 5 months before the election.
“They have tended to be accurate on about 48 states and are only off by about 3% or so on the one or two they miss.”
Yes, when judged at the 3 week time frame. NOT 5 months beforehand. See, that’s the difference between hopeful projection (your “scientific” method) and REALITY.
Oh, and I’ve forgotten more about statistics and how they should be applied and interpreted than you’ve ever known about them in your sorry lifetime of living off the government dole. Something I am proud to say I have never done.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
10:07 am
td, that’s why we need to see real, deep, painful spending cuts before even considering raising taxes.
Jefferson
June 12th, 2012
10:07 am
At least 2 of the Bush clan talk sense.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
10:12 am
Yes, at least.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
10:23 am
And ALL the Bush clan know how many states there are.
Rafe Hollister
June 12th, 2012
10:27 am
Government is not the solution to any problem, government is the problem. Ronald Reagan
You guys are getting desperate trying to remake Oblamer into Reagan. Barry, who is a one trick pony, government solutions.
Don't Tread
June 12th, 2012
10:35 am
I recall Zell Miller being called “Zig Zag Zell” (and worse) by his own party because he refused to vote in lock-step with the Democrat party leadership. Somehow I doubt he would gain any support from the Democrats if he were to run today. And you people complain about the other side not compromising…
td
June 12th, 2012
10:38 am
Lil’ Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
10:07 am
td, that’s why we need to see real, deep, painful spending cuts before even considering raising taxes.
I have been saying for years that we need real spending cuts for at least two years and then I will be willing to talk about tax increases to pay down debt.
bu2
June 12th, 2012
10:41 am
PH
You’re right. Obama is not a socialist. He really acts more like a facist. He wants everything run by the government and his preferred industrialists who he likes to give taxpayer money to. He wants to force his views on what is appropriate even on the Catholic church. He vilifies those who disagree with him (didn’t he get elected to be the President of all the people, not just those who agree with him?). Even Jimmy Carter wasn’t so clueless as to what the job entailed.
At the time I was glad he beat out Hillary because I thought he would be less divisive, even if a little more difficult to beat than Hillary. I was wrong about him being less divisive.