White House Daze: The Unmaming Domestic Policy in the Bush Years

Throughout his presidency George Bush was accused by both Republicans and Democrats of having an administration utterly without a domestic policy agenda. Kolb who served as the Presidents Deputy Assistant for Domestic Policy tried to push the Bush administration toward a more vigorous reform agenda. White House Daze is an often biting account of his efforts.. What happened to We are the Change between 1988 and 1992? The answer to that question explains why George Bush was a one-term President. During Bush’s term in office the Party of new ideas had become the party of incumbency. Many Republicans now took for granted the electoral lock the Southern bloc and Republican control of the executive branch. Their complacency was reinforced by the Presidents own high approval ratings through the first half of his term. Yet its fair to say that for the first two years of the Bush Administration we were still spending down Ronald Reagans inheritance. Even though the actual policies being implemented in many respects were really at odds with Reagans core philosophy the country had not woken up to the fact that under George Bushs stewardship federal spending (along with the deficit) was spiraling upward taxes would start creeping up again and regulatory policies would impose billions of dollars of new burdens on the public. This was change alright but the wrong kind of change.