Was George H.W. Bush a conservative?

[A18]

Well?

[King]

Yes, but only because of Reagan, without him he would have still been the H.W. of 1980.

[Brambila]

Socially, not really.

[PBrunsel]

"I'm a Conservative, but i'm not crazy about it!"
- George H.W. Bush

[phk]

He was pro-choice in 80'.

[J. J.]

He was pro-choice in 80'.

So was Barry Goldwater.  I wouldn't call him a moderate.

[phk]

Goldwater became pro-choice in the 90s

[J. J.]

He was weak on it, even in the 1980's.

[A18]

His major accomplishments as president are pretty bland, IMO:

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Clean Air Act of 1990

I don't know what the Civil Rights Act of 1991 is, but if it was an infringement on private property rights, which I suspect it was, it's bad as well.

Anyone know what the Whistle Blower Protection Act of 1989 is?

[A18]

He was pro-choice in 80'.

Only to counter Reagan. In '84 and beyond he was pro-choice, especially as President.

Huh? First you say it was only to counter Reagan, but then you go on to say that he was especially pro-choice as president...

[qwerty]

Typo. He was pro-life as President.

[MaC]

No.  He won in 1988 mostly because he rode Reagan's coattails.  He was a conservative in the social sense. Hard on crime, hard on drugs.  However his tax policy was rather liberal.  He reversed the Reagan tax code, and had the richer people more heavily taxed.  He failed to read his own lips.  Reason though, was Reagan was such a spender, Bush Sr. had to do something.  He broke his promise, and signed the Grahm-Ruddman bill to tax in order to pay off the deficit.  In turn, by the time the taxes do pay off the deficit, Bill Clinton takes credit for this and he's credited with balancing the budget .

[A18]

No.  He won in 1988 mostly because he rode Reagan's coattails.  He was a conservative in the social sense. Hard on crime, hard on drugs.  However his tax policy was rather liberal.  He reversed the Reagan tax code, and had the richer people more heavily taxed.  He failed to read his own lips.  Reason though, was Reagan was such a spender, Bush Sr. had to do something.  He broke his promise, and signed the Grahm-Ruddman bill to tax in order to pay off the deficit.  In turn, by the time the taxes do pay off the deficit, Bill Clinton takes credit for this and he's credited with balancing the budget .

That's not entirely true. There actually would have been a surplus had Congress accepted Reagan's budget, but they didn't approve of a lot of the spending cuts he wanted to make, so we ended up with an unbalanced budget.

The line item veto thing would have helped.

[Dr. Cynic]

Mostly Conservative.

I think the only reason he won, was because he was facing Michael Dukakis, and not Lloyd Bentsen.

[Peter]

Bush Snr said that if you don't believe in God you cannot be patriotic, and really you shouldn't be a citizen either. What a total git.

"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."

[Kodratos]

Bush Snr said that if you don't believe in God you cannot be patriotic, and really you shouldn't be a citizen either. What a total git.

"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."

That's a myth, he never said that. When he was supposed to have said it he was surrounded by reporters, yet only one of those reporters remembers it. It was also not caught on tape or television. He also said nothing of the like except for the time when he allegedly said this.

It's based on the testimony of an extremely left-wing reporter who I wouldn't trust with my pocket lint.

[Smash255]

No.  He won in 1988 mostly because he rode Reagan's coattails.  He was a conservative in the social sense. Hard on crime, hard on drugs.  However his tax policy was rather liberal.  He reversed the Reagan tax code, and had the richer people more heavily taxed.  He failed to read his own lips.  Reason though, was Reagan was such a spender, Bush Sr. had to do something.  He broke his promise, and signed the Grahm-Ruddman bill to tax in order to pay off the deficit.  In turn, by the time the taxes do pay off the deficit, Bill Clinton takes credit for this and he's credited with balancing the budget .

That's not entirely true. There actually would have been a surplus had Congress accepted Reagan's budget, but they didn't approve of a lot of the spending cuts he wanted to make, so we ended up with an unbalanced budget.

The line item veto thing would have helped.

Their was actually a rather small difference between what Reagan proposed and what congress passed.  a 0.6% difference.  The eight year total of Reagan's proposed budgets was 7. 314 trillion, the actual budget for those 8 years was 7.361 trillion, a mere difference of 47 billion over 8 years

year   Reagan proposed   Congress passed
1982   $695 billion              $696 billion
1983   $758 billion              $770 billion
1984   $849 billion              $859 billion
1985   $926 billion              $932 billion
1986   $974 billion              $968 billion
1987   $994 billion              $995 billion
1988   $1.024 trillion           $1.041 trillion
1989   $1.094 trillion           $1.100 trillion