GWB and Principles

On the eve of the dedication of his Presidential library, George W. Bush told CNN, “I know this, that Laura and I gave the presidency eight years of our life. We gave it our all. Made the best judgment calls I could. I didn’t compromise my principles.” If this is true, what does it tell us about the former president?

Consider, during the financial crisis of 2008 Bush said, “I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system.” If Bush didn’t compromise his principles, yet he admittedly abandoned free-market principles, we must conclude that he was not a principled defender of the free market. (Of course, we didn’t need an admission from the former president to know this.)

The operative word in “free-market system” is “free”—the absence of government coercion. In a free-market system, the government does not interfere with the freedom of individuals to produce and trade as they judge best. It does not pick winners and losers. It does not force taxpayers to bail out companies because they are “too big to fail.” But this is precisely what Bush did when he “abandoned” free-market principles.

The truth is, Bush was guided by the expediency of the moment. He never held free-market principles. If he had, he would have understood that the financial crisis was caused by government intervention, and further intervention would simply make the problem worse.