George W. comments about President Jimmy Carter and plans by Democrats to Raise Taxes

Statements in chapter 2 of 'Decision Points' made by George W. prior to his running for President, shows that he was not in agreement with President Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Congress. The following is an excerpt of George W's book, 'Decision Points' page 38.

 "When I looked at Washington under President Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Congress, I saw the opposite. They had plans to raise taxes, tighten government control over the energy sector, and substitute federal spending for private-sector job creation. I worried about America drifting left, toward a version of welfare-state Europe, where central government planning crowded out free enterprise. I wanted to do something about it. I was having my first experience with the political bug, and it was biting hard."

In this quote, George W is stating his awareness to Democrats future plans back in 1977. This is a general statement, he doesn't fully explain the details of what he thinks is tighter control over the energy sector and federal spending for the private sector to create jobs.

In retrospect, President Jimmy Carter was the 39th President of the United States, and served in office from January 20, 1977 to January 20th, 1981. After him there was Ronald Reagan (1981 to 1989), George H.W. Bush(1989 to 1993) Bill Clinton(1993 to 2001), then George W.(2001 to 2009).George W. was just getting his feet wet in politics when he made the statement above mentioning Jimmy Carter, and had all of these bright ideas. The same year Carter became President in 1977, George W. married his sweetheart of less than a year, Laura Welch. Since he had issues with drinking during the time he met Laura and during the first years with her, it could be safe to say that you may not truly know what George W. was thinking when he comments about his awareness to Democrats future plans. It is true that President Jimmy Carter was in office as he commented about the above statement in his book.
What he fails to mention is that it was Ronald Reagan who raised taxes, but he blames Jimmy carter. Reagan at first did have tight money policies of reducing taxes, spending, regulation and inflation. At that time, there was unprecedented economic growth.

When Reagan lowered them, his successor George H.W. raised them.

From the Washington Monthly....

"It’s conservative lore that Reagan the icon cut taxes, while George H.W. Bush the renegade raised them. As Stockman recalls, "No one was authorized to talk about tax increases on Ronald Reagan’s watch, no matter what kind of tax, no matter how justified it was." Yet raising taxes is exactly what Reagan did. He did not always instigate those hikes or agree to them willingly–but he signed off on them. One year after his massive tax cut, Reagan agreed to a tax increase to reduce the deficit that restored fully one-third of the previous year’s reduction. (In a bizarre bit of self-deception, Reagan, who never came to terms with this episode of ideological apostasy, persuaded himself that the three-year, $100 billion tax hike–the largest since World War II–was actually "tax reform" that closed loopholes in his earlier cut and therefore didn’t count as raising taxes.)"

Faced with looming deficits, Reagan raised taxes again in 1983 with a gasoline tax and once more in 1984, this time by $50 billion over three years, mainly through closing tax loopholes for business. Despite the fact that such increases were anathema to conservatives–and probably cost Reagan’s successor, George H.W. Bush, reelection–Reagan raised taxes a grand total of four times just between 1982-84.

The ultimate fact is that creating taxes to help pay for things did help the economy. The effects of President Obama and government spending will eventually show that government assistance will contribute greatly towards the growing economy of the country. But when George W was in office, he was least concerned about taxes or the market, or peoples jobs, and other American issues, because he was so drawn out in the wars that he started. Does anyone or even George W. himself ever check to see what Afghanistan and Iraq has cost this country?