Federalism: George W. Bush

What did Republicans think about this?

Not all Republicans agreed with Bush's huge expansion of federal government spending. Even some of his own party derided such programmes as 'big-government conservatism'. Bush was widely criticised by many conservative Republicans for not vetoing expensive federal government programmes. He failed to use a single veto during his entire first term (2001-2005), the first president to do so since Martin van Buren (1837-1841). Bush was also criticised for what may saw as the federal government's somewhat feeble initial response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Finally, when in 2008 the Bush White House authorised the secretary of the treasury, Henry Paulson, to take control of two, privately owned but government-sponsored mortgage companies - known colloquially as Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac - there was more criticism heaped on Bush, from conservative Republicans in particular. This was followed by a Bush White House-sponsored $700billion 'bail-out' package for Wall Street to alleviate the effects of the credit crunch. The legislation passed through Congress but with mainly Democrat votes.

Why did George W. Bush increase federal spending?

There are five particular reasons for this expansion of the federal government under George W. Bush: 1) The war in Iraq. 2) Homeland security issues following the attacks on the USA on 9/11 (2001). 3) The expansion of the Medicare programme. 4) The No Child Left Behind Act passed by Congress (2001). 5) The Wall Street and banking collapse (2008).

How did George W. Bush approach federalism?

You would expect a Republican president to be keen on decentralisation and giving more power to the state governments. You would certainly expect that of a Republican president who had been governor of Texas for six years before entering the White House. But that wasn't what happened. During the presidency of George W. Bush (2001-2009), federal government spending grew at a rate not seen since the days of President Johnson - and he was a Democrat. Whereas former Republican presidents had arrived in Washington determined to cut federal government bureaucracy, George W. Bush expanded it. In 1996 Bill Clinton had commented that the era of big government was over. By the end of the George W. Bush administration, it was clear that it was back.