Bush, George W. (1946– )
Forty-third president of the United States, the son of former
President George Herbert Walker Bush, Republican.
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, July 6, 1946, George W.
Bush moved with his family to Midland, Texas, and then to
Houston, where his father, George H. W. Bush, owned and
operated an oil company. George W. Bush attended Yale
University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1968. After serving in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam conflict, he earned his master’s degree in business from Harvard
Business School in 1975. He returned to Texas, worked in the
energy industry, and helped his father win the presidency in
1988. Bush then formed a partnership that purchased the
Texas Rangers baseball team in 1989. He became the general
manager of the team and remained in that position until he
won the Texas governor’s race in 1994 and again in 1998. In
2000, Bush was the Republican candidate in the national
presidential election, facing Democrat Al Gore. The election
was close and, after a court battle that went to the Supreme
Court, Bush was awarded Florida’s winning Electoral College
votes. His opponents charged him with “stealing” the election. Bush was inaugurated in 2001.
In 2001 the economy was in a recession that had begun the
previous year when technology stocks plummeted, and Bush
proposed a tax cut as a means of stimulating the economy.
But before the tax cut could be implemented, terrorists
attacked in New York City and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, using passenger jets as weapons. The economy suffered as the country fought to rebound after the
attacks. The airline industry was particularly hard hit. Bush
insisted on a tax cut, and rebate checks were issued to many
taxpayers in 2002. On May 28, 2003, Bush signed the Jobs
and Growth Plan, which increased child tax credits from
$600 to $1,000 per child; in July 2003 the Internal Revenue
Service was to begin issuing checks for the difference to 25
million eligible families. The legislation also reduced the
“marriage penalty,” in which married couples pay a higher tax
rate than two single individuals filing two separate returns. It
reduced the amount of taxes withheld from employees’ paychecks; this reduction applied to everyone who has to pay
taxes based on wages. By June 2003 the Federal Reserve Board
indicated that the U.S. economy is showing signs of recovery.
Bush has also implemented several other economic policies including those to expand home ownership (through
creation of a federal fund to assist low-income families with
down payments, a tax credit for the construction of singlefamily housing in the inner city, and simplification of the
home closing process), increase international trade (through
negotiations with foreign countries on free trade and the
reduction of trade barriers), and develop a sound energy policy that encourages the development of alternative energy
and reduces the dependence on foreign oil. The House of
Representatives passed a comprehensive energy bill in April
2003 but at this writing the Senate continues to debate the
issue. Meanwhile, the price of oil has dropped slightly. After
the 2003 war in Iraq and the lifting of a UN embargo against
that country, Iraqi oil can now freely be sold on the international market.
After accounting scandals at Enron (December 2001) and
several other U.S. corporations revealed profiteering by top
executives and the loss of retirement funds of workers, Bush
introduced legislation designed to improve corporate
responsibility. In 2002 Congress passed the Public Company
Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act, which
charges the Securities and Exchange Commission with
stricter enforcement of accounting and stock market practices and requires stiff penalties for violators. Bush has proposed health care reforms including improved availability of
affordable prescription drugs for the elderly. Education
36 Bush, George W.reforms, including an early childhood initiative and school
vouchers (which allow parents to use tax money to send their
children to the school of their choice) are also on the president’s agenda. Many of these policies are still being debated
by Congress. Meanwhile, the Bush administration continues
the international “war on terrorism,” which began with the
destruction of terrorist training camps in Afghanistan following terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001.
Additional resources are being allocated to the new
Homeland Security Agency, which now operates as the
umbrella agency for many other departments in the domestic war against terrorism.