The left has castigated George Bush as having been in the pocket of social conservatives, but has he really?
Not according to this article from The American Conservative.
President Bush has supported some family issues, from the 2001 increase in the Child Tax Credit to increased funding for abstinence-only sex education. And the Bush administration did put a halt to allowing the United Nations to dictate American policy in terms of women and children.
But in many other areas, George Bush cannot be called a "family values president."
Even before the end of his first term, however, there were signs of trouble. Trying to find a middle way that would placate social liberals, the White House backed federal funding for certain forms of stem-cell research. Most pro-life and pro-family groups favored a total ban. Meanwhile, HHS projects to promote marriage and fatherhood were moving instead toward a punishing noncustodial fathers, pleasing feminists, and creating perverse incentives for divorce.
Most curious was this revelation:
The Bush administration also refused to embrace a broader package of pro-family economic initiatives. The proposed Parents’ Tax Relief Act, sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback and Rep. Lee Terry, would make the Child Tax Credit permanent and indexed to inflation, double the personal income tax exemption for children, give parents at home a tax benefit equal to that given to daycare users, encourage home-based businesses, and treat full-time parenting as real work relative to Social Security credits. The bill has enjoyed broad support from pro-family groups, small business associations, and home-based entrepreneurs. But the Bush domestic policy team turned up its collective nose, insisting that any new tax relief should go to corporate America, not parents and children or even family businesses.
While George Bush has certainly been more pro-family and pro-life than any Democrat would have been, his record is certainly a mixed bag.
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