George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 46th governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000.
Bush The eldest son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush and a member of the Bush family, he flew warplanes in the Texas Air National Guard in his twenties. After graduating from Harvard Business School in 1975, he worked in the oil industry. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball before being elected governor of Texas in 1994. As governor, Bush successfully sponsored legislation for tort reform, increased education funding, set higher standards for schools, and reformed the criminal justice system. He also helped make Texas the United States’ leading producer of wind-powered electricity. In the 2000 United States presidential election, he won over Democratic incumbent Vice President Al Gore, despite losing the popular vote after a narrow and contested Electoral College win that involved a Supreme Court decision to stop a recount in Florida.
Bush Upon taking office, Bush signed a major tax cutBush program and an education reform bill, the No Child Left Behind Act. He pushed for socially conservative efforts such as the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and faith-based initiatives. He also initiated the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in 2003 to address the AIDS epidemic. A decisive event that reshaped his administration was the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, resulting in the start of the war on terror and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Bush ordered the 2001 invasion ofBush Afghanistan in an effort to overthrow the Taliban, destroy al-Qaeda, and capture Osama bin Laden. He signed the Patriot Act to authorize surveillance of suspected terrorists. Bush He also ordered the 2003 invasion of Iraq on the erroneous beliefs that Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction and developed ties with al-Qaeda. Hussein was nevertheless overthrown and captured by American forces. Bush later signed the Medicare Modernization Act, Bush which created Medicare Part D. In 2004, Bush was narrowly reelected president, beating Democratic opponent John Kerry and winning the popular vote.
Bush During his second term, Bush reached multiple free trade agreements. He appointed John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. He sought major changes to Social Security and immigration laws, but both efforts failed in Congress. Bush was widely criticized for Bush his handling of Hurricane Katrina and the midterm dismissal of U.S. attorneys. Amid his unpopularity, the Democrats regained control of Congress in the 2006 elections. The Afghanistan and Iraq wars continued, and, in January 2007, Bush launched a surge of troops in Iraq. By December, the U.S. entered theBush Great Recession, prompting the Bush administration to obtain congressional approval for multiple economic programs intended to preserve the country’s financial system, Bush including the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Bush After finishing his second term, Bush returned to Texas, where he has since maintained a low public profile. At various points in his presidency, he was among both the most popular and unpopular presidents in U.S. history. He received the highest recorded approval ratings in the wake of the September 11 attacks, but also one of the lowest such ratings during the 2007–2008 Bush financial crisis. Although public opinion of Bush has improved since he left office, his presidency has generally been rated as below-average by scholars.
George W. Bush:Facts
- Born :George Walker Bush July 6, 1946 (age 77)
- New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
- Political party : Republican
- Spouse : Laura Welch(m. 1977)
- Children: Barbara Jenna
- Parents:George H. W. Bush, Barbara Pierce
- Relatives: Bush family
- Occupation: Politicianbusinessman
Bush:Early life and career
George Walker Bush was born on July 6, 1946, at Grace-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut.He was the first child of George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Pierce. He was raised in Midland and Houston, Texas, with four siblings: Jeb, Neil, Marvin and Dorothy. Another younger sister, Robin, died from leukemia at the age of three in 1953.His paternal grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a U.S. senator from Connecticut.His father was Ronald Reagan’s Bush vice president from 1981 to 1989 and the 41st U.S. president from 1989 to 1993. Bush has English and German ancestry, along with more distant Dutch, Welsh, Irish, French, and Scottish roots.
Bush:Education
Bush attended public schools in Midland, Texas until the family moved to Houston after he had completed seventh grade. He then spent two years at The Kinkaid School, a college-preparatory school.
Bush attended high school at Phillips Academy, a boarding school in Andover, Massachusetts, where he played baseball and was the head cheerleader during his senior year.He attended Yale University from 1964 to 1968, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history.During this time, he was a cheerleader and a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon, serving as the president of the fraternity during his senior year. Bush became a member of the Skull and Bones society as a senior. Bush was a rugby union player and was on Yale’s He characterized himself as an average student. His grade point average during his first three years at Yale was 77, and he had aBush similar average under a nonnumerical rating system in his final year.
In the fall of 1973, Bush entered Harvard Business School. He graduated in 1975 with an MBA degree. He is the only U.S. president to have earned an MBA.
Bush:Family and personal life
Bush was engaged to Cathryn Lee Wolfman in 1967, but the engagement did not last. Bush and Wolfman remained on good terms after the end of the relationship While Bush was at a backyard barbecue in 1977, friends introduced him to Laura Welch, a schoolteacher and librarian. After a three-month courtship, she accepted his marriage proposal and they wed on November 5 of that year.The couple settled in Midland, Texas. Bush left his family’s Episcopal Church to join his wife’s United Methodist Church. On November 25, 1981, Laura Bush gave birth to fraternal twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna. Bush describes being challenged by Billy Graham to consider faith in Jesus “Christ as the risen Lord”, how he began to read the Bible daily, “surrendering” toBush Bush the “Almighty”, that “faith is a walk” and that he was “moved by God’s love”.
Alcohol abuse
Prior to getting married, Bush struggled with multiple episodes of alcohol abuse. In one instance on September 4, 1976, he was pulled over near his family’s summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine, for driving under the influence of alcohol. He was arrested for DUI, fined and received a brief suspension of his Maine driver’s license. Bush said his wife has had a stabilizing effect on his life, and he attributes her influence to his 1986 decision to give up alcohol. While governor of Texas, Bush said of his wife, “I saw an elegant, beautiful woman who turned out not only to be elegant and beautiful, but very smart and willing to put up with my rough edges, and I must confess has smoothed them off over time.”Bush also claims that his faith in God was critical in the Bush process to give up drinking. “I believe that God helped open my eyes, which were closing because of booze.
Bush:Military career
Bush In May 1968, Bush was commissioned into the Texas Air National Guard.After two years of training in active-duty service, he was assigned to Houston, flying Convair F-102s with the 147th Reconnaissance Wing out of the Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base.Critics, including former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, have alleged that Bush was favorably treated due to his father’s political standing as a member of the House of Representatives, citing his selection as a pilot despite his low pilot aptitude test scores and his irregular attendance. In June 2005, the Department of Defense released all the records of Bush’s Texas Air National Guard service, which remain in its official archives.
Bush In late 1972 and early 1973, he drilled with the 187th Fighter Wing of the Alabama Air National Guard. He had moved to Montgomery, Alabama, to work on the unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign of Republican Winton M. Blount. In 1972, Bush was suspended from flying for failure to take a scheduled physical exam.He was honorably discharged from the Air Force Reserve on November 21, 1974
Bush : Business career
Bush In 1977, Bush established Arbusto Energy, a small oil exploration company, although it did not begin operations until the following year. He later changed the name to Bush Exploration. In 1984, his company merged with the larger Spectrum 7, and Bush became chairman. The company was hurt by decreased oil prices, and it folded into Harken Energy Corporation,with Bush becoming a member of Harken’s board of directors. Questions of possible insider trading involving Harken arose, Bush but a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation concluded that the information Bush had at the time of his stock sale was not sufficient to constitute insider trading.
Prior to his eventual gubernatorial campaign, Bush briefly considered a candidacy to become the Commissioner of Baseball in the early to mid-1990s.
Bush : Presidency (2001–2009)
Bush had originally outlined an ambitious domestic agenda, but his priorities were significantly altered following the September 11 attacks.Wars were begun in Afghanistan and Iraq, and there were significant
Bush domestic debates regarding immigration, healthcare, Social Security, economic policy, and treatment of terrorist detainees. Over an eight-year period, Bush’s once-high approval ratings.steadily declined, while his disapproval numbers increased significantly.n 2007, the United States entered the longest post-World War II recession.