What were Jeb's actual accomplishments, relevant to the presidency?

[136or142]

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You forgot to mention that you're also modest. (An old joke, but it fits here.)

That joke aside, the difference between you and I is that I write original arguments, coherent or otherwise, while you copy Jeb Bush press releases.

[Fuzzy Bear]

• Privatised state parks, foster care, adoption services, and legal representation for death row inmates.
• Cut taxes for businesses and the upper brackets
• Increased mandatory minimum sentences for juveniles
• "Stand Your Ground" laws
• The Teri Schiavo thing

Not that any of this is particularly good policy, but it's his record.

I wish every Governor would privatize state parks and legal representation, he also cut taxes for working people, I'm glad someone is enforcing the law, I'm glad someone defended the second amendment, and I'm glad someone stood with the parents of Teri Schiavo as opposed to her selfish husband.

I live in Florida, and Bush did NOT cut taxes for "working people".  He ended Flrida's "intangible tax", a tax on wealth that affected the wealthiest Floridians, the ones who needed it the least.  Even more evidence that Jeb's a scumbag.  He made Florida HARDER for the middle class by making it a tax haven for the wealthy.  All he did was artifically inflate housing prices to where working folks have trouble saving for retirement. 

I'll give Bush props for Teri Schiavo, as I'm pro-life and she didn't look dead to me.  That's it.  As far as working people go, he was a Governor who served the selfish rich who move to Flrodia, the tax haven.

First of all, I know first hand what it's like to live in a state that punishes the rich. In New Jersey, we have a tax on both estates and inheritance, one of only two states to have both. Between 2005 and 2010, as we increased taxes and fees 115 times including higher taxes on business and a tax on higher incomes, we lost nearly $70 billion in wealth. 38% of people in my state, according to one study, have difficulty affording everyday goods.

So, when Jeb Bush cut the intangibles tax, he was basically trying to not only keep wealth in Florida, but encourage more wealth and investment in the state. Florida doesn't have an estate tax which is why there is so much wealth moving there, and those with middle and lower incomes don't have to pay a state income tax like they do in most other states.

Also, Jeb Bush championed reductions in property taxes and sales taxes when he was Governor, that was a broad-based tax cut for middle and lower income Floridians. He also cut taxes on alcohol, he stopped punishing hard working folks who want a beer once in a while. He helped business owners as well, the owner of your local liquor store or bar may do well, but they are not making millions in most cases.

The federal government artificially inflated housing prices, not any Governor. The fact of the matter is, what Florida experienced the entire nation experienced, but because Florida is more favorable from an economic standpoint and the 43rd Governor made it more so, Florida's housing sector did quite well. By the way, I don't think the folks who weld, paint, build, or work at Home Depot are in the "1%."

 I think it is time that we, as a nation, stop assuming the worst in everyone. There are selfish rich people, there are also selfish middle and lower income people. When these rich people who you demonize so frequently move to a place, they bring with them wealth. When someone buys a house and pays property taxes, they contribute to funding for police, firemen, and other critical services. Without all the wealth moving to Florida, you'd be worse off.

Jeb didn't "reduce" government in Florida.  He "privatized" state functions, which means two things:

1.  Folks doing critical jobs (such as management of our prisons and Foster Care system) will perform the same jobs for less money and benefits.

2.  Jeb got to give contracts to companies with cronies and political contributors as part of their organizational structure.  It's the new model of political patronage and payoff.

Jeb EXPANDED government to the Private Sector, where corporations manage prisons for profit and are free to lobby for longer prison sentences for minor offenses.  That's the Corporate State.

I'm not sure that I agree with all of that, but this goes back a long time.  The British T.V Show Yes, Minister did an episode about how to make it look like the size of government was being cut by, in their case, turning agencies into off budget crown corporations, or whatever the British term is.

In addition to this lie of dudeabides  that Jeb cut the size of government when, in reality, he privatized some of it, he also lied that Jeb Bush protected the Everglades, when all he did was attend a law signing by Bill Clinton, who was the one who protected the Everglades.

There is no mention of anything else on the environment or resource development, transportation, social service delivery, economic development (beyond the myth that cutting taxes automatically boosts the economy), criminal justice and law reform...

For a two term governor, even if one were to take the list of accomplishments listed here at face value, it's extremely thin.

No one with a brain can take what you said seriously because yet again, you don't know the facts.

Here is the part where I completely own you, as usual, though I don't give myself credit for something this easy:

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http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/how-jeb-bush-s-environmental-record-could-hurt-him-in-2016-20150310

Again, I have put forth the facts. The economy outperformed 48 states, educational achievement excelled, and Florida's reserves increased when Jeb Bush was Governor. He had an extraordinary record of accomplishment. I'm sorry you don't like the facts, but you can't continue to lie to people and get away with it. Unfortunately, you probably can get away with making your silly, dumb arguments over and over again.

http://finance.zacks.com/summary-florida-intangible-personal-property-tax-8267.html

Read all about the Rich Man's Tax that Jeb Bush cut.

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A tax cut that Scumbag Jeb! benefitted from that struggling Floridians paid for.

The rich scumbags that have flocked to Florida have made better lives for themselves, but they have not made better lives for the folks that live here.  The jobs they have created are menial service jobs, barely enough to raise a family.  Since they can afford to sent their kids (if they have them) to private school, they are not vested in the school system, which is why support for public education in Florida is well below the national average, and why our schools suck.  Repealing the intangible tax was sold as something to benefit "seniors and savers", and that sounds great, but Florida is full of folks that can't save, in no small margin because the rich have driven up property values to where housing in Florida is overpriced compared to where wages are.

That's the REAL Bush legacy.

[Landslide Lyndon]

The difference between you and I is that I am smart, I cite facts not only my opinion, and I am capable of making coherent arguments.

Is this guy for real?

[dudeabides]

http://finance.zacks.com/summary-florida-intangible-personal-property-tax-8267.html

Read all about the Rich Man's Tax that Jeb Bush cut.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

A tax cut that Scumbag Jeb! benefitted from that struggling Floridians paid for.

The rich scumbags that have flocked to Florida have made better lives for themselves, but they have not made better lives for the folks that live here.  The jobs they have created are menial service jobs, barely enough to raise a family.  Since they can afford to sent their kids (if they have them) to private school, they are not vested in the school system, which is why support for public education in Florida is well below the national average, and why our schools suck.  Repealing the intangible tax was sold as something to benefit "seniors and savers", and that sounds great, but Florida is full of folks that can't save, in no small margin because the rich have driven up property values to where housing in Florida is overpriced compared to where wages are.

That's the REAL Bush legacy.

Here is the fundamental problem with what you are saying. You believe that tax cuts have to be "paid for" and in the short term that is true, but long term tax cuts generally pay for themselves. Reagan's tax cuts increased revenue 99%, we ran deficits because of over spending. Same thing with the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, they increased revenue by 44%. Also, since the end of the recession, most of the jobs that have been created nationally have been part-time. Jobs in the tourism industry are sometimes part-time, but many are full-time. When housing is doing well, folks who paint, build, sell homes, and movers do well - these are jobs that are sometimes part-time, but often times full-time. From 1999-2007, most of the jobs that were created in Florida were in housing and tourism, but other industries in Florida did well also when compared to the nation as a whole, which did okay during that period. Since the recession, this nation has not done well, and neither has Florida.

The fact of the matter is, once you start pushing the wealthy out of your state, you find it harder to fund crucial services. If you want a police force, funding for roads and bridges, and if you want to be able to fund education, you need revenue and revenue comes from more people earning more money paying taxes, not raising taxes which drives people out of a place.

To be quite honest, and I don't mean any disrespect, you have no idea what it is like to live in a place where the legislature is completely incompetent and seeks to raise revenue by sticking it to the rich. I live in such a place. They raised taxes on our businesses 60% in the last decade, they've kept an estate tax and an inheritance tax in place, and for part of the last decade, we had a millionaire's tax. $70 billion of wealth has left our state, companies like Mercedes and others continue to leave, and they take jobs with them. We are one of the slowest growing economies in the country, we have one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation thanks to a slow process, and our revenue projections are normally below forecast. You attack Jeb Bush for eliminating some civil service protections and privatizing government, well we've had Governors in both political parties who have skipped pension payments, partially or in full, several times in the last 20 years. In 2007, you had $9 billion in reserves, I'm not sure what that number is now, but I know we've been downgraded 9 times since 2010. Our state has over $40 billion in debt and $170 billion in unfunded liabilities, our state budget in 2016 alone is roughly $35 billion.

If you want to stick it to the rich, move to my state. It's a great state, but no one should copy our economic policies. Move here, you can buy a home for $350,000 and pay $8,500 in property taxes, pay a state income tax, have your hard earned tax dollars go to expensive failing urban schools where the kids aren't learning but administrators get rich, and as wealth leaves our state, it will be harder to find a job. When our rich move, they go to your state because they will pay lower taxes, and when they move and buy expensive homes they pay for your schools, police, and roads through property taxes, sales taxes on expensive cars etc. You saw the creation of 1.3 million jobs between 1999-2007. Want to know how many jobs New Jersey added during the last decade? NONE. We raised taxes & fees 115 times, more than doubled state spending, and we have seen people and jobs leave as a result.

[Fuzzy Bear]

http://finance.zacks.com/summary-florida-intangible-personal-property-tax-8267.html

Read all about the Rich Man's Tax that Jeb Bush cut.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

A tax cut that Scumbag Jeb! benefitted from that struggling Floridians paid for.

The rich scumbags that have flocked to Florida have made better lives for themselves, but they have not made better lives for the folks that live here.  The jobs they have created are menial service jobs, barely enough to raise a family.  Since they can afford to sent their kids (if they have them) to private school, they are not vested in the school system, which is why support for public education in Florida is well below the national average, and why our schools suck.  Repealing the intangible tax was sold as something to benefit "seniors and savers", and that sounds great, but Florida is full of folks that can't save, in no small margin because the rich have driven up property values to where housing in Florida is overpriced compared to where wages are.

That's the REAL Bush legacy.

Here is the fundamental problem with what you are saying. You believe that tax cuts have to be "paid for" and in the short term that is true, but long term tax cuts generally pay for themselves. Reagan's tax cuts increased revenue 99%, we ran deficits because of over spending. Same thing with the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, they increased revenue by 44%. Also, since the end of the recession, most of the jobs that have been created nationally have been part-time. Jobs in the tourism industry are sometimes part-time, but many are full-time. When housing is doing well, folks who paint, build, sell homes, and movers do well - these are jobs that are sometimes part-time, but often times full-time. From 1999-2007, most of the jobs that were created in Florida were in housing and tourism, but other industries in Florida did well also when compared to the nation as a whole, which did okay during that period. Since the recession, this nation has not done well, and neither has Florida.

The fact of the matter is, once you start pushing the wealthy out of your state, you find it harder to fund crucial services. If you want a police force, funding for roads and bridges, and if you want to be able to fund education, you need revenue and revenue comes from more people earning more money paying taxes, not raising taxes which drives people out of a place.

To be quite honest, and I don't mean any disrespect, you have no idea what it is like to live in a place where the legislature is completely incompetent and seeks to raise revenue by sticking it to the rich. I live in such a place. They raised taxes on our businesses 60% in the last decade, they've kept an estate tax and an inheritance tax in place, and for part of the last decade, we had a millionaire's tax. $70 billion of wealth has left our state, companies like Mercedes and others continue to leave, and they take jobs with them. We are one of the slowest growing economies in the country, we have one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation thanks to a slow process, and our revenue projections are normally below forecast. You attack Jeb Bush for eliminating some civil service protections and privatizing government, well we've had Governors in both political parties who have skipped pension payments, partially or in full, several times in the last 20 years. In 2007, you had $9 billion in reserves, I'm not sure what that number is now, but I know we've been downgraded 9 times since 2010. Our state has over $40 billion in debt and $170 billion in unfunded liabilities, our state budget in 2016 alone is roughly $35 billion.

If you want to stick it to the rich, move to my state. It's a great state, but no one should copy our economic policies. Move here, you can buy a home for $350,000 and pay $8,500 in property taxes, pay a state income tax, have your hard earned tax dollars go to expensive failing urban schools where the kids aren't learning but administrators get rich, and as wealth leaves our state, it will be harder to find a job. When our rich move, they go to your state because they will pay lower taxes, and when they move and buy expensive homes they pay for your schools, police, and roads through property taxes, sales taxes on expensive cars etc. You saw the creation of 1.3 million jobs between 1999-2007. Want to know how many jobs New Jersey added during the last decade? NONE. We raised taxes & fees 115 times, more than doubled state spending, and we have seen people and jobs leave as a result.

Was it really necessary for Jeb! to give that particular tax cut to the rich?

[dudeabides]

http://finance.zacks.com/summary-florida-intangible-personal-property-tax-8267.html

Read all about the Rich Man's Tax that Jeb Bush cut.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

A tax cut that Scumbag Jeb! benefitted from that struggling Floridians paid for.

The rich scumbags that have flocked to Florida have made better lives for themselves, but they have not made better lives for the folks that live here.  The jobs they have created are menial service jobs, barely enough to raise a family.  Since they can afford to sent their kids (if they have them) to private school, they are not vested in the school system, which is why support for public education in Florida is well below the national average, and why our schools suck.  Repealing the intangible tax was sold as something to benefit "seniors and savers", and that sounds great, but Florida is full of folks that can't save, in no small margin because the rich have driven up property values to where housing in Florida is overpriced compared to where wages are.

That's the REAL Bush legacy.

Here is the fundamental problem with what you are saying. You believe that tax cuts have to be "paid for" and in the short term that is true, but long term tax cuts generally pay for themselves. Reagan's tax cuts increased revenue 99%, we ran deficits because of over spending. Same thing with the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, they increased revenue by 44%. Also, since the end of the recession, most of the jobs that have been created nationally have been part-time. Jobs in the tourism industry are sometimes part-time, but many are full-time. When housing is doing well, folks who paint, build, sell homes, and movers do well - these are jobs that are sometimes part-time, but often times full-time. From 1999-2007, most of the jobs that were created in Florida were in housing and tourism, but other industries in Florida did well also when compared to the nation as a whole, which did okay during that period. Since the recession, this nation has not done well, and neither has Florida.

The fact of the matter is, once you start pushing the wealthy out of your state, you find it harder to fund crucial services. If you want a police force, funding for roads and bridges, and if you want to be able to fund education, you need revenue and revenue comes from more people earning more money paying taxes, not raising taxes which drives people out of a place.

To be quite honest, and I don't mean any disrespect, you have no idea what it is like to live in a place where the legislature is completely incompetent and seeks to raise revenue by sticking it to the rich. I live in such a place. They raised taxes on our businesses 60% in the last decade, they've kept an estate tax and an inheritance tax in place, and for part of the last decade, we had a millionaire's tax. $70 billion of wealth has left our state, companies like Mercedes and others continue to leave, and they take jobs with them. We are one of the slowest growing economies in the country, we have one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation thanks to a slow process, and our revenue projections are normally below forecast. You attack Jeb Bush for eliminating some civil service protections and privatizing government, well we've had Governors in both political parties who have skipped pension payments, partially or in full, several times in the last 20 years. In 2007, you had $9 billion in reserves, I'm not sure what that number is now, but I know we've been downgraded 9 times since 2010. Our state has over $40 billion in debt and $170 billion in unfunded liabilities, our state budget in 2016 alone is roughly $35 billion.

If you want to stick it to the rich, move to my state. It's a great state, but no one should copy our economic policies. Move here, you can buy a home for $350,000 and pay $8,500 in property taxes, pay a state income tax, have your hard earned tax dollars go to expensive failing urban schools where the kids aren't learning but administrators get rich, and as wealth leaves our state, it will be harder to find a job. When our rich move, they go to your state because they will pay lower taxes, and when they move and buy expensive homes they pay for your schools, police, and roads through property taxes, sales taxes on expensive cars etc. You saw the creation of 1.3 million jobs between 1999-2007. Want to know how many jobs New Jersey added during the last decade? NONE. We raised taxes & fees 115 times, more than doubled state spending, and we have seen people and jobs leave as a result.

Was it really necessary for Jeb! to give that particular tax cut to the rich?

Obviously, you need to have some tax revenue to fund crucial services. Protecting people, providing for roads and bridges, having a safety net that isn't a welfare state, providing for veterans, paying public sector workers, and being there during a time of crisis are all critical roles state governments play. Florida collects about 60% of it's tax revenue from it's sales tax, which ranks 29th nationally in terms of how high it is. An additional 24% of Florida's revenue comes from excise taxes. I prefer sales taxes and even some fees to income and investment taxes, though I don't like high gasoline taxes because that hits working people the most. The direct answer to your question is that while it wasn't "necessary" for Governor Bush to eliminate the intangibles tax, it's benefit is that wealth has stayed and even moved to Florida from high tax states like mine.

[heatmaster]

If the best way you criticize Jeb Bush is to lie about the facts and insult and attack those who set the record straight with facts, then keep it up guys, your stupid half-assed opinions are exactly that. Dudeabides has argued on factual evidence, and cited verifiable fact to back up those arguments.  Jeb Bush might not be perfect, but he is by a country mile, far superior than the moronic twits, who are Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. The former has a personality disorder, bordering on the sociopathic and the other is a egotistical blow-hard, so with these two, you are stuck between the Devil and deep blue sea. Jeb Bush has shrewdly refused to get involved in juvenile name calling and attack strategy which you see Clinton and Trump engage in a daily basis. That 28% number which Trump has going for him, proves one thing, the numbing stupidly of those, who are happily and eagerly supporting his candidacy. Summer silliness is almost over and so is the "swimwear" segment😉

[136or142]

If the best way you criticize Jeb Bush is to lie about the facts and insult and attack those who set the record straight with facts, then keep it up guys, your stupid half-assed opinions are exactly that. Dudeabides has argued on factual evidence, and cited verifiable fact to back up those arguments.  Jeb Bush might not be perfect, but he is by a country mile, far superior than the moronic twits, who are Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. The former has a personality disorder, bordering on the sociopathic and the other is a egotistical blow-hard, so with these two, you are stuck between the Devil and deep blue sea. Jeb Bush has shrewdly refused to get involved in juvenile name calling and attack strategy which you see Clinton and Trump engage in a daily basis. That 28% number which Trump has going for him, proves one thing, the numbing stupidly of those, who are happily and eagerly supporting his candidacy. Summer silliness is almost over and so is the "swimwear" segment😉

I think we can go beyond arguing that Jeb! supporters have Bush derangment syndrome, to simply say that Jeb! supporters are deranged.

Still, I agree on one thing, dudeabides likely has cited one verifiable fact.

[Blair]

If his name wasn't Bush he'd just be a generic governor from the 2000's e.g Tim Pawlenty

[136or142]

If his name wasn't Bush he'd just be a generic governor from the 2000's e.g Tim Pawlenty

I think there probably is a lot of truth to that, though obviously the Bush name cuts both ways. But, I don't think it's entirely accurate.  With the exception of former California Governor Pete Wilson in 1996, large state governors are generally taken seriously unless they give a reason for them not to be treated so, as Rick Perry did in 2012.

Had George Pataki run in 2008, he likely would have a least been regarded as more than an afterthought. To be sure, not many big state governors have run for the Presidency in recent years, aside from George W Bush, but they pretty much have all been discussed as potential major candidates. that includes Jerry Brown and Andrew Cuomo this year all the way back to Mario Cuomo in 1988.  Even Elliot Spitzer was at one point generally assumed to be on the fast track to the White House.

That said, had Rick Scott run this year, as he was considering doing at one point, he likely would have been regarded as a joke.

[heatmaster]

Adam T. is a further illustration how the trolls who inhabit this site, stoop to insults and name calling when they have very little substance to there opinions. Again no coherence to there remarks. Typical for trolls. C'mon dude, Bush deranged syndrome? Is that your "diagnosis" for those who put you in "your box"? I truly feel sorry for you. You are obviously not well. Get help😊

[All Along The Watchtower]

He "helped" his brother become President. That's gotta count for something.