Bush Brings Back Cronyism, Nepotism, and Corruption
"So Much For Restoring Honor and Integrity To The White House"

(5/17/2005) President Bush promised to restore honor and integrity to the White House, but instead he has restored cronyism, nepotism, and corruption to a level that can be described as sickening. "Cronyism" is defined as "the giving of special treatment, preference, jobs, political appointments, or contracts to people who are friends, donors, or political cohorts rather than to people based on their abilities or qualifications.". Nepotism is defined similarly, but is more about giving jobs to family members.

Cronyism is extremely dangerous to our democracy because it invites the people who give the largest political contributions to ask for, and expect, favors in return. They usually ask for legislation, or for a important job inside our government. This type of quid-pro-quo corruption has been increasing right along with increases in campaign contributions, and it is corrupting our government institutions and destroying our democracy.

The George W. Bush administration is the perfect example of cronyism taken to its full extreme, and the numerous destructive results that it produces. George W. Bush has appointed people to high level government jobs when these people have often had histories of opposing the functions of the agencies that they were hired to run, or who have lobbied for the companies that they are now suppose to regulate. Bush has rolled back the "pizza rule" that limited gifts from lobbyist, and he has started paying bonuses to top level federal officials. 

The results of all this extreme cronyism and Bush's extreme right wing ideology has been a roll-back of fifty years worth of environmental protections, roll-back of energy regulations, roll-back of civil rights, roll-back of nuclear treaties, cuts in veterans healthcare, cuts in funds for education, a reversal of conservative fiscal management, massive increases in pork barrel projects, costly corporate welfare, outsourcing of U.S. jobs, corporate accounting scandals, an increase in tax avoidance actions by wealthy individuals and corporations, roll-back of employee protections, and regressive tax cuts.

These backwards government actions have resulted in a declining dollar, declining standard of living, declining stock markets, higher unemployment, rising interest rates, rising wealth gap, higher health care cost, a ballooning federal deficit, rising energy cost, dirtier air and water, a costly war in Iraq, and less international cooperation.

A good example of how Bush's brand of cronyism operates is the war in Iraq, and his administrations preferential treatment towards Halliburton. Halliburton was given some huge no-bid contracts in Iraq, by Vice President Dick Cheney who just happens to be the former CEO of Halliburton, and Halliburton abused those contracts by overcharging the federal government and providing poor quality services. But Cheney wants you to believe that these contracts had nothing to do with the $50 million dollars they paid him, the millions they have continued to pay him, the appointments of Halliburton connected people into high level government jobs, or the secret meeting he held with corporate officials.

Similarly, Bush's top campaign contributor and good friend Ken Lay, former CEO of Enron, used his connections to write Bush's energy policy. As a result of this deregulation cronyism the state of California got price gouged by Enron and a handful of other big energy companies for several billion dollars. We then witnessed Enron collapse under the weight of it's own greed and the executives walk away with piles of cash while its employees, shareholders, and creditors got stuck with a bankrupt worthless corporation.

We are now witnessing skyrocketing energy cost, record high gas prices, and record profits by the big energy companies. I guess you could say that Bush's energy policies are working, but we are the ones paying for it. Maybe electing to oil men from Texas wasn't such a good idea after all.

Many people see these types of problems and incorrectly conclude that the problem is "big government", when the real problem is "bad leadership". When we elect right-wing puppets, like Bush and Cheney, who have histories of whoring themselves for big corporate interest we get cronyism, and all of its negative consequences.