President Bush Was Not a Right-Winger

...or at least, not in the way the Democrats like to keep making out. The way they keep speaking, you would think that he governed like a Reagan Republican or something. The Democrats keep talking about how we need not return to the types of policies that "got us into this mess in the first place." Okay, well what policies exactly of President Bush's are they talking about a "return to?" Because last I checked, President Bush governed in many ways like a Democrat with a Republican twist:

1) He said he would re-sign the Assault Weapons Ban when it expired if Congress would renew it

2) He signed what at the time was the largest expansion of the government into healthcare in decades with his Medicare Prescription Drug Bill (which ironically is actually managing to pay for itself right now! a first it seems among government healthcare programs considering the Massachusettes program, the Tennessee program, and Medicare and Medicaid, have all spiraled out of control in costs).

3) He signed the Sarbannes-Oxley legislation, which increased regulations on corporations and the financial system, because of the scandals from companies such as Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, and so forth.

4) He implemented No Child Left Behind, an expansion of the federal government into the educational system, something traditionally only supposed to be the realm of the states and local government.

5) He tried to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants

6) He sent more aid to fight AIDS in Africa than any other president in history (indeed, really any other person).

7) He doubled the Child Income Tax Credit from $500 to $1000 per child

Where is any of this "right-wing?" Yes, he did try to partially privatize Social Security which fell through and he would not engage in any kind of carbon cap-and-trade scheme, and of course there were his national security and foreign policies, from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to Guantanomo Bay, surveillance ("wiretapping"), the Patriot Act, waterboarding, enhanced interrogations, rendition, military tribunals, his shifting American foreign policy to being much more unilateral, etc...but none of this stuff had anything to do with the economy (except for the cap-and-trade resistance, which helped the economy, not hurt it).

I do not know of any Republicans talking about going and increasing gun control, increasing the federal government's presence into education, increasing the government's presence into healthcare, increasing the government's presence into the financial system, granting amnesty to illegal immigrants, and so forth.

Nope, the people talking about doing all that, and in the name of "Change," are the Democrats, and in particular Obama. In fact, it almost seems as if Obama is just Bush 2.0 in this sense. Or President Bush was Obama-lite in this sense. President Obama pushed through MASSIVE new regulation of the healthcare system, MASSIVE new regulation of the financial system, and wants MASSIVE change to the areas of education (actually he already nationalized the Student Loan Program), and energy.