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Blood on His Hands: Jeb Bush Was Director of Philanthropy That Gave Tens of Millions to Planned Parenthood

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By Ben Johnson. Until the eve of his presidential campaign, Jeb Bush was director of a philanthropy that gave tens of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood and financed its advocacy of “unrestricted access to abortion” around the world. The charity also approved money to global abortion providers while he sat on its board.

In 2010, Jeb was named one of the founding directors of the Bloomberg Family Foundation, established as a tax-exempt foundation to advance the vision of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He resigned from the board at the end of 2014 to prepare his presidential campaign.

While a Bush spokesman has responded to concerns by saying that Bush would not have voted on every initiative of the foundation, a pro-life leader told LifeSiteNews it “stretches credibility” that Bush was unaware of the foundation’s pro-abortion work, given the centrality of such work to the foundation’s mission, and its scope . . .

$50 million to ‘reproductive health’ and Planned Parenthood

In March of 2014, the Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a $50 million undertaking to expand “reproductive health,” including lobbying foreign nations to loosen restrictions on abortion. (Read more from “Jeb Bush Was Director of Philanthropy That Gave Tens of Millions to Planned Parenthood” HERE)

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Hillary Clinton Attacks Jeb Bush on ‘Right to Rise’

By Laura Meckler. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton sharply attacked one of the top Republicans in the presidential race, saying Jeb Bush’s “Right to Rise” slogan is empty given his policy positions.

“I don’t think you can credibly say that everybody has a ‘right to rise’ and then say you’re for phasing out Medicare or for repealing Obamacare,” she said Friday morning. “People can’t rise if they can’t afford health care. They can’t rise if the minimum wage is too low to live on.”

Her remarks came at a conference for the National Urban League, a group that advocates on behalf of African-Americans, shortly before Mr. Bush addressed the same audience. Mrs. Clinton enjoys strong support from African-American voters, but Mr. Bush is working to expand his support among minorities and to put himself forward as ready to broaden the Republican Party’s tent.

“I’m working for every vote,” Mr. Bush told the group. He didn’t reply to Mrs. Clinton’s critique, but a spokeswoman called her comments “more false, cheap political shots” meant to distract from Mrs. Clinton’s lack of accomplishments.

Mrs. Clinton and two other Democrats who addressed the group focused heavily on a string of deaths of black people at the hands of police or in police custody and on economic inequality. Mr. Bush didn’t mention the deaths or the “black lives matter” movement that activists have embraced, instead focusing on his record in Florida on expanding the economy and improving public schools. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Jeb Bush’s 4% Growth Promise Is 104% Nonsense

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Jeb Bush wants the American economy to grow faster. A lot faster. “So many challenges could be overcome if we just get this economy growing at full strength,” he observed in his presidential campaign kickoff speech. “There is not a reason in the world why we cannot grow at a rate of 4 percent a year.”

It’s an exciting idea that really would solve a lot of problems, allowing the country to expand opportunity down the socioeconomic ladder without needing to redistribute wealth away from those who already have in. Then again, if some obvious prescription existed to deliver that kind of rapid growth, you might think that Jeb’s brother or his father would have hit upon the formula.

But though the campaign promise is a bit silly — even the policy institute that cooked up the goal turns out to admit it’s more aspirational than real — the concept raises the important question of to what extent the United States can grow its way out of some of today’s problems. The answer tells us something important about the limits of economic theory, the American electorate’s hunger for unrealistic promises, and how well the Bush family understands both.

How unrealistic is this, historically speaking? It is pretty unrealistic. Since Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, the American economy has grown on average 2.7 percent per year.

Jeb is promising to do not just a little better than average, but dramatically better than average. And he’s promising to do so even though the aging of the population puts a natural check on growth, since as people become too old to work the economy loses output. (Read more from “Jeb Bush’s 4% Growth Promise Is 104% Nonsense” HERE)

Listen to Rachel Alexander, political analyst, give her assessment of the GOP field to-date:

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Jeb Bush: I’ll Break Away From GOP Pack

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Jeb Bush said in an interview aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he believes he’ll be in a better position to break away from the rest of the Republican field when he announces his presidential candidacy.

“I think this transition to a candidacy will allow me to be more direct about my advocacy of the leadership skills necessary for the next president to fix a few things,” Bush told CNN’s Dana Bash in Tallinn, Estonia, on Saturday.

“And as a candidate, contrary to someone who has been listening and learning along the way, I’ll offer up alternatives to the path we’re on as well, so I’ll be more specific on policy,” he said.

Bush, who has long been viewed as a likely presidential contender, is expected to announce his candidacy on Monday. But he believes it could take some time for him to break out of a crowded Republican pack, which already boasts 10 candidates.

“People make up their minds in the last weeks of these primaries,” Bush said. “My expectation is we’ll have slow, steady progress. That’s been the expectation all along.” (Read more from “Jeb Bush: I’ll Break Away From GOP Pack” HERE)

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Jeb Bush Likes $3 Gasoline

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Jeb Bush, Florida former governor and likely Presidential candidate, stated he would have favored an invasion and occupation of Iraq, even knowing that WMD were nonexistent. He did not say what was so important to invade and occupy Iraq at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars and thousand of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries.

The Bush family has been a loyal long-term member of the oil patch. Oil companies in 2002 had been frustrated with the price of oil, which hovered around $20/barrel for oil or $1/gallon for gasoline for many years. After the March 2003 invasion and occupation, the price of oil zoomed to around $100 per barrel for oil, or $3 per gallon for gasoline.

The only possible way for this dramatic turnaround was for a worldwide cartel of oil producing states (OPEC, including Iraq, and allies, including Russia) to take over and enforce its sales quotas. A cartel works only if all the members not exceed their sales quotas. There can be no “cheaters” who sell more oil than their quotas at a reduced price. For instance if a “cheater” can sell 6% more oil by reducing the price by 4%, it can profit by the added 2%.

The only power on earth that could enforce such a cartel quota system is the U.S. government. It appears the U.S. government is legally able to do so by occupying Iraq. We could find the cartel files in the occupation office in Iraq and possibly Washington D.C. These files should be opened for all to see.

President Obama could order the takedown of the cartel without ending the occupation of Iraq. He should do so ASAP. Oil prices will fall back to $20 per barrel, or $1 per gallon for gasoline. Hundreds of billions of dollars for savings for motorists, airlines, and government purchases of fuel.

Jeb Bush and the rest of the Bush family should be questioned on their support for the worldwide oil cartel. That was the key prize for the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

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Jeb Bush Has Bigger Problems Than Iraq War Stumble

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By Jonah Goldberg. By now everyone has had their say about Jeb Bush’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. The consensus is that Bush misheard Megyn Kelly’s “knowing what we know now” question about the Iraq war. I’m not convinced.

Politicians routinely answer the question they wish they were asked rather than the question they were actually asked. Indeed, those are the only kinds of questions some politicians — particularly ones with the last name Clinton — ever answer. The question Fox News’ Kelly asked is the tougher one, at least for Bush, so perhaps he opted to answer in a way that let him take a shot at Hillary Rodham Clinton, who also supported the war?

But it doesn’t matter. Bush should have murder-boarded every possible variant of that question. His team should have run drills on it, as if he were prepping for a presidential debate. And, he should have given a speech specifically about the Iraq war months ago to inoculate himself against all of this.

In other words, the disturbing thing about his response and the awkward effort to clean it up is that it was necessary at all.

With the possible exception of the Adamses, there’s no family in American history with more institutional knowledge about how to run for president. And of the immediate Bush clan, almost everybody agrees that Jeb is the savviest. (Read more from “Jeb Bush Has Bigger Problems Then Iraq War Stumble” HERE)
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How Wannabe King Bush III Flubbed the Iraq War Question Last Week

By Scott Wong. [GOP lawmakers] on Capitol Hill were scratching their heads as Bush struggled during four consecutive news cycles to articulate his position on the unpopular war that defined the presidency of his older brother, George W. Bush.

“[I’m] flabbergasted at the degree of back and forth that’s ensued this week on the Middle East answer, correction, non-answer, correction, etc.,” said one GOP lawmaker from a early primary state who has yet to endorse anyone in the race. . .

Jeb Bush first stepped in it [last] Monday when Fox News’ Megyn Kelly asked if he would have invaded Iraq in 2003 “knowing what we know now” — that U.S. intelligence proved to be faulty and Saddam Hussein didn’t have weapons of mass destruction. Yes, he replied.

The next day, Bush took to Sean Hannity’s radio show to explain he misinterpreted the question and called it a “hypothetical” he couldn’t answer. On Day 3, Bush’s line was that such questions do a “disservice” to those who perished in the war.

By the fourth day, Bush had finally settled on a clear answer: “Knowing what we know now, I would not invade.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Here’s What Wannabe King Bush III Says His First Action Would Be If He Was Elected President

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Photo Credit: US News

Photo Credit: US News

By Warren Mass. During a recent interview with Megyn Kelly on Fox News, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said that — were he to be elected president — his first order of business would not be to repeal President Obama’s executive action granting amnesty to four million illegal aliens. Bush, who has not yet announced himself as a candidate for the Republican nomination in 2016, said that although he did not support the Obama administration executive action — which he called unconstitutional — he would not remove it (presumably by another executive action) immediately after assuming the presidency. Bush said he would rather rectify the action as part of “meaningful” immigration reform legislation passed by Congress.

Kelly told Bush that she had talked to Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who was one of the “Gang of Eight” that drafted the bipartisan “immigration reform” bill that passed the Senate in 2013 but was never voted on by the Republican-led House because it provided amnesty to illegal aliens. She said that Rubio told her: “It’s going to be very difficult to undo [the executive action] once all these folks are here, if that legal challenge to his action does not succeed.”

The “legal challenge” that Kelly referred to is a temporary injunction that U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Brownsville issued last February, blocking implementation of the Obama plan. Hanen’s decision was in response to a suit filed against the administration by a group of states led by Texas. The administration has appealed that injunction to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which heard arguments from both sides in the case on April 17, but has not yet issued a decision.

Bush replied: “By the way, I think [the legal challenge] will succeed.”

When Kelly asked Bush how he would go about undoing the executive actions (presuming they were still intact should he become president), the former governor replied: “Passing meaningful reform of immigration and make it part of it.” (Read more from “Here’s What Wannabe King Bush III Says His First Action Would Be If He Was Elected President” HERE)

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Early Polls Tough to Swallow for Bush

By David Catanese. Like many candidates before him, Jeb Bush has rendered early polling in the 2016 presidential race pointless.

“The polls are totally irrelevant,” he told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly this week. “Everyone needs to take a chill pill on the polls until it gets closer.”

But regardless of their ultimate predictive value, a reading of voters’ early preferences and impressions still provides a snapshot of the bumpy road the son of one former president and the brother of another faces to the Republican nomination. . .

About half of the GOP seems firmly skeptical of him, either because he’s part of a political dynasty or because he’s breaking with conservative orthodoxy on immigration reform and education standards.

His favorability rating is in negative territory among first-in-the-nation Iowa caucusgoers, a number that had to factor in to his decision to skip the August straw poll in the Hawkeye State for another event. (A Bush aide denies this.) In New Hampshire, where Republicans hue more moderate, he’s in better shape, but faces fierce competition in a primary he likely has to win. (Read more from “Early Polls Tough to Swallow for Wannabe King Bush III” HERE)

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Jeb Bush to Skip Iowa Straw Poll, Probably Fears Early Loss

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Photo Credit: The Des Moines Register

Photo Credit: The Des Moines Register

No Iowa Straw Poll for Jeb Bush.

The likely Republican presidential candidate will instead attend a competing event, the RedState Gathering in Atlanta, the day of the Iowa event, GOP sources in Iowa told The Des Moines Register on Tuesday. A spokesman for Bush confirmed the report.

Bush, a former Florida governor, is the first well-known Republican in the 2016 presidential field to officially opt out of the straw poll, a nationally renowned event that has drawn significant criticism over the years.

The Republican Party of Iowa, which hosts the Iowa Straw Poll, has been working to shore up the event’s reputation and lure candidates by addressing some of the most prevalent complaints. Last week, Iowa GOP officials announced they’ll provide free tent space and utilities for the campaigns. The straw poll has been bashed as having outsized importance, even to the point of having losing candidates drop out of the race. Campaigns sometimes spend hundreds of thousands of dollars at the straw poll as a sort of dry run for the Iowa caucuses.

But for the GOP presidential contenders, whether to compete in the straw poll is more of a risk-reward analysis. For those who compete, the aim is to do better than expected. This cycle, some contenders have said, they intend to focus instead on the caucuses, which will take place in precincts across the state on Feb. 1. (Read more from “Jeb Bush to Skip Iowa Straw Poll” HERE)

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The Left Sees Jeb Bush as the Best GOP Chance to Pass Amnesty [+videos]

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download (3)By Pam Key. This week at the The University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, long-time immigration activist Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) said the potential Republican president he could work best with to pass comprehensive immigration reform is Jeb Bush.

(Read more from “Gutiérrez: Jeb Bush Our Best GOP Chance to Pass Amnesty Legislation” HERE)

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Rep. Steve Knight Confronts Protester During Immigration Discussion

By Veronica Rocha. A new video shows U.S. Rep. Steve Knight (R-Palmdale) confronting a protester during a discussion about immigration.

The heated confrontation occurred Friday outside Knight’s district office in Simi Valley, where a group holding “Stop illegal immigration” signs had gathered during an open house event. The entire encounter was filmed and a video was later posted to YouTube.

A protester, who called himself “Mike,” approached Knight, shook his hand and said, “You told me you didn’t vote amnesty and you did. I looked it up on the Internet. You lied to me.” He then patted Knight on the arm.

As the protester walked away, Knight approached him and said, “If you touch me again, I’ll drop your a**.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Jeb Bush’s Tie to Fugitive Goes Against Business-Savvy Image He Promotes

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Jeb Bush was a young man building a real estate business in Miami in 1985 when health-care entrepreneur Miguel Recarey Jr. hired him to help locate office space in South Florida.

Bush, then the son of the vice president, later provided another service: opening doors in Washington, where Recarey had mounted an aggressive lobbying effort for a waiver from Medicare rules that would allow his fast-growing company to continue to expand.

Recarey got what he wanted. But two years later, the firm, International Medical Centers, was shut down as regulators searched for millions in missing federal funds. Facing charges of bribery and bilking Medicare, Recarey fled the country to avoid prosecution. He remains a fugitive in Spain, where a court denied U.S. requests for extradition.

The Recarey case illustrates aspects of Bush’s business record that are likely to resurface as he moves closer to a campaign for president. Time and again, he benefited from his family name and connections to land a consulting deal or board membership, sometimes doing business with people and companies that would later run afoul of the law.

In the case of Recarey, Bush has said over the years that he “made one call” to a mid-level official to seek a fair deal for a Florida businessman. (Read more from “Jeb Bush’s Tie to Fugitive Goes Against Business-Savvy Image He Promotes” HERE)

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Here’s What Rand Paul Has to Say About Jeb Bush

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) slammed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush as a “Democrat-light” who’s “almost like Hillary Clinton but not quite,” in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News at the South By Southwest conference.

Paul also laid out his vision for his pathway to victory, should he jump in with a race for the White House as many expect him to—and explained how he plans to build a unique coalition of voters to win the GOP nomination and then the general election.

Paul told Breitbart News:

“We believe that the message of ‘leave me alone’ that forms sort of the ‘leave me alone coalition’ forms this group of people that we think supports the things I’m trying to do is a big enough and broad enough coalition to win in a Republican primary but is also a big enough and broad enough to bring independents and others afterwards. There are two different tactics you could try to do if you want to bring in independents: You could be Democrat-light and run the Jeb Bush campaign that’s uncomfortable with the grassroots of your party and you could run this campaign that’s like ‘I’m almost like Hillary Clinton but not quite’ and then you can get the independents or I think you could run a truly principled campaign as a Constitutional conservative but also still show how the message that big government messes everything up from business to taxes to regulation also can be applied to criminal justice. That big government messes up criminal justice and doesn’t treat people fairly because big government is incompetent. Big government is incapable of feting out justice sometimes because it is too large. So I think there is a possibility, a great possibility, a truly principled Constitutional limited government conservative message, could resonate out to a bigger audience. We try to take it everywhere. We also try to go where Republicans haven’t been going, to the tech community, to historically black colleges, to Berkeley, to places like that with a hope of showing that we can broaden the message. That’s what people will want if we’re the nominee.”

(Read more from “Here’s What Rand Paul Has to Say About Jeb Bush” HERE)

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