In this post, Professor Balkin points to this NY Times article regarding the Bush Administration’s use of administrative power to restructure over thirty years of federal environmental policy. Professor Balkin’s post insightfully points out how the Republicans’ control of the executive and legislative branches of the federal government have allowed it to reshape a generation of federal environmental policy, and it is not at all clear that such restructuring was either necessary or in the public interest.
In one of the more important parts of Ron Suskind’s “The Price of Loyalty,” former Bush Administration Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill describes how the Bush Administration undermined the common sense environmental policies that former EPA administrator, Christine Todd Whitman was advocating that the administration follow in 2001. Mr. O’Neill used this incident as an example of his primary criticism of the Administration, which is its lack of policy analysis before establishing governmental policy.
As noted several times in this blog, I am generally supportive of the Bush Administration’s handling of the war against radical Islamic fascists. However, I continue to maintain that the Administration’s Achille’s heel is its lackluster performance on a variety of domestic issues, such as health care finance, tax policy, and environmental policy. If President Bush loses this November, my bet is that its performance on these issues will be the primary reason for the defeat.