Jeb Bush praises Obama’s education policies (VIDEO)
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush testifies before the House Budget Committee in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill June 1, 2012 in Washington, DC. The committee members engaged in a wide-ranging debate about tax and spending policy during the hearing titiled, ‘Removing The Barriers To Free Enterprise And Economic Growth.’
Jeb Bush, former Florida governor and brother to former President George W. Bush, offered light praise of President Obama's education policies in an interview on CBS News' "This Morning" on Thursday.
Bush told CBS's Charlie Rose that he supported Obama's appointment of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and that he'd done a "good job," CBS News reported.
“We have a different approach as it relates to school choice and I think we need accelerate more provocative reforms," Bush said. "But having said that, anytime an elected official in the world we are in today that appears so dysfunctional challenges a core constituency not of their opponent, but of their own political base I think we should pause and give them credit. This is the place where President Obama has done this.”
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Bush, who is related to not one but two past US presidents, is passionate about education and school choice reform, ABC News reported, and said he doesn’t “have to play the game of being 100,000 percent against President Obama…on the things that I think he’s done a good job on I’m not going just say no no.”
The former Florida governor also said that he would like to see Obama give his brother George W. Bush "a tip of the hat" when it comes to foreign policy and national security issues, Politico reported.
“I would argue in some ways, by reality seeping into his life as commander in chief, that a lot of [Obama’s foreign policy] is modeled after [Bush] 43,” Jeb Bush told Rose.
Bush also quashed rumors that he would consider running alongside Mitt Romney as his vice president.
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“I’m not going to do it and I’m not going to be asked and it’s not going to happen,” Bush told Rose. “That doesn’t mean I don’t have a voice. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to enthusiastically support Mitt Romney. I intend to do that, I’m doing it. But I’m not going to be a candidate with him.”
The politician told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl last week that he could not run with Romney because their budget strategies don't align, and that he would willingly accept tax hikes in conjunction with spending cuts in order to solve America's deficit, according to ABC News.
Despite the sharp divides along party lines in American politics, Bush remained hopeful that a show of bipartisanship would soon emerge to bring down the US government's spending.
"Here's what I know to be true. Next year or the year after there's going to have to be a grand bargain. We are on an unsustainable course. It is not possible to continue to do what we are going– what we're doing today. It's just not possible," Bush told Rose.
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