Karen Hughes, a onetime top adviser to George W. Bush, said on Tuesday that the former president's troop surge in Iraq and multi-billion-dollar bank bailout have helped shore up the political ground underneath President Obama. 'President Bush made decisions that were unpopular, but set the stage for Obama to succeed,' Hughes said at George Washington University during an event hosted by the Washington-centric publication Politico. Bush's TARP legislation 'saved the country from a depression-like event,' Hughes said, adding that Obama's stimulus package last year was 'not what rescued the country.' Approved initially by Congress in October of 2008, TARP -- or the Troubled Assets Relief Program -- provided $700 billion to banks at risk of failing in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis. 'What rescued the economy was that tough vote that Republicans took at President Bush's urging,' Hughes said in reference to TARP, adding that Obama's stimulus package was 'wasted money.' Hughes' comments come at a time when Democrats continue to blame Bush with creating an economic mess so large that 15 months later, the Obama administration still has not been able to fix it. Hughes served Bush as a top political strategist during his gubernatorial campaigns in Texas and his initial White House bid in 2000. She was a senior adviser at the White House before returning to Texas with her family in 2002. As a veteran Bush loyalist, Hughes has an interest in mending Bush's approval ratings nearly two years after he left office. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey released last week, however, showed that 40 percent of voters think Bush is solely or mainly responsible for the poor state of the economy. Hughes went on to defend other decisions the former president made, including the 2007 troop surge in Iraq and the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. 'The surge in Iraq was a politically unpopular decision by President Bush (and) leaders of his own party asked him not to do it,' Hughes said. 'But it left Obama with a war he could win, rather than come home in defeat.' She went on to say that Obama's response to the oil spill has been 'incredibly passive,' adding that Bush received flack for not responding to those stranded in New Orleans for two days following Katrina, while Obama bore responsibility for not fixing the problem more than two months after the spill occurred. 