Internal GOP Memo Attacks Bush Handling Of Economy
An internal GOP memo prepared to brief some House Republicans as part of an ongoing probe into the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch deal takes direct aim at an unlikely target: Former President George W. Bush.
The memo directly blames Bush’s handling of the economic meltdown, and it coins a striking new phrase linking Bush and Obama and blaming both administration’s bailout policies in tandem for exacerbating the meltdown: “The Great Bush-Obama Economic Intervention.”
The memo goes considerably farther than many GOPers have been willing to go in publicly questioning Bush on the economy. It suggests that Republicans may soon begin making a public case that attacks both Bush’s and Obama’s economic policies when the next step in Obama’s overhaul of financial regulations hits.
“The financial crisis of 2008 had its roots primarily in ill-conceived government policies,” reads the memo. It was prepared by Republican staffers to advise GOP members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on how to handle a recent hearing on the government’s role in Bank of America’s purchase of Merrill Lynch.
The memo attacks Bush’s — and Obama’s — bailout policies for exacerbating the crisis. “Given the role of government policies in creating the conditions for the housing bubble which caused the financial crisis, it is remarkable that the prescription of the Bush Administration and the Democratic Congress was more government intervention in the economy,” it says. “The Obama administration has not missed a stride.”
You can read the memo right here. Other aspects of the memo have already gotten a little press attention, but no one has focused on the attacks on Bush.
It would be pretty interesting if Republicans begin making the case that Bush’s economic policies were disastrous, and use them to tar Obama’s. If you start hearing GOP attacks on the “Bush-Obama economic intervention,” you’ll know where they came from.
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Greg I think you and probably some other journalists are getting rick rolled here. The GOP WANTS to be able to blame Bush publicly but they are all probably too cowardly to do it individually. You guys are basically doing their dirty work for them. Check it out, I can see the future. What happens next is a lot of denial from the GOOPers that they had anything to do with it and then comes the “but”. And it will go something like this.
It gives them away to deflect the criticism that they had anything to do with Bush’s failed policies and that they were spending like drunken sailors for 6 of his 8 years. In short its their way to detach Bush from them (or attempt to anyway) so the Democrats don’t use him to tar and feather them for another election season. Igotta say its a pretty good move but I am hoping people don’t buy it. The GOP was lock step with Bush on his policies and even eventually on the bailouts in both the House and the Senate. It is what it is.
SG, my point here is not to say that this criticism is valid..
Greg, that’s a Gingrich attack. I remember Gingrich mentioning that EXACT line of attack months earlier. Is Gingrich assisting the RNC?
So true! Eight years of reckless tax cuts with no cuts in spending were extremely destructive!
Yes, compare Obama to Bush and see what happens. It won’t stick. They tried this during the campaign too, saying Obama wanted to continue Bush policies. The public is not that stupid.
Obushma.
Paul Krugman has made this same observation several times: Obama’s economic fix is a close match with Bush’s (TARP).
Obama’s overall economic policies are much different, but that’s not what this memo seems to be saying; rather, it is criticizing Bush/Obama for their solution to the economic meltdown.
A quick history lesson. To characterize the GOP as being in lock-step with Bush’s Wall Street bailout is a rewrite of history.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/26/bush-lawmakers-will-work-together-pass-bill/
The Wall Street bailout was passed when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. It was passed with majority Democrat support. It would not have passed without Democrat support. The Repubs in the House of Reps managed to defeat the first attempt. The second larded up bill passed with 172 Democrats and 91 Republicans offering support. Greg seems to have forgotten recent history when he writes that, “the memo goes considerably farther than many GOPers have been willing to go in publicly questioning Bush on the economy.” During the debate over the Wall Street bailout there was loud and consistent GOP bashing of the bill.
it is criticizing Bush/Obama for their solution to the economic meltdown
Right. I guess the conservatives have forgotten all about Hoovervilles…….
sbj
.
TARP wouldn’t have passed either he House or Senate with out Republican votes including the Republican leadership in both and the Republican candidate for President. YOU are the one with revisionist history.
.
Oh and for everybody else, no IG report today so says Robert Gibbs
SG – to call the GOP in lockstep with the Wall Street bailout is an outright lie.
sbj,the only logical conclusion to be drawn from your comment is that the blame is BI-PARTISAN by a vote of 172 dems + 91 republicans. Could the problem have been that the republicans caved on this issue? Most definitely. And now they have decided to commit political suicide by connecting Bush and Obama to the financial crisis while simultaneously ignoring their very own ROLE in the financial crises and the bailout? Priceless.
Even worse…many many many republicnas, and conservatives urged Senator McCain to vote No, to demonstrate he was a conservative and knew that the ‘fix’ was a bad one. Mnay of us lost hope on that vote, where McCain could have been a ‘maverick’ and a LEADER, but instead he was upstaged by a bunch of Dems eager to bailout their buddies in the banking/hedgefund game!
See
Dodd, Inouye, Shumer, Frank, Waters etc etc etc
and don’t forget teh lord most merciful, who just appointed 16 former ‘bundler/hedgefund mgrs’ to ambassadorships!
Facts are a sticky thing, aren’t they!
Alternate realities abound.
Sorry, MAJII, but by that logic every damned bad bill that came out of the Republican-controlled Bush congress was bipartisan and therefore the Dem’s fault. (Iraq? Blame it on Hillary! No child – blame it on Kennedy!) Nope, the Wall Street bailout was passed by a Democratic congress and signed by Bush – they can take the blame. Go ahead and point fingers at the out of power minority party at the time but, again, I ask that history not be rewritten. The GOP was not in lock step regards the Wall Street bailout and a very significant number of them spoke out loudly against the bill and the policy at the time.
they’ve been using this one forever -
recall in the 2000 run up, Dan Quayle @ CPAC & dripping with sarcasm, bashing Bush 41 for “calling for a kinder, gentler America”
The Republicans and Democrats in congress need to look no further than themselves for blame for this econmomic mess.
They are to yellow to admit it though.
Another thing: this GOP memo sounds very much like the whole ‘Bush is a librul’ meme that began floating about after it became incredibly obvious (as opposed to merely obvious) Dubya was an absolute failure in every sense of the word.
The folks who wrote this memo are the same folks who put Bush in office and supported him for 8 years. So why should they be trusted?
@Philonius: THANK YOU.
Holy miss the point people – regardless of who caused the bailout – it never would have been needed without Bush.
sbj – there is something really wrong with you.
Where are the young Republicans? I am so sick of seeing the same Old White Men in front of the camera representing the Republican Party.Bush and the Republicans are responsible for this mess we find ourselves in.
GOP = going, going, gone…to be replaced by a rump of Palin Crazy Christians and a rump of Romney White Man’s Burden Plutocrats. The 3 party system is on it’s way.
The GOP assertion linking Obama to Bush for the economic collapse is like saying President Kennedy was the cause of the S&L Crises under Reagan?
“’Given the role of government policies in creating the conditions for the housing bubble which caused the financial crisis, it is remarkable that the prescription of the Bush Administration and the Democratic Congress was more government intervention in the economy…’”
Here’s how the GOP fools idiots: “…the role of government policies in creating the conditions for the housing bubble…” was LACK of regulation and government intervention. “…more government intervention…” is the INTRODUCTION of regulation. But they make these contravening measures sound alike. I guess they really do want to prove that society is futile, so we may as well screw our neighbors.
In January 2008 I was offered a mortgage with 20% down at nearly 7%, on a separate occasion I was offered an equity line of credit from the same bank (had I owned a home!) at just over 4%. This bank had a large responsibility for its own demise.
I do not remember Government taking a hand in encouraging people using their homes as an ATM, but the Government did enjoy the feel good factor which this engendered.
@mobedda – “the ownership society” = “I’ve got mine and since you’re too dumb to keep me from doing so I’m going to get yours, too!”
@Erik77: “sbj – there is something really wrong with you.”
I know you are but what am I? Nice persuasive argument you got there! Go on with your bad self – I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you – I simply disagree. Perhaps you could marshall some maturity?
To claim that the Wall Street and financial industry collapse was entirely due to Bush is so oversimplistic as to be absurd. An earlier commentor perhaps had it about right when s/he pointed out that there’s enough blame to go around for everybody. More to my point, the Repubs argue here that the bailout was not the best fix to the problem. And I further argue that to charcaterize the GOP as being in lockstep regards supporting the Wall St bailout is a complete and utter rewrite of history.
No, it wasn’t all due to Bush. It was at least as much the fault of Congressional Republicans like Phil Gramm, the ones who passionately believe in preventing the government from regulating any market ever.
I believe the final Senate vote on Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 was 90-8.
Nope – I was wrong – The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act passed the Senate, by the way, 54-44 on a nearly party-line vote. Senator Joe Biden voted against it. John McCain voted in favor.
What no one is saying is that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the parties. They are owned/work for the same people. They bleat a bit differently, but are still all owned sheep. They don’t work for us, that’s for sure. Not when a senator has to raise $10K/day to fund a campaign. We are fiddling as we watch America, stolen right in front of our eyes. Amazing.
Double never mind: “The bill in question is the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which was passed in 1999 and repealed portions of the Glass-Steagall Act, a piece of legislation from the era of the Great Depression that imposed a number of regulations on financial institutions. It’s true that Gramm authored the act, but what became law was a widely accepted bipartisan compromise. The measure passed the House 362 – 57, with 155 Democrats voting for the bill. The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 90 – 8.”
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was a large part of the beginnings of the problem. And Democrats did sign on to it in large numbers.
The attitude that underlies the bill, of full de-regulation and the assumption that the free market will always find a better way, is naive at best, and destructive at worst. Greedy people rise to the top, then work together to get even more. Free market be damned. The markets are manipulated regularly, and because almost no human actually makes objective decisions when shopping for any service or product, we all fall prey to it. Look up Behavioral Economics on that one.
Just my bit of a rant. Thanks for the article.
I think you over-generalize, but given how, in most cases, Republicans seem much better at forcing their entire party to vote party line, than the Democrats, generalization may be justified.
This is so Soviet Union of the GOP. Where is their Kruschev to come out and denounce the crimes of the Bush administration?
Obama seems committed to following the Bush policies with the addition of soaring verbiage as part of the sales pitch, but it is too obviously new wine in old vessels.
It is an act of blind self deception not to associate a particular ideology held by certain dominant individuals within the GOP with the current financial problem. The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 along with many other smaller legislative components were all passed as parts of much larger pieces of legislation that were politically impractical to change course on. By the time they got to a full floor vote they were fait accompli. Look at the bill introductions, the lobbying and writing of the legislation, and the committee wrangling and it will confirm the general impression that late century Republican ideology squarely holds responsibility for where we find ourselves now. It is flawed beliefs held by certain influential people that is to blame, not an entire voting bloc or bumper sticker affiliation. Beliefs that are not malleable when introduced to new experiences and information.
Wonder how Bush got all of those bad economic policies pasted, without a cooperative congress?
Why does everyone use the term socialism when I think they mean to write, egalitarianism. Obama nor Bush wanted the state to control the means and production of capital. Obama was give the opportunity to nationalize the banking industry, he refused. Ironically it was Lindsey Graham, the alleged poster boy of conservativism, who championed that idea. Using public money to fund a healthcare system is really no different from using public money to fund police, fire, or schools. Let’s all please smarten up and stop using the socialism buzz word, since that’s all it is and start using the term egalitarianism!
Hugo Chavez is a socialist and is practicing socialism through his nationalization of industry.
Is Obama proposing that? Nope. Therefore, he’s not really a socialist.
Whenever I hear or read someone using the term, socialism, it’s an immediate indication to me that the person is an unthinking slug who has surrendered his/her brain to a radical party belief.
I bet the same people who call Obama a socialist are the same ones that still think he’s a Muslim.
Bush had 6 years of a Republican controlled Congress that green-lighted all his spending.
Cutting taxes while prosecuting two foreign wars is not a way to save money. It would be like Joe Sixpack taking a salary cut then buying a bigger house – stupid at best.
One of these decades we will get past the blame game but it will not happen until all parties at fault take some responsibility for their part in how we got here. We act as if this was meltdown happened overnight or was a result of this parties policies or that presidents or ______ (fill in the blank). All of this turmoil is the culmination of il-concieved policies and beneign neglect on the part of all branches of the government having any interest in the economic stability of this country since Regan. A simple litmas test would have done wonders before the whole deregulation craze gained the status of a force of nature: Why was the regulation enacted in the first place? Then put an economic think tank to study the long-term effects of reversing that policy. THEN only go for half of what was originally proposed. THEN wait to see how that works out. That could have worked.
The bottom line there is enough blame to go around the block and back again so let’s have a timeout on blame.Fingerpointing is only good for posturing and we, the American public, deserve better than mere posturing at this juncture. There are two things I would love to see. First,a paper by a group of economic historians detailing the effects of the absence of government intervention in this crisis. All too often we hear the naysayers decry government involvement in a situation that only the government CAN fix. It is times such as this that we have government in the first place.What would have happened if they had simply said let the market correct itself. Secondly, I would love to see a detailed report (one with actual dollars and cents and where funds would be allocated) of how the opposition would have handled this differently. It is the American pastime to play Monday morning quarterback and not offer any workable alternative to the actions of others.
Brian. people bandy about the term socialism and I wonder how many of then really know what it really is. I can’t say I know having been away from school over four decades. Are they confusing it with communism? What are the differences between the two? More to the point, is it truly a bad form of government or has the application been corrupted by those with their own agenda?
There are those who disparage socialism but I wonder if some of the principles could be incorporated into a democratic society to its benefit. I am talking specifically in terms of health care. COULD certain aspects of a socialsts approach to medicine work in this country. With the crisis we have in this country, it bears scrutiny.
Is this some kind of news? There are huge numbers of us conservatives in the grass roots that opposed the Bush TARP bailout and the mini-bailout of autocompanies. In fact I know quite a few people who refused to vote for McCain when he jumped on that ship and supported TARP with damning enthusiasm.
Anyone who thinks this is some kind of “development”needs to widen their circle of friends, or at least sources.
So let me get this straight, the Republicans think they can win with the idea that the Republican’s method of handling the economic downturn was a disaster? You would have to still be looking for WMD to be dumb enough to believe that Bush Jr independently created his economic plan. The Republicans caused this mess over 8 years and it will take more than a few months for Obama to fix it. This is clearly not an “internal memo” since we are reading it here, it is a test-feeler to see how this angle plays. And it doesn’t play well.
Need someone to blame America? Just pull yourself away from the 52 inch plasma TV, walk through the McMansion and go out to the SUV and take a long hard gawk in the rearview mirror.
Don’t ask yourself what politician, party, corperation or foreign power caused this mess. Ask yourself what you did to stop them.And what your going to do now.
While others throughout world protest, fight and die for their rights. We sit and watch, doing nothing for our own country and people.
“The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves if we are underlings”
This sounds like a Sat Night Live parody of Republicans planning what to do next…Since when is it wrong to just say “Hey we F’ed up, Bush was wrong and we should have stepped up alot sooner and done SOMETHING” That would go alot longer then this weird logic of knowing the word “BUSH” is bad so tie Obama with BUSH…Do they actually pay people to come up with this stuff…Most Americans are not this stupid and most who recall or have studied the Depression and FDR remember how the Republicans back then tried to tie FDR to Hoover…didn’t work then won’t work now…whats next say Obama is F’ing up because he is…black…????
Just a note, The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) was strongly advocated by one Lawrence Summers, under Clinton. The bill allowed commercial banks, investment banks, securities firms and insurance companies to consolidate and, in my view was the most destructive deregulation in that it allowed the creation of the mega banks that became “too big to fail”.
Plus, the market has never been truly free. It is much like the S&L crisis in that the deregulation took place without taking away the gov’t guarantees–hence excessive risk taking. That creates a moral hazard since the market cannot punish bad actors. In the current crisis, the gov’t guarantee is the Fannie and Freddie underwritten mortgage where the broker pockets all the profit with no risk. Republicans and Democrats alike were all for it since home ownership increased along with the diversity of home owners (racial, socio-economic level, etc.). A prominent minority was in charge of Fannie at the time and our PC society would not allow criticism of him. So, yeah, there is enough blame to go around.
However, the assertion that it is deregulation alone or republicans alone that caused the crisis is naive. Deregulation without restoring the market mechanisms that force actors in the marketplace to accept risk is catastrophic. That is why a republican like Graham favored nationalization: he didn’t want to see even larger moral hazards created out of the mantra that any one organization was “too big to fail”. I don’t necessarily agree with Graham and I am sure the free market won’t solve everything; but, if we take away the consequences when an actor behaves poorly, we make it much worse (see LTCM, GM, Chrysler, Citi, etc.). Essentially, government guarantees and onerous regulation are morally equivalent and are distortions to the market.
A couple of quick points:
First, “Nationalization” is taking over a profitable industry.”Rescue” is taking over a failing or failed one.
Second, I concur with notsofast. Most of the legislation mentioned in this thread was passed as a rider, or in at least one case, added to the bill by the GOP leadership between the Senate floor and the White House.
There are a couple that I think Clinton (Summers & Rubin) would have considered signing anyway, but if they’d been brought to Congress stand-alone, these would have passed with only Republican votes, and Clinton was smart enough to try to avoid being attached to those stinkers.
The ReagaNaziCorp (RNC) had to get Bush into 1600 to get those through.
Arguing with Republican trolls is like banging your head against the wall or dealing with a 10 year old.
For example, an amazing commercial, put out by “Conservatives for Patients Rights” slimes alleged government healthcare by pushing $400 hammers and $600 toilet seats–as if it has something to do with Democrats.
It was actually Ronald Reagan’s Pentagon that procured these items and was disclosed by the Democratic Congress.
Yet, most (all) Republicans will claim it was the Democrats who pushed the expensive hammers and toilet seats. Bringing up idiotic items that Tip O’Neill was a House member at that time.
Are any of you people really for America? You put an idiot in the WH, because you could use him for your own personal agendas! You knew he would still be the same idiot, and you could blame him if things went wrong. Who’s the Idiot? We’ve been involved in all this war stuff, simply for the purpose of making money! You use that thing about “Democracy”, when in fact it has nothing to do with it. The rest of the world is in chaos, and you are still sitting in front of your 52″ plasma TV! Oh, excuse me I know you put in all those long hours in your offices/homes, perpetuating the illusion that you really are doing something good and great. For who? As long as you all see yourselves in separation you are about you and not about US!
Brian, You are a bucket mouth and bottomless pit of stupidity. I normaly don’t respond or read this stuff but when I see something like you it is hard, very hard, to many men have had to die because of something like you.
Folks it’s all in the plan! Yesterday Citibank sent notices to 15 million card holders that their rates will near double on July 8 !! How’s that for fair notice! They hint that it was to delinquent late paying customers,IT WAS NOT! Those people have been paying double for a long time now.They could only do this with backing from the politicians they backed with 68 % of their 2006 election donations.They HAVE TO SHARE BLAME WITH BUSH to cover their own fat keisters on this one.Using Independence Day as a cover is sickening when they are targeting on time bill paying Americans.So any of you out there that think you are republicans,I suggest you rethink it! They don’t represent you or care about you or me at all.They are th nympho whores of big business,how much proof do you need? Watch them and learn!
For all of those that have posted comments……….from what I see and read, you simply follow party lines and cannot defend your perception of history beyond name calling and finger pointing. I seldon post to these because of the childishness of repsonders in the majority. There is a minority of responders that actually think about what they post. So much for the last 40 years of not teaching “civics” in any lever of school. Our educational system mirrors our goverment policies. Totally un educated!
Someone posted that the two party system is dying……how so very true. And our country is dying and will be at a third world level soon. For those of you that actually think and try to reason things out……wonder what would happen if there were actually a consitiutional amendment presented to the voting public for “not more than 8 years in any elected position.” Short simple and to the point. Let those that have lived off the public dole for 20 to 50 years get out of the “halls of congress” and actually have to live under the laws and regulations that they pass. Social security and health care and the other social problems that are about to fall on all of us would take on a totally different response.
Obama was elected president by a majority of the voters…….neocons……get over it! Bush is not in office…..dems……get over it! Look further than your favorite “talking point” and what you see will scare the pants off any of you.
Good aim. Republican redirect the aim of the target from themselves to Obama by attaching Bush with it.
Take a look at history. Everytime Government gets involved during a recession, the recession always takes longer to recover. Idiots in Washington should have learned something by now. We do not need more Government involvement, we need less.
@ SG
Very good comment.
It shows the Republican character. They push their neo-con (read “neo-conmen”) policies with Bush as their mouthpiece, for 8 years they say he is the greatest, then when it all blows up in our faces, and their whole 25-year agenda proves a disaster, they turn around and throw him under the bus.
With friends like these….
@ Ladyvke
I am sorry but your post is hilarious! —
“Everytime Government gets involved during a recession, the recession always takes longer to recover.” —
How on earth can anyone KNOW how long it would have taken to recover if policies had been different? Do you have some crystal ball that you can share with us “idiots”??
@bethea3
It never ceases to amaze me how all of a sudden the Republicans want to “get away from the blame game” now that they have been in power for 8 years and their whole program has proved a disaster. If “the whole deregulation craze gained the status of a force of nature” it was precisely the neo-conmen at work doing it. For more than 30 years their think tanks propagandized the american people into their program. Now is when the contradictions have become apparent and — as usual — they are running, hiding and trying to play the “not MY fault” game. Truman said “The buck stops here.” The Republican motto is “We will take the big bucks, but THE buck – that we will pass on.”
Congress became a Democratic Congress (marginally) in 2006 and 2007. This memo fails to adequately mention that the damage was already done prior to this period due to lack of adequate oversight of Wall Street. These Republicans, who are anti-regulators, are just trying to cover up their purposeful lack of interest and inability to see the fiscal crisis that was rushing our way despite the many warnings from reputed economist.
They are just trying to cover their ineptitude as our elected representatives.
I don’t recall the BUSH PLAN having major problems until 2008, when the Democrats secame the majority! Iy’s been downhill ever since.
The bubble was there in 2008 and several years before that. The Bush Plan, if there was one, was to ignore reality. This eventually caught up with us. For this I blame Republicans, Democrats, Independents, etc. They all let us down.
Has anyone given any thought to the idea that maybe the Bush administration after realizing that McCain the so called (Maverick or Liberal Republican)Was going to be the Party Nominee,that he set all this up, like throwing chum to the sharks, knowing full well the Socialists would eat it up and come back for more and ultimately destroy our ecomomy and our country under the guise of fixing it. This is all we have witnessed since the innaugeration to date.
Look Joe Biden is a fool, but in his own comments, the Presidency of the United States is not the place for on the job training,to date this is still the smartest thing he has ever said, and shame on the GOP for not riding that horse to the end of the race.
You folks, especially you Republicans, seem to have lost your minds. Certainly your short-term memories. If you recall, although Bill Clinton left them with a huge surplus, Bush and the Republicans, given a huge political boost by 9/11, proceeded to then rule Washington with an iron hand until 2006. Plenty of time for them to inflict massive damage on the economy and foreign policy. Plenty of time to make us an absolute pariah in the eyes of the world. Plenty of time for these purveyors of that magical incantation called “deregulation” to bully and coerce every opponent who tried to curb the Republican religion of laissez faire, instituted by Ronald Reagan, with thee result being that this dominant policy eventually brought the United States to the brink of economic collapse.
Make no mistake. Although Republican apologists now try to disassociate themselves and their party from what, up until September, 2008, was fully accepted party dogma, it is now abundantly clear that their ill-informed, blindly emotional
“voodoo” economic policies have culminated in the present near calamity.
And they then reelected this idiot Bush, who maintained a tight cap on taxes while simultaneously commencing and waging two wars, and then paid for it all by mortgaging our nation to the Chinese.
Bottom line, don’t let these same faithful “dubya” supporters now feed you this line of **** that Democrats (who, until recently, were labeleled “traitors” by these same Republicans if they didn’t toe the line on Bush’s policies), now must share the blame for the dismal Republican economic policies propounded by their party over THE LAST EIGHT YEARS.
Cowards. Bush and the Republican Party ruled this country from 2001 – 2008, until almost 2009. Have the courage to now admit that the said dominant REPUBLICAN policies were ABSOLUTELY DISASTROUS.
You know what they say about Republicans – great at campaigning, lousy at actually governing. And now, it would seem, also great at shirking responsibility.
more YADA YADA YADA!!!!!!!!!! Everyone in washington that has been there for more than 4 years needs to be kicked out on their collective butts. Is ther anyone on this place that is more than 40 years of age??????? Most likely not……so your grasp of history is so short sighted that you cannot know more than the last 20 years of history. and if it did not happen within the last 8 years and 6 months then it did not happen. Can any of you actually say what the preamble to to constitution actually says…..or do you even know that the constitution has a preamble????
Momentary ignorance is living in the moment and that is all i see here……..again with the exception of the few that actually think and have lived some of your “history”.
It seems pretty obvious that todays Dems arent old enough, and some not smartenough to realize that every new president has had to come in and clean up and sometimes ride out the mistakes, blunders and failures of the former president, example Clinton refused to go after or do anything about BinLaden and didi nothing to slow the growth of China and would not stand up like a man to the UN for not holding Saddams feet to the fire, so what happens ?
Only months into Bushes Presidency the US is attacked, and Saddam is just laughing at us, and all the while the world looks at the US as a paper tiger.
God bless Dubya for all his efforts to straighten them all out as well as some of the crooks in this country that take all we have for granted and would sell us all out to the highest bidder. For this we thank you Mr Bush, Oh and some people might say you were not an intelligent man, but that set up for the Socialists was absolute genious.
This financial crisis started nearly thirty years ago under the Reagan Administration. With the deregulation, greed became entrench in our system of capitalism. Companies were able to hide assets, move corporations to foreign shores and not have to pay taxes, bank were able to write off debt with immunity.Cities and townships were held hostage with threats of factory closing and job loss if tax were not lowered. Who had to make up the difference once a company stop paying taxes? The American Taxpayer. Remember the S&L Bank? How many Americans lost everything because of greed. Who pay for that crisis? The American Taxpayer that’s who. We looked at Wall Street and they had us believe greed is good. Made ourselves believe that load of ****. If the little guy lost out oh well, life’s a *****. Check the earning for some of these company’s. Who has made a profit off of the suffering of the American people. Exxon,every quarter record profits. Walmat, using cheap foreign labor to uncut American manufacturing. Yet most people don’t see a problem that capitalism. If we are ever to get out of this financial crisis, big business has and should pay it’s fair share. We need to stop corporate greed and this corrupt system that support greed. .
It is very strange that why the GOP didn’t question Bush’s policies while he was still President, and indeed support him. Also, why Obama’s policy resemblance the Bush’s?
All I can say is when I read that it was an internal GOP memo that told me all that I needed to know. They would love nothing more than to tag Obama with Bush. It is their poor version of intellectual/political masturbation. They are really not very bright. They assume people don’t recall the sequence of events. In fact I will suggest that the American People for probably the first time in a very long time have been paying very close attention and continue to pay attention because of all of the worry. The GOP do themselves no favors in the public eye pulling all of these stunts, but it is entertaining. LOL
RE: “Everytime Government gets involved during a recession, the recession always takes longer to recover.” Have you guys heard of the Great Depression? What did the government do/not do at that time?
Obama’s policies does not resemble Bush’s policies. That’s like saying why didn’t Bush’s policies resemble Clinton’s. Poppycock!! But the biggest question is why did the GOP wait until NOW to implicate Bush for this mess?
The smartest thing President Obama has done was to leave TARP as is. It was sign into law on Bush’s watch written by Paulson and backed by Bernake and Bush just signed that of garbage legislation.
Now Boehner complains about having to many pages of ACES to read and yet did anyone in the GOP led Congress bother to read the entire TARP bill they signed into law?
Cheney just stated not to long ago that the Bush Adminastration just shoved billions upon billions of dollars at the auto industry thinking that was going to fix the problem and it didn’t.
How is it President Obama’s fault for their (GOP) ill-conceived government practices in 2008 with Bush’s “deregulate”d market’s which ran amok.
The GOP is being paid by lobbyist to come up with this latest round of their “blame Obama to” game. The Obama part will never stick but Bush’s part will.
@ SemperFi
The neo-conmen are trying to pull a real mirror trick here, and I think you are falling for it. — They are trying to say that the TARP is the CAUSE of this crisis when in fact it was a desperate attempt to minimize an existing disaster. – The republicans are always trying to shift the spotlight away from this fact. Of course it is easy NOW to blame TARP, it was easy then for Republicans to self-righteously vote against it, kind of like the spoiled frat-boy who vomits after the party and then refuses to clean up his own mess. The fact is really quite simple, we were looking at a *possible* complete and total collapse of the banking system. So those Republicans who voted against it never had to live with the complete catastrophe that *very likely* would have occurred. — Only history will tell if TARP and Obama’s policies will be enough to save us from a continuing and deepening depression. — Whatever happens I find it deeply unpatriotic that some people would openly wish for the plans to fail! How shameful!
@ Archbishop67
I am sorry dude you are way out of touch. GREED is the new religion, all the conservatives now bow down to the golden calf. — Don’t you recall the passage in the bible: “Far easier shall it be for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a poor man to enter the gates of heaven!”
I smell Rove behind this?
Re:
What no one is saying is that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the parties. They are owned/work for the same people. They bleat a bit differently, but are still all owned sheep. They don’t work for us, that’s for sure. Not when a senator has to raise $10K/day to fund a campaign. We are fiddling as we watch America, stolen right in front of our eyes. Amazing.
I believe good men have gotten into politics to honestly make a difference and you can find them pretty easy without much investigation, However when a good man goes to Washington he becomes something else, Personally I think they are forced to sell their sole to play the game that is Washington Politics. Greed, No matter how obvious, is now the norm in everyday life yours and mine. Stand back and look at what you do for a living or anything going on around you and you will see the greed,( everthing is about making money or its profitability)
Show me a Mayberry or any place similar thats wants to be self supportive and live by the Constitution and and I’ll show you an honest way of life under attack, even in our Capitalist or entraprenuerial way of life, everything MUST be about making money instead of making something truly good for the people.
Example our Police forces (to protect and serve) How many people can say they have never seen an Officer parked on the side of an Interstate waiting to catch a speeder, here you see someone not protecting a neighborhood but someone instructed to go out a make money (via tickets and fines)for a city or township,they are now just another Salesman.
But back to the point, Both parties have taken america down the wrong road for better than 50 years, It seems that some are just faster than the other.
Until a generation wakes up and realizes what America was and is and will become and gives it a hard Break Check we will continue speeding down a road to a place we dont recognize and we wont like it there.
So waisting breath talking about Republican “vs” Democrat will always be a blind form of procrastination, a two party system is not a real competition for something better its just a Pick your Flavor of Evil, If no one can come up with something better, then maybe we need to stop in our tracks and build a true Party of the People or Party for the Constitution.America can do this if it can get past Big Scary Words like Seclusionist and the like.
Wake up America, For the sake of my children and the place where they will live.
The reason you get rid of financial regulations is to grab a bigger piece of the pie. The rich grabbed the bigger pieces, and we ended up with the crumbs.That is what happened.
A prime example of socialist medicine in a capitalistic society would be health care in the US armed forces. It works with preselection.
SO WHAT ARE THESE CLOWNS IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY DOING EXCEPT WHINNYING.WHAT A BUNCH OF INCOMPETENTS WE HAVE RUNNING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. NO ONE IS WILLING TO TAKE ON THESE IDOITS WHO ARE IN CHARGE. WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!
@ bologna: I love wingnut trolls who deride Dems for not being smart by writing posts riddled with typos and unintelligible sentences.
Hello…anyone listening….yes the economy is bad, who’s in charge here? Are we doing the right thing, should we spend all of this money on pork, should our elected officials be going on vacations paid for by tax payers ? Should we keep paying Executive bonuses ? While we argue who dunnit….our government is out of control spending. All we hear is nre taxes so they can keep spending. Hello people, we need them to stop long enough to take a breath. If we keep looking behind us, we make the big spenders very happy.
>>>>Yes, compare Obama to Bush and see what happens. It won’t stick. They tried this during the campaign too, saying Obama wanted to continue Bush policies.
And Obama DID – and is continuing Bush policies – to {{{shocked}}} Obots!
Obama just duped Obots again this week by upholding Bush policies on Valerie Plame.
We just keep laughing – because we Dems KNEW Obama was a fraud.
>>>>I smell Rove behind this?>>> —- NO! Romney and his gang preparing the way for 2012. The same Romney gang that’s behind much of the Palin bashing.
Well here it is Independence Day, everyone is at the parade waving their little flags, and with a spirit of like it is Christmas or something. So I ask all of you out there who have left your comments on all the gooblebabel that is being projected, “what does Independence day mean to you”?
What Grandiose vision do you hold of a future for your children?
Do any of you really ‘believe’ in Peace, and then may I ask, ‘what does that look like’?
Right now, I just see most of you that have left comments, as people blaming each other for your lack of consciousness!
Consciousness, I see these days as people use the term, is something they say but don’t actually do.
So when I hear all that gooblebabel that spews out of those that think(or not) that they are so Intellectual, what I see are people who are blaming others for what they cannot see in themselves, better known as ‘denial’ and I am not talking about D Nile river!
You are Bush! And yes you are Reagan and Nixon and Clinton and Roosevelt, and whoever else! When will you you get that?
If you are here to make a difference, you won’t achieve that goal by blaming someone else for your own lack of consciousness.
I don’t think they can fool the public.The republicans can not escape their terrible record from the last eight years.
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