How did Bush ruin the economy?

[Lachrymose]

I blame George Washington for being the start of it all.

[IDrinkaRum]

I blame George Washington for being the start of it all.

Technically, you have to blame King George III who, with his over taxation of the colonies and such, lead us to revolt against him, thereby coming up with the need of a new government.

[Gravekeeper]

Um... gee i wonder why.
people were screaming left and right "you aren't doing enough, how could you let this happen!"

Yeah....and the government went "OMFG YOU COULD ALL DIE AT ANY MOMENT FROM TERRORISTS SEE WE EVEN MADE A THREAT CHART".

If you tell people they could be killed ANY SECOND BY EBIL MUSLIMZ day in and day out they're going to start screaming for you to protect them.

Than you take all that and go "IRAQ!". >.>

First of all, it's incredibly silly to blame either party for the entire mess. I've made it clear that I consider this a bipartisan issue.

Second, I do not respond to articles from sites like NewsBusters whose tag line is "Exposing Liberal Media Bias". Such a tag line only exposes that they are biased.

I'm with Boozy on this one. I read the article in question but it was a little....yeah. zomigawd liberalz and minorities.

[Rapscallion]

Technically, you have to blame King George III who, with his over taxation of the colonies and such, lead us to revolt against him, thereby coming up with the need of a new government.

Technically, you might have to blame the pilgrim fathers (and mothers), or even the people oppressing them... (This could go back quite a bit further )

Rapscallion

[AdminAssistant]

Stupid Charles II....it's all HIS fault.

[Slytovhand]

<sigh>



It was the Greeks, I tell you!, and more precisely, the Athenians under Cleisthenes - if he hadn't've come up with this whole 'democracy' thing, we wouldn't be having governments to elect, and then spend the money, on other attacking other governments that weren't democracies... like Sparta!

[BlaqueKatt]

Second, I do not respond to articles from sites like NewsBusters whose tag line is "Exposing Liberal Media Bias". Such a tag line only exposes that they are biased.

I suppose the washington post is biased as well-as is a news story from 2003--those are both from the thread

[Estil]

Actually up until about 2006 or so the economy was doing just fine. The D's got control of Congress that year because the Iraq War wasn't going over so well, NOT because of the economy. Since then, the Iraq War has gone better while the economy has of course gone into its current recession. Congress, not the President has the power of the purse and the economy didn't really begin to go south until the D's got control of Congress. Coincidence?

[BroomJockey]

Coincidence?

Probably. It takes a long time to turn a big ship, after all.

[guywithashovel]

Actually up until about 2006 or so the economy was doing just fine. The D's got control of Congress that year because the Iraq War wasn't going over so well, NOT because of the economy. Since then, the Iraq War has gone better while the economy has of course gone into its current recession. Congress, not the President has the power of the purse and the economy didn't really begin to go south until the D's got control of Congress. Coincidence?

As a registered independent, I think that for the most part, that was a coincidence. As several people here have pointed out, this mess has been a bipartisan thing.

Also, I would like to point out two things.

1. In 2007 and 2008, the Dems only had hairline majorities in both houses of Congress. In fact, they only controlled the Senate by (I think) one seat.

2. Bush still had to give his signature to anything they passed, so unless any destructive measures were passed with enough votes to override a veto, I think he would still deserve part of the blame.

[AFPheonix]

There were warnings before 2006 that crap was going to go down. The housing market bubble simply was untenable.
The roots of the problem were grounded in several administrations before Bush, but he didn't do a whole lot to stop the process, and in fact exacerbated it with dropping taxes while increasing his deficit spending. You do not deficit spend during good times. You pay down debt and improve infrastructure during good times.

[guywithashovel]

Also, Congress doesn't have 100% control over the economy. There's also the Federal Reserve.

It actually kind of amuses me that when bad things happen in this country, the Dems and GOP will always find ways to blame it on each other. For example, many Republicans are saying that all the crap we're dealing with now is because of Bill Clinton's policies.

In response to that, I always ask if Jimmy Carter should get credit for Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America."

For those who may not know, "Morning in America" was the theme of Reagan's re-election campaign in 1984.

[Caveat Emptor]

He turned the first budget surplus in decades into the biggest deficit EVER by being in the pocket of the corporate fatcats, not restraining their malfeasance, greed and giving them tax breaks, and compounding lie after lie to "justify" invading Iraq, which as mentioned has cost hundreds of billions. He oriented his entire cabinet at the beginning around neoconservative warmongers so he could find some kind of "justification" for the war; if 9/11 hadn't happened, dollars to donuts he, Rummy, Dicky and Wolfy would have focused entirely on "WMD WMD WMD."

[Pagan]

Plus, a lot of Katrina victims did it to themselves. Instead of sitting there crying about "The government isn't helping us", get off your ass and help yourselves. Did Moore, OK or Greensburg, KS bitch and complain about no government helpafter their tornados? Did the residents of Cedar Rapids, Waterloo or Iowa City sit and wait for help during the floods? No. They picked up the slack and helped themselves until the state and federal government could get there.

Exactly. After the Cerro Grande fire in 2000 that burned half of Los Alamos and threatened LANL, people didn't sit around whining about how the government has to help them. The gov declared an emergency and FEMA came in. The fire started on 5/4 was declared a major disaster on 5/13 (by Bush), and within about a week FEMA was there doing what they do. http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=17417

Part of the problem with Katrina is that the mayor of New Orleans and the Gov of LA waited too long to tell people to evacuate. They knew where that storm was heading for almost a week. With the levees, the Army Corps of Engineers had been saying for years that they wouldn't hold up. Again, though, they have to be asked to come in. Guess what was never done?

Um... gee i wonder why.

people were screaming left and right "you aren't doing enough, how could you let this happen!"
(tho ironically they then started screaming "how dare you increase security" etc)

This goes back to the Ford Administration hamstringing the CIA. Some years ago Dave Barry said that we needed the "Department of Two Guys Named Vinnie". I'm beginning to think he's not wrong.

Technically, you might have to blame the pilgrim fathers (and mothers), or even the people oppressing them... (This could go back quite a bit further )

Rapscallion

Or the Vikings that were in Newfoundland in the 10th century, or Henry Sinclair's possible trip @1380?

"WMD WMD WMD."

Now, I'm not saying if the war is right or not, but ask the Kurds if Hussein wasn't a WMD....

[Wingates_Hellsing]

The world's greatest WMD is without a doubt the Kalashnikov series of assault rifles, most of all the AK47, and those who wield them.