The "Bush's Fault" Myth

[Cosmic]

From the New York Times, 2003.

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt — is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates.

But lookie what Barney Frank, Democrat, said in response to the measure:

”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee.

And in fact, not only did ol' barney not see it coming, but him and his buddies in the 90s created it:

But it was the Clinton administration, obsessed with multiculturalism, that dictated where mortgage lenders could lend, and originally helped create the market for the high-risk subprime loans now infecting like a retrovirus the balance sheets of many of Wall Street’s most revered institutions.

Tough new regulations forced lenders into high-risk areas where they had no choice but to lower lending standards to make the loans that sound business practices had previously guarded against making. It was either that or face stiff government penalties.

The untold story in this whole national crisis is that President Clinton put on steroids the Community Redevelopment Act, a well-intended Carter-era law designed to encourage minority homeownership. And in so doing, he helped create the market for the risky subprime loans that he and Democrats now decry as not only greedy but “predatory.”

Yes, the market was fueled by greed and overleveraging in the secondary market for subprimes, vis-a-vis mortgaged-backed securities traded on Wall Street. But the seed was planted in the ’90s by Clinton and his social engineers. They were the political catalyst behind this slow-motion financial train wreck.

And it was the Clinton administration that mismanaged the quasi-governmental agencies that over the decades have come to manage the real estate market in America.

Source: http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/16/w ... it-crisis/

Isn't it convenient to say that Bush, a republican, caused all this? But really, he tried to stop it. The only reason why he failed was because DEMOCRATS blocked it in congress.

 

[nextzone]

Even after reading the above, I don't blame Clinton or any other president, but rather the banks and their rather unintelligent decisions concerning loans for the crash of the economy. The Democrats are, however, taking control of the economy. This needs to stop.

 

[katy perry is hot]

Clinton - Surplus of 230 billion dollars

Bush - Trillions of dollars in the deficit after cutting taxes on the wealthy and blowing money on bullshit wars.

Must be Clinton's doing. I hate him.

 

[Cosmic]

Clinton - Surplus of 230 billion dollars

Bush - Trillions of dollars in the deficit after cutting taxes on the wealthy and blowing money on bull**** wars.

Must be Clinton's doing. I hate him.

The excess was created by a republican congress. the president has very little control over spending. The congress allots the president every dime he spends.

 

[NBK*Twitch]

I find blaming it all on one president stupid.

Ever since we gained freedom,we gained debt. It has been going up ever since. It is not just one persons fault.

 

[InfiniteJest]

Clinton - Surplus of 230 billion dollars

Bush - Trillions of dollars in the deficit after cutting taxes on the wealthy and blowing money on bull**** wars.

Must be Clinton's doing. I hate him.

 

[Cosmic]

Further dissection of the post bono quoted:

Trillions of dollars in the deficit

cutting taxes on the wealthy

I work for some bum on the streets helping him to collect handouts. that's my job. I never ever ever got any service or employment from a rich person and I don't know anyone who has /sarcasm

blowing money on bull**** wars.

Iraw is actually fairly stable now. The surge which Obama disagreed with and Bush supported worked and we are now pulling troops out, for the most part. Bush paved the way for what is now happening in Iraq, which seems positive to me.

 

[InfiniteJest]

We wouldn't have had to worry about stablizing the country, if we hadn't invaded it in the first place. It was a pointless invasion.

 

[katy perry is hot]

Cosmic, what are the tax cuts called? The Bush Tax Cuts. That's how conservatives and liberals call them. They are his doing. He pushed for them. It wasn't just Congress.

Your buddy McConnel was being interviewed last weekend and still supports extending the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy and ignoring the democratic plans which will put us even further in the hole.

 

[nextzone]

With all respect, what have your liberal friends have been doing?
One of the many not-so-smart decisions they have made was sending thousands of the National Guard troopers to cover the oil spill. Can anyone tell me what the point in that was?

 

[katy perry is hot]

With all respect, what have your liberal friends have been doing?
One of the many not-so-smart decisions they have made was sending thousands of the National Guard troopers to cover the oil spill. Can anyone tell me what the point in that was?

My liberal friends in the congress don't control the military. I doubt Obama had much to do with ordering the troops there anyway. Most military decisions have little to no involvement from the President.

Not sure if this helps but here's a picture I found of the Guard helping with the spill... maybe it warms your heart? I don't know. http://www.ng.mil/features/oil_spill/default.aspx

 

[Cosmic]

What are you smoking? Tax cuts increase revenue because of the economic stimulus. Basically, there's more to tax, even though less of it is being taken. If people can spend their money more freely, the economy grows. If the economy grows, the government can tax more. It makes sense. The only reason we have absurd tax law is because it is a way the government can redistribute wealth and control the people. Al Capone was imprisoned for not paying his taxes, remember?

Before the bush tax cuts, there were a mild recession. This post 9/11 recession ended after the bush tax cuts were enacted. Business is going nuts over the idea that these taxes will go back up, not only for them, but all brackets. Not only do they lose profits, but people buy less. The stock market will probably leap if the tax cuts are extended for a couple more years, or even indefinitely.

 

[katy perry is hot]

No. That bullcrap is what put us into this. "People can spend money more freely" meaning the 1% of people who make over 500 grand can buy 10 extra more yachts, which then helps the economy?

And these tax cuts are only on the wealthy. They are not for us normal people. They simply do not work. Clinton did not use them and look at how well the economy was under him.

 

[Watch Me Sink]

No, Bush tax cuts were across the board, not just for wealthy people. RAISING taxes does nothing to help a failing economy, it just makes it worse.

And Cosmic, all US combat troops are out of Iraq. We'll see how it goes. I'd personally like for Iraq to be stable, and not in war, but insurgants will see that Iraqi troops are not as skilled as US troops and take advantage of that. It's a matter of time before we can see if the withdrawl was a good idea. Anybody who says Obama sucks for withdrawling the troops or Obama rocks for withdrawling the troops is a moron. Until one can determine if Iraq was better with the withdrawl or without, any political bullshit is pure speculation.

 

[Cosmic]

Gomen, we still have 50,000 troops there. whether troops are combat or not, it doesn't really matter, because most Americans care about the body bags, not what the troops do there. Troops have died since the withdraw, so I don't really see any real difference between the day before and the day after the last unit was withdrawn. I just hope that we stay behind the country so that if things get really bad there we won't just let it fall back into a dictatorship. There are legitimate national security interests in keeping the country stable.

and yes, the tax cuts were across the board.

 

[Watch Me Sink]

Iraq can't be a dictatorship anymore. It isn't possible with the US influence there.

 

[Cosmic]

Iraq can't be a dictatorship anymore. It isn't possible with the US influence there.

That's my point. We need to keep that influence there so it doesn't go back into that sort of government.

 

[Justin]

Why don't we focus on our own failing country before reaching out and focusing on others?

 

[Watch Me Sink]

Because countries are interdependant now. We need oil from Iraq. Fact. At the current time we cannot become self sufficiant on domestic oil. There aren't enough rigs and there are opponents of offshore drilling. If Iraq turns to chaos, oil prices go up. Hence why the US defended Kuwait when Saddam got the genious idea to invade Kuwait. Did the US care about our Kuwait friends? Hell no! We cared about the price of oil. We went in, drove Saddam's lousy army out, and got out. Iraq wasn't quite the same.

This isn't like the stone ages where there are tribes that don't communicate to each other. The US And many other countries have intrests to protect on foreign soil. Imagine the chaos done to the stock market if China broke out in civil war.

 

[katy perry is hot]

Raising taxes on the middle class seems unlikely in the near future. President Obama says he wants to renew the tax cuts for all those making less than $200,000 to $250,000 a year. Republicans, and some conservative democrats want to renew them across the board.

I suggest you read this article also: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02671.html

If you suggest we should continue with the way Bush had it, you are severely mistaken. I know I've mentioned numerous times on other pages and other topics here that Obama is trying to cut taxes for the middle class. Please give me one reason not to have higher taxes on wealthy people.