Media hype wrong again
So much for all the gloom, doom and disaster the media were promoting. Who are their sources? The people went out on Black Friday and increased spending by 3% over last year. And for once I'm glad. The jobs they saved may be their neighbors or their own. Now we'll get all the qualifying stories from the journalists and consultants who got it wrong. The "yes, but," excuses.Anyone in retirement years can see we're heading for a bad time, just open your latest statement. It's not like 2004 when the Kerry/Edwards campaign continually bad mouthed the economy for over a year, Bush, new jobs, etc. and the media chimed right in. It's not 2006 when the Democrats took over Congress by campaigning on the bad economy (that wasn't) and then rode it into the ditch by making no corrections the president wanted. The week after the 2004 election it was all good economic news again. Because we don't have time for it turn around like it did in the late 80s, and the late 90s and after 9/11, it's going to be a challenge for retirees--especially if they don't fix that 70.5 age for drawing down IRAs based on Dec. 31, 2007 balances. People my age didn't grow up expecting everything, so we are probably better off than the younger boomers who thought life would always be a bigger house, or a new leased car every other year, or a vacation in Aruba.
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6 comments:
Interesting. What, exactly, were the corrections that Bush demanded from the Congress in the last 2 years that would have kept the economy out of the ditch?
If you are a Bush basher, it won't make any difference what I cite, however, if you go to the search window at the top of my blog and type in CRA or sub-prime or Fannie Mae or bail-out, you'll find NOT a whole lot about Bush, except for his unfortunate appointment of Paulson who I think has totally lost his marbles. Or try this one: http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2008/11/setting-record-straight-on-gses-role-in.html.
On the surface it looks like these bad loans forced on the banks shouldn't have caused everything to collapse, but a bit of salmonella in the salad bar buffet looks tiny also--you just don't know which dish you're dipping in to has the problem. It's only later at the hospital or the morgue you realize it was something at the buffet.
The House and Senate banking committees, Frank and Dodd specificially, however, could have done something 2 years ago. They were getting too rich to stop. Maybe the credit mess was already too big, we'll never know, but it was their responsibility, not the President's.
And the republican congress with the republican president could have done something the six years prior but failed to do so.
Also, I may have missed it but I still don't see evidence to back up your assertion that Bush knew the crash was coming and asked for corrections from Congress.
As far as Paulson being a horrible pick, I'd have to agree with you and Steve Forbes, who called him the worst Treasury Sec. in history.
Unfortunately for America, this is par for the course from the president who brought us Alberto Gonzales at AG, Harriet Miers for SC, Rumsfeld at Defense and Mike "Brownie" Brown at FEMA.
I can accept partisanship, and even a bit of idealogy from duly elected politicians, but the unprecendented incompetence if this admin is simply tragic.
Just as nothing you say will convince me that Obama was the right choice, so nothing I write will convince you Bush has been a good president. So I repeat, what I've written before. He isn't a conservative; only history will judge; he had bi-partisan support for the war.
Positive
1) The appointment of two outstanding judges to the Supreme Court, Roberts and Alito.
2) The tax cuts and overseeing the most robust economy in the history of this nation (until Sept. 2008 when it all collapsed--world wide)
3) Getting us back on our feet after 9/11
4) Keeping us safe at home for the next 7 years.
5) Freeing more women in Afghanistan in the 21st century than Abraham Lincoln did slaves in the USA in the 19th century.
6) Leading the country into an unpopular, controversial war with the almost total support and backing of both parties, including some of the same senators who later reversed their decision.
7) And refusing to abandon the Iraqi people the way Nixon did the Vietnamese.
And on the negative side of the legacy ledger.
Negative
1) Offended his supporters and party by nominating a weak Supreme Court candidate (White House counsel Harriet Miers)
2) Attempting to partner with the Democrats on an amnesty bill for illegal immigrants.
3) Not being able to corral his stampeding RINOs
4) Missing the opportunity to reform Social Security.
5) Trying to jump start a 7th century mentality in the Mideast into the 21st century in the belief all countries need or want a democracy.
6) The biggest tax spender on education and health ever to enter the White House.
7) Expanding medical care to a government drug program with Ted Kennedy
You forgot holding the line on government sponsored embryonic stem cell research, promoting chastity and marriage (bettween men and women) and reducing abortion. Also big increase in AIDS funding in Africa and library funding.
I agree on the embryonic stem cell--don't know how I left that out, and reducing abortion by not going for FOCA, however, the funding for chastity and marriage healing was probably a waste of money. The programs are just too iffy.
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