This blame game story line has really gotten tired. It has become a cliche, it has become a caricature, it has become a distraction to fixing what ails our economy. And most importantly, it ignores the fact that Democrats were just as much to blame, if not more so, than the Bush administration for putting the country in the condition it is now.
I never voted for Bush, I thought he was one of our least effective Presidents, I can point to no outstanding achievement of his administration except for the fact he prevented any follow up terrorist attacks after 9-11, and his invasion of Iraq will go down as one of the most costly and unnecessary military actions of all time. Thus, for me to defend him against this continuing and adolescent Democratic blame game is saying a lot.
Why should the Democrats take as much blame as the Bush administration? Consider:
- Once Bush got through the early recession times that were beginning before he got into office, the United States was basically at a full employment level for the majority of years he was in office. Obama would kill for the unemployment numbers that Bush usually enjoyed.
- Dozens of times Bush tried to get Congressional oversight increased over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in order to rein in the housing industry excesses that the Bush administration recognized early on. Bush called for increased oversight in several state of the union messages, he called for oversight in several budgets, and he called for oversight in many other venues. His failure as a President was that he was not able to implement the correct action.
A big reason for this failure to fix Fannie and Freddie were the Democrats. Fannie and Freddie's executives were big donors to Democratic Party politicians and if Bush pushed through more stringent accounting and operations rules and oversight, those campaign funds could dry up. The top three recipients of those donations were Democratic Senators Chris Dodd, John Kerry, and Barack Obama. Let's review: Dodd eventually chaired the Senate committee that oversaw Fannie and Freddie's operations, resulting in a severe conflict of interest if not outright bribery. John Kerry could have become President while Barack Obama did become President.
As a result of letting these two government entities run wild, the U.S. housing industry and the eventual taxpayer bailout cost of these entities is already in the hundreds of billions of dollars. If the Democrats had gone ahead with the Bush plans to fix the accounting, operations, and financials of Fannie and Freddie ten years ago when Bush wanted to, we might not have the economic disaster we have today.
- Of course, the Democrats always point to the outrageously high budget deficits that the Bush administration ran up. Yes, at the time they were higher than average. But if you look AT THE ACTUAL BUDGET NUMBERS, and not the false Democratic rhetoric, you will see the following:
- Up until the Democrats took control of both houses of Congress after the 2006 midterm elections, the annual Federal government budget deficits were actually on a downward trend, both in terms of total dollars and as a percentage of the GDP.
- However, once the Democrats took control of Congress, both the total dollar budget deficits and the percentage that the deficit was of our GDP started to escalate dramatically until we get the truly grotesque TRILLION dollar annual deficits under the Obama administration and the Democratic party controlled Congress.
- These budget deficits increased without any corresponding increase in government services quality and effectiveness under the Democratically controlled Congress and White House since all of the major issues facing the country (health care costs, lost war on drugs, failing public schools, increased gas prices, economic growth, unemployment) have gotten worse since the Pelois and Reid contingent came to power in 2007 and continuing on a downward trend when the Obama administration took office.
So, please, my Democratic Party friends and family, talk to your Democratic party politicians and tell them to start looking forward for solutions and stop looking backward for blame. Tell them to start dealing with today's reality, it will not change no matter how many times you blame Bush and do not take your rightful responsibility for the mess the country is now. Start acting like leaders and not kindergarten five years old blaming others for your screw up.
Because two can play that game and some news today gives the Republicans a blame game for themselves to play. According to an Associated Press report September 7, 2011, the United States is now only the fifth most competitive economy in the world. For three decades, since this analysis was begun, up until 2008, the United States was always considered the world's best and most competitive economy, hands down.
However, the latest analysis from the World Economic Forum places the U.S. as number five behind Switzerland, Singapore, Sweden, and Finland. The reasons for the slip according to the article include "a number of escalating weaknesses such as rising government debt, and declining public faith in political leaders and corporate ethics."
It should be interesting to see how the Democrats blame Bush for this decline in 2011, three years after he left office. Throughout our history and until the end of the Bush administration, the U.S. was the most competitive economic power in the world. Since the Democrats took control of Congress one year before 2008 and have controlled the House of Representatives almost the majority of time since then, have controlled the Senate the entire time and have been in the White House since early 2009, it would seem an easy target to blame the DDemocrats for the slipping of the American economy. To try and pin this on Bush would be the height of ignorance and self-delusion.
The problem with playing childish blame games like the Democrats do at all times rather than taking responsibility, recognizing the current reality, and formulating the right plans for success against that reality, is that you leave yourself open for the same type of blame games. I hope that the Republicans do not do the same with this latest slap at the slipping American economy but I could not blame them if they did.
The blame game is easy to play but I pray the Republicans deal with the issues and root causes that led to the slip to fifth in the world rankings rather than act like Democrats who would rather blame and defame than get the country back into the game. Self pity is like a cheap drug high: it makes you feel better in the short term but has long term devaststing effects. In politics, those long term bad effects are usually defeat at the polls since most Americans prefer not to be ruled by self pitying, blameful kindegarterners if they can help it.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available, at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.loathemygovernment.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment.com/
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