It IS Bush's Fault, But a Lot More

We all must of heard, at least a thousand times…“It’s Bush’s fault”. But the real facts show that it is BOTH the Republicans and the Democrats fault. We can start during the Clinton administration where he put the Community Reinvestment Act on steroids and put tremendous pressure on banks forcing them to offer home loans to people who obviously couldn’t afford them, creating a looming financial disaster. This continued throughout the Bush years without doing anything to head off the certain disaster.

Two individuals whose actions can be considered close to criminal were Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, and Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who headed oversight over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. They lied and covered up about the true dire financial condition of these two government sponsored financial institutions, both to Congress and the American people. It is on record and on video. In addition there was all kinds of corruption going on with executive salaries, bonuses, pay-offs, and more.

During the presidency of George W. Bush he spent money like it was going out of style. His response to 9/11 in attacking both the Taliban and Al-Qaeda who orchestrated an attack on America was appropriate. He should have focused on bringing Osama bin Laden to justice and did not. What would have been appropriate was swift military action in Afghanistan and then get out, NOT a long drawn out campaign. We should NOT have started a war in Iraq. Both of these long drawn out wars cost the United States thousands of American lives. They also drained the economy and took focus off from domestic issues that needed attention.

And then there is the wheeling, dealing, and corruption of some of the larger financial institutions in America. It is very complex on what they did, but suffice it to say that they also heavily contributed to the economic crisis in America. BOTH political parties had a hand in allowing this to happen, and in some cases even being involved in the process.

So when we hear, almost constantly, that it is “Bush’s fault”...well yes it is. But it is also the fault of BOTH political parties and certain key individuals and there is a lot of blame to go around.