Tuesday, August 09, 2011

THIS IS YOUR REMINDER


Lest you forget….

All the woes being experienced today were caused by the George W. Bush administrations from 2001 through 2009. The insane war and the money spent on a war that should not have happened; the collapse of the economy; the whole ball of wax was caused by GWB and Co.

And if by chance you do not take me seriously, take a gander at Joe Nocera's new opinion piece in the New York Times this morning, "While the Markets Swoon".

Nocera asks, "Has any president in American history left behind as much lasting damage as George W. Bush?" He goes on to say, "In addition to two unfinished wars, he also set us on the path to our current financial mess. The Bush tax cuts, which turned a surplus into a growing deficit, have been disastrous. As James Fallows pointed out in a prescient 2005 article in The Atlantic predicting a meltdown, they reduced tax revenue 'to its lowest level as a share of the economy in the modern era.' (In its downgrade report, S.& P. suggested that it did not believe that Congress would let the cuts expire at the end of 2012, as they’re supposed to.) Then, in 2003, Bush pushed through prescription drug coverage for Medicare recipients. David M. Walker, then the comptroller general, described 2003 as 'the most reckless fiscal year in the history of the Republic,' adding some $13 trillion in future entitlement costs."

And yet, presidential candidate and former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney had the temerity yesterday to say that President Obama was "primarily responsible" for Standard and Poor’s downgrade of longterm federal debt. And even though the shortterm memory of the nation can so easily call to mind the gormless machinations of George W. Bush that virtually insured yesterday’s actions by S&P, Romney also was foolish enough to say: "I'm afraid the president (Obama) is just out of his depth when it comes to understanding how the private economy works."

And I am afraid Mitt Romney is out of his depth when it comes to understanding the speed with which the nation's comics are going to jump on his irresistible quotes.


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