The mess that was "left" for Obama was due to the collapse of the housing bubble. Can any of you explain how Bush was the cause of that?

I didn't think so.

Rick, Bush eviscerated government regulation on Wall Street. When you don't like regulations, but they are already legally established, you set up a very weak administration and enforcement of them. Bush did that. That's how Madoff got away with his crimes. That why Wall Street was allowed to sell fraudulently rated securities in the form of MBS. They sold them world wide, causing the collapse of our economy and necessitating the bank bailouts.

Yes I can explain why the housing crisis is related to the Bush administration. Do you recall the deregulation of the financial industry that was championed by the GOP and put into practice by GWB? Do you remember when the financial industry was tempting borrowers around the clock on television with interest only loans, and other risky loans that start with a very low rate then go way up after a few years? The banks/lending agencies/companies were bundling the loans just as fast as borrowers signed the note and shipping them off to Wall Street banks. These businesses, Country Wide was one of them, were not keeping the loans for any length of time, but were sending them off as financial instruments. Many of the loans were not to responsible borrowers and therefore it began to unravel. Eventually Wall Street realized that because of the bad loans they were becoming more and more unstable. It mushroomed until there was the need for the bailout of Wall Street by the Bush administration. Foreclosures were taking place at a faster and faster rate and they still are in many places. Some borrowers are being railroaded because the banks that made the loans don't have their paperwork but are foreclosing with recently and suspect drawn-up paperwork. I read just a couple of days ago about how one bank is setting aside millions for lawyers in their foreclosure fights. It is a very ugly business.

BILL:

I tip my hat to you: for not being bullied into silence and for the courage to call out that sickening mess in my backyard for what it is: RACISM.

This bubba witnessed segregated Dixie and the only difference between then and now is that the white sheets were replaced by fancy suits. The good news: many of us down here are no longer afraid.

Excellent comments..

Don-2316123

BOY! ARE YOU WRONG!!

Rick - It would sure be nice to hear how Obama is responsible for the 700,000 jobs lost each month begining in August, 6 months before he was sworn in. And if somehow you think the job loss in Feb, March, April, May, June, July, August wouldn't have occurred no matter who was president just shows how little you know about how the economy works.

Those 14 million jobs lost were due entirely to the polices of Bush and the GOP...quit denying it. Look, if I had a gun and shot you, then gave the gun to the person next to me, who shot you? Well, Bush shot you, handed the gun to Obama and then said, we'll be back in a few, can you hold this (the gun).

Bush shot you and not matter how long it takes you to recover, he still shot you..and he's responsible, not the doctor administering care.

Pat - So far you and yours have not given the rest of us any reason to believe you are not as stupid as we think.

Howdy RICK,

does Pat's RACE automatically signal stupidity, or is it for not bowing to your supreme intellect, massa? I did not know that Pat-or any other minority- had to "prove" their intellect to you and yours. Must be hard to see yourself headed for extinction, glad to see you disappear. My grandkids will study you in the history chapter of "the last living confederates". Heck boy, your post might be used in show and tell, BLESS your lil, dark heart.

It doesn't really matter what Pat's race is, what Pat wrote is just wrong. The policies that caused the credit crisis that is affecting the world economy were put in place by democrats and I can prove it. Pat is just regurgitating the Democracy Alliance talking points. BTW, how do you like that word "regurgitate". I learned from one of your liberal friends. Pat should realize that racism will never end until it stops being such a profitable enterprise. Democrats have made tons of cash and enjoyed near unlimited power playing the race card.

Nice try, but here in the south we speak code fluently. So let's regurgitate your prose shall we:

"Pat - So far you and yours have not given the rest of us any reason to believe you are not as stupid as we think"

Spin it all you want. You did not counter Pat's argument. You called Pat stupid and asserted that you have no proof to persuade you otherwise. Pat is thus stupid by your decree due to an opinion that differs from yours or the fact that Pat is a self identified minority. Both options are the refuge of RACISTS.

Even nicer try but liberals have completely lost touch with reality. And like I said, I can prove that Pat is wrong.

southernMays - I have seen those like you play the race card time and time again. Those like you kept the south in the dark ages for many, many years by patting the less fortunate on the back assuring us that we need you to help us without realizing that you had a knife in that hand. After realizing the truth and turning our backs on those like you we are now finally coming into our own and realizing we are going to have to unite across racial, ethnic and national lines to come out of the morass that those like you have kept us in for so long

southernMays - you are the perfect example of a lying, cheating, liberal s.o.b. and you will destroy this country just so you can look down on people like me and Pat and feel good about being our master.

i think we will see a big money knock down fight that will result in a single party majority in the Senate, the House, and the Presidency. And so far it looks like the GOP is hell bent on leather to shoot themselves in the foot and they have plenty of money behind them to do it! Meanwhile the Dems are keeping their powder dry and sitting back building a war chest.

b) Obama's lack of past executive experience and his policies/priorities since taking office dragged us further down than was necessary

Except from day one he brought in some of the sharpest people on economic policy. There job was to provide the insight on the economic situation and how best to get out of it.. Other than that.... And don't tell me the professors that teach economics, win Nobel Prizes for some of there work, and teach all the future leaders of the business communitee are not qualified. Most have worked in the private sector and spent their entire lives studying economics.... that is a lame argument....lame...

You only had to look at 1929 to see what the GOP polices would have resulted in 3 years later. 1929 and 2008 are very comparable events, the two times in the nations history when the financial community crashed. In 1932 4 years after the GOP plan, unemployment was at 25.6%. In 2012, after three years of Democrat policies unemployment is at 8.5%.

Anyone that believes this economy could have improved any faster is just not right in the head. It took 15 years and massive debt to get us out of the depression, and you want it all fixed in three years?

And we'd be a lot further along if the GOP hadn't been blocking any thing that remotely creates jobs.

The GOP argument is lame, that he's had three years to fix this (and we'll try and stop him at all turns), and that the GOP didn't create it.

had enuf of our elected ones

Some good points. The problem I'm having with the liberals posting here is their insistence on blaming everything on republicans in general and Bush in particular. If they would bother to open their eyes they would see that our problems started long Bush.

Yes, the republican congress should have reigned in Bush a long time ago but considering that the Tea Party was formed because they were upset with the huge bailout proposed by Bush and how the liberals have now villainized the Tea Party I have to wonder how effective stopping spending under Bush would have been. And why does Obama have to spend so much now? Why can't he just delay some of his programs until our economy is better? As Obama points his finger at congress he needs to remember he has three more pointing back at himself. I only go back to Kennedy but I don't remember any president that has spent as much time and effort alienating his political foes as President Obama has. Looks like we need to get rid of all of them.

Rick,

The GAO estimates that the Iraq and Afganistan wars will eventually cost over $4 Trillion dollars. We have already lost six thousand lives and 100's of Billions of dollars are unaccounted for. The deregulated melt down on Wall Street cost several more Trillions to our economy and has also spread in part to Europe since they also invested in the bogus securities issue by an unregulated Wall Street. The DOD has been operating with a blank check and admitted as much before recent congressional hearings wherein they admitted that they don't know how much they spend, what they spend it on, or what they are getting for their money. Essentially the DOD, 20% of our annual expenditures, has no real accounting system and behaves as it is beneath them to answer for that.

During most of the last ten years the Bush Administration was supposed to be watching over all this and protecting the American People and the American economy. They went absent. AWOL! They were convinced that none of the legally established regulations on all of this was necessary or needed. Obviously it was, but they were just too damn lazy to work that hard.

James-316346

The national debt is at 15 trillion dollars. It was at 5.28 trillion when Bush took office. It was over 10 trillion when Obama took office

The derivatives market reached somewhere in the vicinity of 680 trillion dollars which is about 10 times the amount of the world economy. Check out Booksley Born and what she had to say on Frontline. Check out Garmm-Bliley-Leach and see what the republicans had to include to get President Clinton's signature. There are videos of Barney Frank claiming there was no problem with Fannie Mae as late as 2005. Yet you liberals continue to blame Bush for all of that. Until you get your heads out of your arses we are doomed to repeat those mistakes

Bush and his Administration, who had the world's best advisers available to them, should have known what was going on. He either ignored all the warning signs, or he was too intellectually challenged to understand them. I would vote for the later. Many people warned the government and SEC about the potential for disaster in the Mortgage Back Securities market and their derivatives. SEC Investigators were on Madoffs case as much as nine years BEFORE he finally turned himself in, yet the SEC under Bush ignored their findings and suspicions. He was only caught because his own sense of guilt caught up with him! Bush eviscerated regulatory bodies as a form of defacto deregulation. It should come as no surprise that much of government's function was rendered dysfunctional in important areas like EPA, BLM, and the agencies that requlate mining operations and oil drilling amongst others. We all know what the result was.

Bush and his Administration was in the pocket of those who where positioned to profit from this looming disaster. Government is always surrounded by those who cynically view the US Treasury as their personal piggy bank and in many ways they profit more from disaster than they do from "peace and prosperity". In fact to them peace and prosperity is just all too boring!

Bush is not the one who "eviscerated" the regulatory bodies. If the democrats are so good for this country why do you feel the need to lie about that?

Bush did not eviscerate regulatory bodies???--just look at his cabinet appointees for christ's sake! Some of them went so far as to advocate eliminating the departments they were charged with heading, both of his Secretaries of the Interior were and are avidedly opposed to environmental protection. Kempthorne from Idaho was a close friend of Mr. Wide Stance, Larry Craig, Mitch McConnells wife is on the list, these are all paid off cronies of Big Corporate or holdovers from Daddy's regime.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bushcabinet.html

Letusreason - In this context calling it is crazy is the same as calling it un-true. It's just a better adjective to describe the GOP position.

And the whole "Dependent on Government" is total BS.. There's none of us that want that...not a single one of us... Government does some things well, like being able to provide a safety net to everyone, including you. Federal assistance in the event of emergencies is a good example. Although I've never needed it, if my home town was struck with a clamity, I'd hope the government did something to help out..rebuild the town if you will. But that's a far cry from being dependent on government....a far cry....

Most of the less populated states gain from the Federal Government. Alaska is a good example, there population couldn't afford to build the infrastructure needed in Alaska, that's why that state recieves 2 dollars for every federal dollar they contribute. Now, maybe you'd prefer the people of Alaska, Wy, ND and SD to travel by snow sled...but we are a better society by doing it. And we prosper more from those type of investments.

We, the people, are the government. I see it being controlled by corporations and diverting taxes to fund corporate profits. Those who complain are the problem.

It works for the corporations and the conservative rich elite.

Blithering libtard, have you seen Moochelle's ass lately? Maybe a little too much ranch dip on those veggies.

BTW you forgot to mention Cheney and Haliburton in your rant Keith Olbermanesque rant.

,'-D

Weren't you one of the folks making an issue of where Obama's eyes were not that long ago- and yet, here you are, talking about his wife's, uh, posterior- and inviting others to do the same?

I wonder...how often has a lady had to say to you "HEY! Up HERE! Try talking to my face, not my cleavage!"

Have you seen the Republican Elephant's butt lately? It can really drop a pile and has from each of the conservative candidates. Never follow an elephant in a parade. Vote Democratic for a clean street, the laborers are unionized.

Facts? FACTS!?! The right don't need no steenking facts!

The bills passed by the house are jokes in poor taste- pork-packer specials that benefit the rich- and no one else.

All, as always, under the pretense that trickle down works- when everyone has been trickled on quite enough to prove that Keynes was either a delusional moron- or a cynical genius.

You have facts, alright.

You have more facts than you can assimilate- because otherwise you'd be cheering her on instead of running her down.

Try dragging your obese rear end out of your pick'em'up long enough to watch the world go by for a while instead of trying to crush it into another road to ruin- because we've been there, done that, and it's time for a return to sanity.

Your jolly, lolly, good ol' boys are done- and just in time to avert a guided tour of the guillotines.

Cousin ANGRY got outta the shed again,

Please don't mind him folks, his momma was his pappy's half sister and she drank moonshine when she was hatchin' him. He ain't really that way, he's just touched. The rest of us know we lost to the yankees.

Blah blah.

,'-0

southernMays Is a bigot and a liar.

The social conservatives of the Tea Party Republicans want to put Americans on a diet and contribute to First Lady Michele Obama's campaign for wellness by reducing obesity.

It has been Obama & democrats dividing America. Yes things were getting bad in mid 2008, to many people were buying homes they could not afford, & gas was going up to fast to keep up with.

Democrats demanded "all Americans" be able to buy homes. When it was brought up to look into Fanny & Freddy, democrats, ie Barney Frank told them it was just fine, nothing to see.

Democrats told us we can not look for oil in our own country, they shut down a major find in Alaska, saying it would take 4 years before we would see any "new" gas from it. It's 4 years latter now.

Obama told us in every speech he gave in 2008 that he wanted to greatly increase taxes on incomes above $250k. that alone sent every business into a run for cover / survival mode, slowing down & cutting back until they knew what it will cost to earn a profit.

Obama said he "liked" $4 a gallon gas prices, it just came on to quickly, telling business he wanted gas to cost us all more.

Obama pushed a so called health care plan on us all, turns out it is a requirement to buy health insurance, no matter what the cost, & adding many more people into the private health insurance system. One of the ways to pay for it was to require businesses to track & report every $600 per year pay out, adding many more government employees to track it and sending business costs way up. These costs are already tracked by true businesses, Obama some how though so many people were getting paid tax free that it would bring in millions. What is needed is a REDUCTION of all the regulations that run up health care costs & stop issuers from competing across state line, running up costs.

Obama has done very little to improve relations with business & provide them with any assurance of stability to work with. His 1 year gift to keep the Bush tax rates was to short to make a difference.

We, the 99%, work for the 1%, that's just how it is. Only a few can own the businesses, shops, stores, & companies we work for. Telling all of us employees about all the goodies & gifts we will get & making the guy with all the money pay for it is a sure way to get the highest numbers of votes. In reality running up the taxes & regulation costs to our employers ends up costing us our jobs & increasing what we end up paying for goods, services, & rent. But hey it sounds good to just enough voters to elect these guys.

The best thing that can be done is reduce or eliminate taxes paid by businesses. Employees should pay taxes, not a business. Higher taxes on a business just costs us more, it becomes a "cost" of doing business, not a cost to profits needed to remain in business.

Washington needs to look at each & every regulation business deals with & get rid of everything that has little benefit & only adds cost plus work for government employees.

Make it profitable to be in business in the US again, getting people back to work & away from the food stamps talked about. That was the entire idea behind the "racist" things MSNBC is trying to drum up.

MSNBC & desperate democrats are already driving the Racist Crazy train in an attempt to re-guilt people into voting Obama back in. They can not run with his record, when they do they are careful to base it on the day he took office, business began planning for Obama way back in the fall of 2008.

The race baiting & problems the MSNBC's out there are doing may be the 2012 end of the world foretold.

My remaining fears will be everything Obama may try to put into law in the 60 days after the election loss & the next president taking office.

News flash: you have it dead backwards.

Really but im not on handouts vote Republican and go to work.

Nor am I. I make pretty good money contributing to the maintenance of an infrastructural basic you use every day. In fact, I have enough surplus to contribute to charities- like the Alzheimer's Foundation. You might appreciate that someday soon....and btw, I vote left, right, or radical depending on who intends to actually serve the voter- and not the corporatocracy.

The rich are already living on taxpayer handouts! Do you mean we'll all get rich in 4 years? Who'll pay the taxes?

FeO2 Dreams

Im just like you rich as can be. hahahahaha

JOE must be rich in in fantasy, he's obviously not rich in intellect or basic grammar.

Oh I wish I was in the land of cotton ... Conservative Republican theme song.

While we reprise: "Swing low, sweet chariot...."?

Sounds about right- but I suspect the future will look more like "The Matrix" than the Old South- because machines, my friends, are never, ever going to stage a rebellion.

A Southern cotton field is a populist's vision of Nirvana by comparison to what appears to be coming...but for a road to survival, check this out:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/10/28/black_market_global_economy

There lies ultimate deregulation, ultimate freedom, and ultimately, a ways forwards in a country ruled by the rich, and for the rich. After all, they can't steal what they don't even know you have....

The middle class that supports my current job is dying, and I give it about five more years, with luck, before I lose my job.

I know where I can still employ my skills- and as a generalist of profound depth, I believe I'll be just fine providing for others what they can't provide for themselves- the ability to fix damned near anything- stupidity excepted.

dls-387641

That is typical of a liberal to lie and try to pass it off as truth. And you dopes wonder why we won't believe you.

McCain would have followed the Republican pathway to prosperity tried in the 1930's before President Rosevelt was elected.

Never would have happened ,grasshopper.

The job losses came from every Obama speech he had given, telling businesses, investors, & employers to take cover, cut back & run for cover.

Obama told us he "liked" $4 a gallon gas.

Obama told us his regulations on electric generation plants would "necessarily increase electric rates".

Obama's "Obama Care" has driven up health insurance rates faster than the increased regulations have been doing for years.

Obamas promised spending that managed to even increase further, sent wall steeet into a major down turn.

What has Obama done to help stabilize a business friendly environment?

The extension of the Bush tax rates were just a gift to anyone to slow to have reduced their taxes & income. A one year tax break gives no base to plan & hire people.

Business today has no idea what it will cost to hire an employee so they must hold off until they see what Obama will still manage to do.

DaBird=Delusional

Oh, come on- provide them with a text, not a test- you don't actually think your intended targets read the bible, do you? BTW- I, a self-professed godking among geeks, have no difficulty reconciling God and science. Believe as you wish.

Matthew 7:21-23

New King James Version (NKJV)

I Never Knew You

²¹ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

From: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A21-23&version=NKJV

I think you may have something there. Make men against abortions carry a fetus to term and deliver by Cesarean- it's technically feasible, so let them put their bellies where their mouths are... and acquire stretch marks on their skin to match those on their ethics.

Sefddom101 - We wouldn't want a few facts to get in the way of a great argument.

What actions would those be?

You spoon fed MSNBC follower, they did not "complain" about food stamps, the complaint is about a president & policies that have driven more people "too" food stamps.

If we had a favorable business environment with lowered tax rates more people would have jobs.

riiiiiiight BIRD

The trickle down economy is a golden success. It ranks right up there with Enron, junk bonds, predatory lending, the Iraqi war paying for itself, and the glorious CEO's travelling to DC on private jets, to beg for corporate welfare from the lazy middle class.

To you and your ilk, why dwell among us MSNBC spoon fed, food stamp horders? Was the country club at Faux Noise empty again?

If more kids had worked a low pay job that was dirty, miserable & hard as heck, instead of hearing how dad has a great job with the union & he has no edumacation, then Kids would put more effort into school & their education.

When all they see is "get a government check" don't need to work or get an education, then why bother.

Wow BIRD,

Not only would the little bastards learn to work instead of wasting their time studying, they would replace all those criminal Mexicans. Then Hermy Cain could fry them up and charge for admission. Employment and entertainment for thousands. BTW: brilliant using code like "edumacation". No one would EVER guess what you mean by THAT.

Whos fault is it you f,ucking moron piece of filtyh shi,t

Blame it all on Bush worked before.

Tax the rich guy, make some one else pay for what you get, & keep the unions happy worked well too.

If more people understood business taxes are paid by each of us & not the business we would all be better off. But that's not how you get the masses to vote for you.

If our government did it's job of providing a Positive environment for business & not driving them away with taxes & regulations we would be in far better shape.

Gopers blame Obama for the economic mess that Bush left and and to take credit when bin laden got killed.

DaBird shouldn't ,it be daBird brain you Fu,cking idiot .Open your eyes