To the Telegram:
This administration complains they “inherited this mess” from Bush. However, when you look at history, you’ll notice that things started going downhill when Democrats took control of both houses Jan. 3, 2007.
On that day, the DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77, the GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5 percent and unemployment was 4.6 percent with a record setting 52 straight months of job creation.
That was also the day Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee. Fifteen months later, we suffered an economic meltdown in banking and financial services.
Their answer to the crisis was to dump $5 trillion to $6 trillion in toxic loans on the economy from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Bush asked Congress 17 times to stop Fannie and Freddie because it was financially risky for the U.S. economy. Barney blocked action calling it a “Chicken Little Philosophy.”
Obama, Barney Frank and the Democratic Congress fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie. Democrats also controlled the budget process from 2008 through 2011. After having to contend with Bush on spending the first year, Reid and Pelosi entirely bypassed Bush by passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Obama could take office. Then they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the 2009 budget.
Obama was a member of that very congress passing all these massive spending bills and he signed the Omnibus bill as president.
The 2007 budget inherited by Democrats had the lowest deficit in five years and fourth straight decline in deficit spending.
So remember, Bush may have been in the car but the Democrats were in charge of the gas pedal and steering wheel. Changing the direction of our economy will require a change of control in Washington.
Karen Johnson,
Webb Lake
More from around the web
RSS Feeds