Posted on 01/07/2009 8:56:51 PM PST by St. Louis Conservative
President Bush's handling of the economic crisis came in for sharp criticism during Monday's debate between candidates vying to become the next chairman of the Republican National Committee. Five of the six contenders said they would support a pending RNC resolution criticizing both the auto bailout and the bailout of the financial industry passed by Congress in September. "The bailout was a bust. It should never have happened," former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele told the audience at the debate sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform. "Republicans should have had a little bit more you-know-what to withstand the pressure. They didn't and we're paying for it. I absolutely support the resolution because it reflects the frustration of our base." Mr. Steele's position was seconded by four of the five other candidates vying for the RNC chairman's post. The lone dissenter was Mike Duncan, the current RNC chairman who has worked closely with the Bush administration. He said that "as a banker" he understood the problem better than the other candidates and it couldn't be summarized with "a simple yes or no answer." He did admit the bailouts have clearly created "a lot of problems." Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, told ABC News that the antibailout resolution was vital to get Republicans "back into the swing of having an opinion as a party" on an issue that involved "giving $750 billion of other people's money to people whose claim to fame is that they lost their money." The election for RNC chairman, along with a vote on the antibailout resolution, will be held in Washington on January 29.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The lack of spending restraint and government reform that came out of a GOP majority is just staggering. What a pathetic performance, and I blame Delay and the other Congressional leadership as much or more than the White House. Spending just was disgusting, and on our watch. Bush passed the buck to the congress on these issues instead of taking any leadership, and the congress receives and F- for their efforts.
More like "as a banker, he wanted a bailout of bankers".
This chump is unbelievably politically tone deaf.
I agree, but the buck stops at the top, and Bush vetoes ZERO bills; encouraging K street profligacy and irresponsible spending. Good riddance to that LBJ impostor.
Don't leave fast buck, newt out of that are private road Hastert, 14,000 ear marks year before last. Damn, I doubt if they make it back in the majority in the next fifty years. Are the midnight credit default swaps!!!
As a truck driver, I understand the problem better than an elitist banker.
That comment alone should sink Duncan’s candidacy to chair the RNC.
It would have been an uphill fight, but McCain was leading in the polls until he rushed back to Washington to push for the bailout. Had he taken a principled stand against the bailout, and highlighted his efforts to close Frank and Dodd’s Freddie & Fannie candy store we might be preparing for his inaguaration in a couple of weeks.
ROTFL!!! What was THAT all about?
Now if they’d distance themselves from Bush Amnesty they might have hope for 2010 and 2012.
Bush has been dead on target on taxes, SCOTUS appointments and the War on Terror.
He is way way way way way off base when it comes to these bailouts.
You’re right Captain. But you may as well have wished for the sun to rise in the West. McCain was always adept at ripping conservatives. Liberal ideas? Not so much.
I take no pleasure in pointing it out. But for God's sake we didn't just out liberal the Democrats we were giving Marx a run for his money!
Perhaps he is off-base, but it seems to me that had he done nothing and the economy collapsed, there would have been an outcry against the GOP and the president which would have been lots worse.
What I want to know is why in the heck with the president leaving in less than two weeks they feel compelled to do this NOW? And furthermore, why couldn’t they marshal up this “fighting spirit” to oppose the democrats in Congress over the last 2 years? Where were their statements about economics then? Where is their statement about the Fanny Mae mess caused by Dodd and Frank and other DEMOCRATS?
He gets an A on war on terror.
B or C on judges -- didn't need to push Meiers, didn't push hard enough for sub-supreme court justices.
F on immigration.
Z on curbing government -- the Ted Kennedy education bill, Medicare expansion, allowing draconian powers in the war on terror then punting to the Dems.
ZZ on trying to get a Republican to get elected after him.
ZZZ--- on being an effective user of the bully pulpit for anything. A on physical fitness, he's a rad mountain biker.
Cheers!
How so? All of the tax cuts, except the one in 2003, failed to stimulate the economy.
I agree. They were just profligate in their spending. If they had wanted to 'rein in' Bush's spending suggestions, they could have done so, but they didn't.
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