What is left out of the picture are the different philosophies of Democrats and Republicans. Bush came into office with a Clinton recession. He then coped with 9/11 economic disaster and massive cost for both the Iraqi and Afghanistan Wars.
President Bush tax cuts worked. During his first six years of his administration, until Sept 2007, he had accomplished in bringing down the unemployment numbers to 4.4%. In economic terms, that is pretty much considered full employment. He was also on a glide path with the Debt trajectory sharply coming down.
So what happen! The same disaster that always happens to Republicans. They lose control of Congress to the Democrats. The party who controls Congress will pretty much dictate where the economy philosophy of the legislation that they will produce.
If you take a look at President Clinton first years, he was very fortunate to have a Republican controlled Congress. Clinton was forced to come to the middle and agree with Republicans on important conservative oriented fiscal legislation. He also benefited from the greatest militarily downsize in the history of the nation. Not only did the Republican led Senate help him from impeachment, you can say that the Republicans in Congress saved him economically. By the time Bush came into office, the economy had taken a turn towards recession because the Democrats won control of the Congress from the Republicans.
What does it matter? Everything! Democrats change the conservative approach to government 180 degrees. They began on a spending spree, they fought tax cuts, they push for more entitlement programs, etc with President Bush bipartisan help.
President Bush won election with a new Republican controlled Congress. Again the free market approach of the Republican Congress quickly began to show positive results with increased revenue, sharp increase in national employment figures in all sectors, a strong military, etc. The media, aligned and coordinated with the radically liberal Democrats illustrated daily their perfectly bias reporting. They hyped favorable coverage to the Democrat Party and attacked or discounted all favorable data for the Bush Administration. The media focused on the Iraq War and continued to hid or sensor Bush economic successes.
In the last two years of President Bush Administration, the Democrats gain control once again of the Congress. Immediately, all legislative priorities and focus shifted dramatically toward massive increased spending on social programs. Bush in a bipartisan effort pushed a prescription drug program to his discredit.
Obama, never receives any blame for the spending spree of the Democrat controlled Congress in which he served as a US Senator. The escalating social ineptness hitting us today were spurred while Obama and the Democrats controlled Congress. It was under his watch. Obama was and is the largest proponent of spending. Although the Banking and Home Mortgage Industry encountered problems long before the Democrats took control of the Congress, they were in charge and acted as road blocks to impede any action by the Bush Administration to get a handled on the upcoming crisis.
Why is it that Obama, Reid, and Pelosi who control Congress during the critical years of spending, get such a free pass from the mainstream media? Where are the Republican leaders who are standing up to defend Bush and call out the Democrats in Congress for their socialistic spending spree while they control Congresses prior to Obama election. Obama is just carrying on what he learned as a Democrat US Senator.
You are exactly right. We need to focus on electing TEA Party Representatives and Senators. Hatch and Lugar need to be just the tip of the iceberg. The GOP can only be rebuilt from the ground up.
What happened in 2007 was the housing bubble burst. The housing bubble is what gave us those swell, but false, numbers.
Actually, once the housing bubble burst, our (the world’s) fate was cast in concrete. And the simple fact that the amount of austerity that would be required to get us out of this mess at all would be so devastating that it would lead to an economic death spiral and massive rioting. i.e. no politician could do it.
It will end in hyperinflation. It is the only think the politicians can do that will not, initially, hurt them politically. But the smart ones will be buying cabins in the woods and lots of long term food supplies.