” the Democrat created housing bust”
Please. Bubbles collapse because of their inherent instability. No one created the bust, unless you want to finger the culprits who allowed the bubble to grow in the first place. And both parties were filled with cheerleaders for giving everyone a home. Find a copy of Dubya’s 2003 speech to HUD promoting the American Dream Downpayment Initiative.
Of course its fashionable to try to seem evenhanded and blame both rats and Republicans for the mess, but the scheme to buy votes by giving taxpayer-paid freebies to the poor, which is the basis of the collapse, is a uniquely Democrat idea, one of the few new ones theyve had in the last hundred years. Most Republicans would avoid it like the proverbial plague. Yes, yes, weve all heard about Bushs speech on down-payment loans many times Bush wasnt pushing to provide loans to people regardless of whether or not they could pay them back. Nor was he plotting government manipulation of private financial institutions; in fact, one of his proposals was that faith-based and charitable organizations be more involved in helping to provide loans to aid those seeking to buy homes. There is simply no comparison between Bushs advocating and even cheerleading for increased home ownership and the Democrats thuggish imposition of governmental strong-arm tactics to force ownership where it wasnt earned or warranted. Moreover, a number of Republicans, including now candidate Santorum, pushed at various times during Bushs administration for Senate bills to impose greater regulation and oversight on the Fannies, a move which very likely could have short-circuited the stockpiling of bad loans which fueled the eventual meltdown of the financial system. It was Democrats who threatened filibusters of these attempts and killed reform. Except by the most liberal reading of the facts are Democrats anything but totally responsible for the bubble.
A vivid demonstration of ChuckRogers' point that we badly need a conservative advocate fact checker.......