Posted on 12/01/2008 11:12:35 AM PST by WilliamReading
WASHINGTON (AP) - President George W. Bush expressed remorse that the global financial crisis has cost jobs and harmed retirement accounts and said he'll back more government intervention if needed to ease the recession.
"I'm sorry it's happening, of course," Bush said in a wide-ranging interview with ABC's "World News," which was airing Monday. "Obviously I don't like the idea of people losing jobs, or being worried about their 401(k)s. On the other hand, the American people got to know that we will safeguard the system. I mean, we're in. And if we need to be in more, we will."
The U.S. economy fell into a recession in December 2007, the National Bureau of Economic Research reported on Monday. Many economists believe the current downturn will last until the middle of 2009 and will be the most severe slump since the 1981-82 recession.
On the war in Iraq, Bush said the biggest regret of his presidency was the "intelligence failure" regarding the extent of the Saddam Hussein threat to the United States. With the support of Congress, Bush ordered the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003—a decision largely justified on grounds—later proved false—that Saddam was building weapons of mass destruction.
"A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein," he said. "That's not a do-over, but I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess."
Asked if he would have ordered the U.S.-led invasion if intelligence reports had accurately indicated that Saddam did not have the weapons, Bush replied: "You know, that's an interesting question.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
said he’ll back more government intervention if needed to ease the recession:
AND that’s the problem-He’s a liberal, goverment intervention only always makes things WORSE, not better!
..Has Bush even ever taking a college level “micro-econ” course?
AmericaPravda speaks! You vill listen, comrade!
So when do Barney Frank and the democrats say they’re sorry? Did Bush tell them repeatedly that Fannie Mae needed more supervision or not?
I hope to God he pardons the border agents.
But I do believe she has shown that she has more courage than most of the republicans around, certainly more than McCain or Bush.
She has 4 years to learn about world affairs and to come up to snuff in order to run for president.
However, she certainly has the fire in her belly for the job.
ABC news did the same crap today when they had a headline saying that President Bush said “I was unprepared for war”. They totally took out of context what he said in this regard. Anyway, we expect this from the liberal media.
He’s having a Brenda Lee moment.
I’m sorry that he’s apologizing about Iraq.
What happened to doing the best you could with the tools you had? Congress supported it, Americans supported it.
Now, not putting his foot down on his bully pulpit over Freddie and Fannie when he knew there were massive problems is another matter...
We have not been attacked since 9/11. Will Obama get to say the same?
Must be nice. If I had that kind of money, I’d call it anything I wanted to also.
Sarah Palin is blessed by being one of the most likable people on the political scene. She is also very watchable.
Whether she is Presidential material, she will have four years to demonstrate.
She was a dummy to tell people not to vote for Ted Stevens, she could of had his Senatorial seat.
The thing that will get you lynched by Republican circles is in admitting that Palin (while a nice gal, and down-to-earth) is NOT as Conservative as most believe (look beyond the hype)! She’s not the second coming of Ronald Reagan, I don’t know who is..but He really is just a symbol now..we must face the fact: We need a principled Constitutionalist/libertarian/Old School Conservative however we are not getting Reagan back.
Hey Jorge? STFU, you pathetic RINO. If you had the stones to wield that veto pen instead of spending money like a drunken sailor, that would have sent a different message to the financial community, and that message would NOT have been that you are the biggest spending President since LBJ, another loser from Texas.
Your 15 minutes are over, you handed over the GOP to your fellow RINOs and ‘Rat-lite buddies, you sold your soul and your ass to Vincente Fox and his open-borders crowd, and millions of illegals murder, rape, and rob our fellow citizens each and every day because YOU were more worried about offending your Mexican pals than upholding your Oath of Office. And you’re letting two good men, former Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean rot in prison all because you wouldn’t want to upset your ‘dear (corrupt) friend’ Johnny Sutton.
And don’t forget about “not allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon”, sure glad you delivered on that promise, and I’m sure the North Korean people appreciate you selling THEIR asses out too, in hopes of some kind of ‘legacy’ for you by choosing to do business with Kim Jon Il.
NO MORE BUSHES, not now, not ever!
President Bush should have the Justice Department working day and night to bring to justice the executives and managers who did this. He should denounce (because he cannot arrest) Congressman Barney Frump and Senator Dood for strong-arming the lenders (banks) to make loans everybody knew would default. And Chris Cox for failure to regulate the SEC in accordance with the law. Then he should go into exile.
Stevens was a crook and she is right...
Now he's taken the next step - he's denigrating his own administration and policy decisions.
Pathetic....
I think Dick Cheney is even more pathetic. The guy should grow a mustache and wear a black hat.
The most important thing President Bush can do about the economic crisis in his remaining time in office is to create an action plan for the immediate release of hundreds of thousands of tons of food to the States, to insure that they have plenty on hand at the State level for rapid emergency distribution as they see fit.
This is a major logistic undertaking, and should be accompanied by a radically expanded free food debit card program, as needed. (What is still called “food stamps”, is now like a “food debit card”.) An executive order to lift restrictions on the free distribution of food would be the enabling act.
What would precipitate this would be the collapse of the credit card companies, which right now is a distinct possibility, starting with AMEX. Millions of Americans are dependent on credit cards for their monthly rent and food, being “behind a month”, every month. If their cards are invalidated, they will still have a month for housing, but will need food immediately.
Right now, it is anticipated that 28 million people receive “food stamps” and WIC for pregnant women and children under 5. If the credit card companies go broke, these numbers could increase by half again or even double, almost overnight. It would take weeks or even months for the programs and retail grocery stores to adjust to this increase, so direct food aid from government warehouses of agricultural surplus could be vital.
Fortunately, President George W. Bush seems to be doing this:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D07E3DA1539F935A25750C0A965948260
27 million pounds of surplus government cheese has been allocated to just NY State alone for FY 2009.
well compassionate conservatism ‘means’ big spending plus big tax cuts. That’s what republicans thought Reagan was about. It was the popular thing to do because they didn’t have to say no to anyone.
Do you know this or did someone tell you that?
For anyone interested go read up on the Alaska Highway Pipeline that Sarah Palin negotiated to be built by TransCanada Corp. Sarah busted the chops of the Alaska oil & gas commission and ExxonMobil, ConnocoPhillips and BP who had been sitting on their butts for years not wanting to build a much needed gas pipeline coming off the North Slope. In doing so, this new pipeline will provide the USA with 6%-8% of natural gas needs. Iran, Russia, and Qatar are in the process of forming a natural gas cartel. Sarah Palin just beat those three countries in a geopolitical economic war and put the USA on the road to ensured independence for our natural gas needs.
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