Posted on 08/14/2012 1:29:06 PM PDT by lbryce
The Obama campaign has made a curious economic argument as part of its attack on Paul Ryan:
Ryan rubber-stamped the reckless Bush economic policies that exploded our deficit and crashed our economy. Now the Romney-Ryan ticket would take us back by repeating the same, catastrophic mistakes.
Actually, Team Obama is saying the same thing twice here since the deficit would not have initially exploded without the Great Recession. (In 2007, the federal government ran a tiny budget deficit of 1.2% of GDP)
So which Bush policies, exactly, “crashed the economy”?
Certainly not the much reviled — at least by Democrats — Bush tax cuts, most of which President Obama says he wants to keep.
And certainly not Bush’s spending and debt, since Obama wants more of both. The most recent Obama budget, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would add $6.4 trillion more to the federal budget deficit over the next decade, leaving debt as a share of the economy stuck at around 76% of GDP vs. 37% pre-recession.
OK, if it wasn’t the taxes Bush cut or the money he spent, then what were the Bush policy actions that led to the Great Recession and “crashed our economy”?
Maybe the villains here are the Bush policies that deregulated Wall Street? A few problems with this theory, though. For starters, the law that ended Glass-Steagall was signed by President Bill Clinton — the guy who will be introducing Obama at the Democratic National Convention — in 1999. Second, few analysts think the end of Glass-Steagall directly contributed to the financial crisis.
Another candidate — and you hear this one a lot — was a 2004 rule change by the Securities and Exchange Commission — the Bush SEC! – that supposedly allowed broker dealers to greatly increase their leverage, contributing to the financial crisis. But as Prof. Andrew Lo of MIT notes in a 2011 paper,” … it turns out that the 2004 SEC amendment to Rule 15c3–1 did nothing to change the leverage restrictions of these financial institutions.”
And besides, there’s a strong case to be made that it was the economic downturn — begun by negative wealth effects from the collapse in the housing market and then greatly exacerbated by the Fed — which caused the financial crises rather than the crisis causing the severe downturn. As Robert Hetzel, an economist with the Richmond Fed, argues in The Great Recession: Market Failure or Policy Failure:
There has not been a single month under Obama where unemployment was lower than the highest month under 8 years of Bush.
Many who are engaged in the business of business, saw Obama coming. We know who he is and prepare accordingly.
I can defeat these bastards by simply refusing to produce thus starving the beast. When their Collective Dream fails as history has proven it always has, what manner of force will the ‘Progressives’ resort to?
Obamathought: { ‘ If I caused a Recession, that - - - , I didn’t cause that! Somebody else made that happen!’}
The lies and propaganda will work on a large segment of ignorants out there but many of those vote dem anyway. This strategy of bold lies that can be easily refuted with facts will backfire as many independents will break the code.
And, Dick Cheney was the architect of the Clone Wars.
That would put the blame on Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Bill Clinton.
Hard to believe we’ve endured four years of this rupturing multi-million gallon above-ground liquid manure storage tank called the Obama administration.
Gerald Ford inherited a “mess” and yet created 7 times as many jobs as obama - in a half term
The Obama campaign is going to serve the negative “flavor of the day” right on and on, until the election...and if he loses, it’ll be even worse. The LSM will have a microphone in his face 24/7 to get his community organizer position on every move the new president makes.
As a “has-been”, he’ll make Carter look like a piker. Wouldn’t surprise me if he ran for prez again in 2016, after all, the Constitution or laws don’t matter to him. I think he’s totally ineligible now, so he’ll sue or something to get back on the ticket in 2016...Roberts will find some way to rule in his favor.
But this election he’ll slink back to Chicago and get his plans in motion.
But, but, but, I thought that Obama had all the answers in 2008. I guess he wasn’t quite the messiah that he was advertised to be. And if he didn’t know what the f#@k he was talking about in 2008, why should we listen to his nonsense now?
the boy has said "Bush's fault" almost as many times as John Friggin Kerry has said When i was in Vietnam...
LOL!
Obama just got done saying the economy was great.
What’s he talking about?
If we can be polite, but clear in the FACTS, I think we can bring new folks along. And who knows, we might even be able to get them to start not taking at face value everything they hear or read in the MSM.
Grover Cleveland had two terms with someone else in between.( 22nd and 24th President).
Thanks. This is priceless.
“Gerald Ford inherited a “mess” and yet created 7 times as many jobs as obama - in a half term”
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And so America in all its radiant brilliance went to the polls and replaced that “failure” with the great and powerful wizard of Plains.
Kerry was in Vietnam? Danged, that’s the first I’ve heard of that. Why didn’t he ever tell us that during the campaign?
hundred bucks says if you add up all the times he said when he was in Nam, it would add up to longer than he was actually in country...
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