Portfolio.com, asked a very simple question Who Killed the Economy? And they broke it down into an NCAA type bracket, amd right now, the person getting the most votes is Alan Greenspan. Here is the link to the brackets: Who Killed The Economy?
Don't get me wrong, Greenspan played a big role in killing this economy, and it started when we had a surplus underr Clinton, Greenspan said we shouldn't pay off the national debt too fast. Remember when he said that? And I think he definately created the real estate bubble, with 1% interest rates, but he had lots of help.
Not surprisingly, I believe that President Bush killed what was once a robust economy, that featured record low unemployment, think as low as 3.8% nationally at one point, and a budget surplus. With his combination of supply side tax cuts, and spending on lousy programs like No Child Left Behind aka The National Teach to A Standardized Test Act.
Then of course there's the biggest spending sinkhole of them all, spending on an unnessary war in Iraq. We don't even know where most of the money has gone in Iraq, because the GAO can't find it.
Sure, one can blame OPEC or the oil speculators, but 4 dollar a gallon gas just kicked this economy over the edge. It was Bush, who had the megaphone, litterally after Sept 11th. On Sept 12, 2001, any president would have said, "I will make it my mission to get us off oil, and onto alternative fuels." But because Bush has Saudi friends, in high places, or is that low places? Bush said "Let's go shopping!" And any hope of a green economy, and low gas prices died for 8 long years. Oh sure he said something about, being "addicted to oil," but what did he ever do about it? Nothing that's what.
There's also enough blame for the leadership in Congress, especially Dems, who could have stopped the supply side tax cuts from ever taking place, if they had teamed up with moderate Repubs in the Senate they could have stopped these tax cuts and the ensuing budeget defifit. Just enough Dems in the Senate voted for that initial tax cut bill in 2001 to get it passed, and faster than you could say budget deficit, the horse was out of the barn. The Dems played go along to get along on the war in Iraq too, which is a foreign policy blunder and an economic nightmare, but make no mistake, it was Bush's war, and it always will be.
One could also blame the mortgate lenders for giving loans to anyone with a pulse, but this problem also has it's roots with Bush. He has an antipathy towards regulations, as do most republicans. A properly regulated mortgage industry, could have spared a lot of the pain that we feel now.
So I say, clearly Bush is to blame for this economy, aided and abetted by Repulicans and some Democrats in Congress. McCain, with his new found supply side zelotry, will bring us more of the same. There's no zelot like a newly converted zelot. And we probably will have a few more wars under a president McCain, heck if he bombs Iran, 150 dollar a barrell oil wll look cheap by comparison.
So when somenoe asks you who killed the economy, tell 'em it was Bush, and tell them Obama is the only one who will even try to fix what's wrong. By establishing a green economy, raising taxes on the wealthy, and properly regulating industry, that's the only way to a genuinely strong economy, that will last.