People often point back to Clinton and try to place the blame for the current financial crisis. I have yet to see anyone note that under the Clinton Economy people had jobs and could pay their mortgages! THE reason why there is a crisis is because PEOPLE DON'T HAVE GOOD JOBS and so they are losing their houses! If the economy was strong and the average citizen were having increased annual income each year there would be a lot of people still happily living in what are now foreclosed homes. When the economy takes a nose dive it is the President and Congress's job to level with the people, and reign in the financial institutions to prevent this sort of inevitable tail spin. Instead Bush told us to go shopping and buy a Hummer, and how it was our god given right as Americans to consume as much energy as possible. It was a lack of LEADERSHIP that created this crisis, rather than admit the real state of the economy they hid the truth and taunted us to spend money we don't have. Bush also encouraged the poor to get into homes that were too big for their budget, and just listen to this clip of Bush in 2002 telling us how Fanny and Freddy just "dismantle barriers for home ownership" and went on to say "you don't have to have a lousy home for first time home buyers" "the first time home buyer, the low income home buyer can have just as nice a house as anybody else". Rather than encourage people that can not afford large homes to get into them, and lean on Freddy Mac to give loans to people that didn't qualify for them, Bush SHOULD have told Americans to buckle down and live within their means. He should have also acknowledged the weak economy and worked with Freddy Mac to TIGHTEN the requirements to get home loans instead of loosing them in a time of economic instability. Again, I point out, that during the Clinton years the economy and Freddy and Fanny were very strong.
If you look back at the 2004 election THE major statistic they used as evidence of a successful Bush economy was the home ownership numbers. IMHO this was strategy at work, getting people into homes to create an issue to use in the campaign as well as give the economy a false sense of prosperity during very bad times. They knew it couldn't last, but also knew it would last long enough to help him get into office again. What really gets me is how they allowed the whole thing to blow up like this rather than fix it after the election. I guess if your going to ask for nearly 1 TRILLION dollars with no strings attached to dole out to your cronies that might be one reason to let the shit hit the fan.... WRONG DREAM....
Irie