President Bush behaved in an exemplary manner during the 9/11 crisis and as yet no honest or credible person has faulted his decision making capacity and/or performance during that time. The worst anybody could say about him then was that he continued a book reading for 11 minutes while being informed of the developing criris which nobody yet understood. Meanwhile, all airplanes were being grounded, SAC had scrambled, and top security measures were being put into place. No dereliction or neglect of duty there. His tax policy performed as billed and the deficit was dramatically coming down year after year and the budget would have again balanced within a year or two had the housing bubble not burst.
In subsequent years, we can legitimately question President Bush's and a bi-partisan Congress's support of the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions and how that was prosecuted through 2008. There is legitimate criticism of spending money we didn't have and didn't have to spend, of expanding government and entitlements, an unacceptable immigration policy, and an energy policy only a rabid, fanatical liberal could love, his handling of Katrina, and the failure to immediately start reining in Fannie and Freddie, and agreeing to TARP that greatly escalated the deficit/debt without producing the desired results.
To President Bush's credits, over the last three years of his administration, it is on the record that President Bush sternly warned Congress 17 times of the dangers created in the housing bubble and urging them to do something about it. Each time Frank and Dodd and others rushed before cameras to assure the public that all was well, Fannie and Freddie were in good shape and essentially sound, and nothing needed to be done.
So who do you blame for the housing bubble collapse? It's roots go all the way back to the Carter administration and the snowball has been accelerating ever since. But you can't hang even a lot of that one on George W. Bush without a HUGE dose of blame on many many others.
In subsequent years, we can legitimately question President Bush's and a bi-partisan Congress's support of the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions and how that was prosecuted through 2008. There is legitimate criticism of spending money we didn't have and didn't have to spend, of expanding government and entitlements, an unacceptable immigration policy, and an energy policy only a rabid, fanatical liberal could love, his handling of Katrina, and the failure to immediately start reining in Fannie and Freddie, and agreeing to TARP that greatly escalated the deficit/debt without producing the desired results.
To President Bush's credits, over the last three years of his administration, it is on the record that President Bush sternly warned Congress 17 times of the dangers created in the housing bubble and urging them to do something about it. Each time Frank and Dodd and others rushed before cameras to assure the public that all was well, Fannie and Freddie were in good shape and essentially sound, and nothing needed to be done.
So who do you blame for the housing bubble collapse? It's roots go all the way back to the Carter administration and the snowball has been accelerating ever since. But you can't hang even a lot of that one on George W. Bush without a HUGE dose of blame on many many others.
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