"... funny how you liberals always blame Bush even 5 years later."

[OmahaBlueDog]

I saw this quote in an online argument over the budget.

Question: Should we still be blaming Bush, and (if so) why?

[Jamaal510]

1. I still blame him

and Congress, and am unashamed to do so.

[xfundy]

15. Absolutely. And Raygun.

The US is no longer a beacon to the world, but instruction on how to fuck up a good thing.

PS: I'm intrigued by the excellent typography of your signature image. What does it mean? Please respond via DUmail, I don't keep track of replies I've sent. Thanks!

[Berlum]

39. "Smirk." - xCommander AWOL (R) & Dickie 'Five Deferments' Cheney (R)

[pkdu]

2. Too many here would rather blame Obama. Nt

[OmahaBlueDog]

3. True, that

..but Barack Obama didn't put two wars on a credit card, and didn't watch uselessly while the housing market caught fire and burned up.

[pkdu]

8. Amen to that brother. Nt

[Ohio Joe]

4. Fuckin-A... I'm still blaming ronnie raygun for all the shit he pulled...

Presidential actions last long after they leave office and to think anything different would only exist in the mind of stupid teabagger.

[OmahaBlueDog]

20. Ronald Reagan sold missiles to those who took our embassy hostage

He negotiated with terrorists.

He preached an end to deficit spending, and then ran up record deficits.

He wasted a lot of tax dollars on useless defense projects.

[Bolo Boffin]

5. I still blame Captain Edward Smith for the Titanic.

(Yes, I know the deal about the bolts.)

[BKH70041]

6. Here's the thing

If you're president and things are doing well, you get the credit. If things are going poorly, you get the blame. That's the rule.

I didn't write the rule, I'm just pointing it out.

[Beaverhausen]

7. Bush had 8 years to fuck things up

Obama should get 8 to clean it up.

[winter is coming]

9. Fuck, yeah. I still blame Reagan, too.

Shakespeare had the right of it: the evil that men do lives after them.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

10. Seems fair

Reagan was blaming Carter well into his second term.

[OmahaBlueDog]

21. ^^This one

Why yes..yes he was

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Good or bad fiscal policy takes anywhere from four to six years

To work itself out.

[Jackpine Radical]

56. And that's in more-or-less normal times.

Regardless whether you find fault with Obama's policies, There is no way the Democrats could have passed effective economic legislation with the Republican obstructionism that has haunted both of Obama's terms so far. You could reasonably argue that the 4-to-6 year healing period has not yet begun. And I would argue also that these are not normal times. We're facing so much more, such as droughts, floods, unstable energy prices, etc. than has happened in the past that you can't expect the old, conventional fixes to work without a hitch.

[nadinbrzezinski]

59. Yup

[lonestarnot]

12. We'll be trying to unfuckup everything he fucked up for years to come.

[windsormich19454]

13. Of course I blame Dumbya

In just 8 years, he effectively took a wrecking ball to this entire country, and left it in shambles, leaving Obama to clean up an enormous mess. Frankly, it will take another 10-20 years or so to undo the damage he caused. After all, we're still recovering from Reagan's disastrous policies.

[bhikkhu]

14. Good and bad actions can have long-lasting effects

bush still gets credit for the housing market crash. Lincoln still gets credit for ending slavery. FDR still gets credit for the Social Security Act. Reagan still gets credit for the RW media machine that has distorted policy since his era. And so forth. Obama will get credit for a great deal in time, most of it good, but its all against a tide of what has been done before.

[MrMickeysMom]

16. Is there a statute of limitation on doing what is right?

Or, are we all supposed to be as stupid as those only wanting to "move on"?

Remember that Bush wrote into the plan to bail out Wall Street wtih $700 Billion of our money. THAT's something we need to forget as we "move on"?

Damned if I'lll move in that direction.

[Rex]

17. I blame Reagan, Poppy and Dubya.

nt.

[SamKnause]

18. There is plenty of blame to go around.

I blame;

Ronald Reagan and his administration
Bill Clinton and his administration
George Walker Bush and his administration
Barack Obama and his administration

It took decades of deregulation, free trade deals, and a main stream media propaganda machine to destroy this country.

The coup is almost complete.

Welcome to the Oligarchy of the United States.

The Supreme Court deserves a mention.

They legislated the rights of we the people away.

The CEOs and global corporations won.

[Bigmack]

19. Dubya made up a big plate...

... of shit sandwiches.

And now the Repubs are complaining that he's not eating them fast enough.

History did not start in January of 2009.... what came before impacts what's happening now.

[lpbk2713]

22. It's the notorious BushCo legacy.

We'll be feeling the effects of it for some time to come.

[deutsey]

47. I said many times before the 2000 election that if Bush got in

we'd be digging out from the rubble his presidency would leave behind for decades to come.

I really wish I had been proven wrong.

[nyquil_man]

23. They still credit Reagan...

In fact, they usually credit Reagan for shit he didn't even do.

[Samantha]

24. Where do those who do not still blame Bush* think that deficit came from

Last edited Tue Sep 24, 2013, 11:01 PM - Edit history (1)

It came from eight years of the Bush* residency in the Oval Office. When Bush* started occupying the Oval Office in 2001, he looked at the projected surpluses we would realize from the Clinton years. At that point, he decided to give huge tax cuts to his wealthy friends who had put him in the Oval Office. When the Federal Government is running surpluses, obviously it is overtaxing -- so the GOP believes. Thus Bush* spent those surpluses before the money was actually in Uncle Sam's hand. Then 911. Then Afghanistan. Then Iraq. Also throw in a gift to the pharmaceutical companies deceptively wrapped under the Social Security umbrella and not paid for by Uncle Sam. And don't forget the other factor, he crashed the economy which cratered in 2008.

Other than those items, I don't understand why people blame Bush today either.

Sam

[OmahaBlueDog]

27. Minor quibble

When Bush* started occupying the Oval Office in 2001, he looked at the projected deficits we would realize from the Clinton years.

I think you mean the projected surplus we would realize from the Clinton years.

[Samantha]

29. Yes, I did -- thanks for correcting me (n/t)

[kentauros]

58. "Think"? You're asking them to "think"? ;)

They don't think, and that's the problem. They little minds only grasp that they were told everything was fine, nothing to worry about during the Bush years. Suddenly, there's a black man in office, and it's going to be Armageddon!!11! The deficit is suddenly just there because, well, you know, Benghazi!

There is no logic to their thought-processes. Asking them to look at the history of what went wrong is to ask them to criticize their favorite pResident ever. Not gonna happen.

[Alamuti Lotus]

25. Attributing present events to El Shrubbo cuts both ways

Yes, it is undeniably correct that certain policies--particularly, economic and foreign policy--have long-term consequences. However, the fairly routine knee-jerk charge carries with it the implication that Team Obama is unable or unwilling to effect matters otherwise. Perhaps that is just my ODS acting up, but that's not a very flattering insinuation for the erstwhile-deifiers to be making.

[Mr.Bill]

26. Ask any Republican this:

There are two presidents who doubled the national debt during their term. Can you name them?

I have yet to find a Republican who knows it's Reagan and W. Bush.

[Welibs]

34. Reagan TRIPLED the debt and they know it, they just deny it. It's their credo, Deny Deny Deny.

[Mr.Bill]

36. The Republican's I know don't even know this.

They just say "He was a great American, Blah, blah..."

[Gravitycollapse]

28. Can we blame the Third Reich for modern neo-Nazis? Absolutely.

Consequences do not disappear the moment a leader leaves office.

5 years is not long at all. We are still suffering the consequences of presidential administrations 30 or 40 years ago. Of course we still suffer from the Bush administration.

[Deep13]

30. It's still his fault we went into debt.

Although Obama, and everyone who went along with the tax deal, is resposible for keeping us in debt and for this fucking sequester.

[juajen]

31. Easy!

Same reason we are still blaming Hitler for murdering Jews and people all over Europe. What is, is.

[Wounded Bear]

32. When we finally fix all the shit he fucked up...

maybe then I'll stop 'blaming' him.

Same for Reagan.

Same for Clinton.

[Welibs]

33. If you burn down the house no one else is ever going to be guilty of burning it down! Obama didn't

burn down the house.... BUSH DID!

[Cha]

35. Doesn't matter if it's ten, twenty, hundred years.. it stands that

bush-cheney left President with an astrononmical mess.. and we're coming out of it in spite of the teapub obstructist assholes in Congress.

[phleshdef]

37. Yes, because President Obama has put some huge debt reduction offers on the table...

...containing some thing that a lot of us don't like, but on the table nonetheless. These were serious offers that had real numbers behind it.

[Rincewind]

38. For 8 years Reagan, and

then for 4 years G.H.W. Bush, both blamed Jimmy Carter bit of bad news about the economy. For the 8 years that Bill Clinton was president, the repubs tried to give the credit for any good news to Reagan.

[MFM008]

40. hmmmm

if you break a fine crystal vase on the cement floor, its done.... its destroyed. You know like the environment, economy everything.....and it cant be fixed...something is lost. period. Bush...period.

[B Calm]

41. I blame the Supreme Court for selecting Bush when it was clear Gore won!

[badtoworse]

42. No. At some point, blaming your predecessor makes you look incompetent.

We're well past that point now.

[woo me with science]

43. Of course assigning blame correctly is important.

The malignant disaster of the Bush administration is how we know the continuation of his policies by the Obama administration is ALSO malignant, and how we can recognize that the real depth and entrenchment of corporate corruption of our government extends well beyond party lines.

Never trust anybody who advises ignoring history and simply "moving on."

[LWolf]

44. If you need to blame someone, there's plenty to spread around.

Start with Ronald Reagan AND THE SELF-CENTERED ASSHATS WHO VOTED FOR HIM. Then add every president since, and every politician who has compromised with neo-liberals, OR BECOME NEO-LIBERALS, since.

[ananda]

45. LOL. I guess I have Bush Expungement Syndrome!

[Vogon_Glory]

46. Yes We Should

Yes we should be blaming Dubya five years after his departure. He ran up the deficit in a war of choice in Iraq, thoroughly bungled the war in Afghanistan, failed to take measures to either control the speculation that led to the housing bubble or lessen the effects when the bubble exploded and the country plunged into recession.

As to your right-wing sparring partner: I notice that whining wing-nuts were blaming former President Clinton for Dubya's messes all the way through Buckaroo Bush's time in the White House. Not only that, when the housing bubble exploded and the tide of evidence showing the links between Republican politicians, those politicians' and activists' policies and the financial melt-down came to light, did right-wingers take the time out for self-reflection and reappraisal of their crowd's actions? HELL NO! They went back and tried to put the blame on Jimmy Carter!

As far as I'm concerned, the Rethuglies and the Teabaggers deserve blame for their actions for at least the next twenty years and if global warming proves as bad as some say, the next several centuries.

[deutsey]

48. It's funny how they always lecture everyone else about "personal responsibility"

and are always the first to blame everyone else but themselves when they screw things up.

[Vogon_Glory]

49. Ain't It Just?

Yeah, I've noticed that. Maybe it's because I wised up only in the early 1990's, but I'm old enough to remember when at least SOME Republicans not only made noises about "personal responsibility," but some of them (Not all of them, just some of them, and not that many even back then) even lived up to it. That sort of behavior in the Gathering Of Psychotics is just about as rare as membership in the Ripon Society.

Among other things I call the Republican Party these days is "the former personal responsibility party," "the former fiscal responsibility party," "the former good government party" and other antique-sounding but highly-accurate epithets.

The trouble is I use those epithets and they go over the heads of today's crop of wing-nuts.

[PowerToThePeople]

50. He should not get all of the blame.

We could have done more to fix the issues.

Do you blame the bank robber or the cop who is sitting at the donut shop having a coffee instead of responding? Both. One is wrong, one is not doing what they were supposed to be doing.

[blm]

51. Ask for the date when GOP allowed Obama's tax/economic policies to replace Bush's

jobkilling, deficit growing tax/economic policies.

[handmade34]

57. +1 n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

52. I blame both Bushes, Ronald Reagan and every Republican to sit in Congress.

But I take care to be specific and assign the proper blame to the proper Republican. No need to work sloppy.

[bravenak]

53. I'll blame him until I'm dead.

It's my right.

[rurallib]

54. Bush fucked it up; Republicans in congress have kept it fucked up

especially in the senate where they have twisted the rules such that it now takes a super-majority to pass a bill. They have gone out of their way to totally turn the country over to the rich and screw up the poor especially and middle-class.
do you need specifics?
jobs
sending jobs overseas
health care
taxes
consumer protections
reactions to foreclosures
minimum wage
cutting government jobs
education
wealth inequality

on and on - pretty much whatever the issue Republicans have fucked it up and media has barely reported it

[handmade34]

55. Well Yes!

the poorly waged wars and the tax cuts during the Bush era are absolutely responsible for current problems and to further that... the current Republicans will not let Obama fix them as quickly as he otherwise could...!!!!!!!!!!!


http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3849
"...Legacy of Bush Policies Continue to Drive Large Deficits"

[bluesbassman]

60. Hell, I still blame Hoover for crissakes! Failed policies and myopic agendas always leave a mark.

I get no pleasure from laying blame though as the clean up cost is not worth it.

[OmahaBlueDog]

64. I think there's an argument for letting go of anything before Truman

..but then you start thinking about Harding and Coolidge, and reconsider.

[ThomThom]

61. I am still waiting for that criminal to go to jail

blame includes shrub and many many more people for the messes this country is in

[Shrike47]

62. We will blame Bush until they admit he screwed up the country and the economy.

Then we will blame Bush.

[Orsino]

63. There's no expiration date on the evils he perpetrated.

He's still responsible for wasting two terms of potential rebuilding. He's got the blood of hundreds of thousands on his hands. Thousands of his own citizens died screaming, on the battlefields and here at home, due to his policies. Bush is a hole out of which we've only just begun to dig.

What is meant by the word "still" in the OP? Isn't it just the cry of the wingnut looking for his own reprieve?

[Downtown Hound]

65. To which I always answer:

Last edited Tue Sep 24, 2013, 08:06 PM - Edit history (1)

funny how you conservatives NEVER hold him accountable for anything:

9-11? Clinton's fault.

Iraq War lies? Bad intelligence.

Iraq War clusterfuck? Media's fault.

Hurricaine Katrina? Democrat's fault.

Torture and war crimes? Them towel heads deserved it.

Patriot Act and NSA spying? It was actually started by Obama!

Economy collapsing? Clinton's fault.

I'll stop blaming him when two things happen: when we're no longer suffering because of that asshole and when Republicans for once, actually acknowledge some of the shit he did.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

67. Yup

I'm on a non political board (ice hockey) where some old bag constantly sarcastically slips in "I guess we can Blame Bush" into totally irrelevant non political discussions.

I told her off one day, finally, that the only people worse than those that blame Bush for everything, are the ones who refuse to hold him accountable for anything. She shut the fuck up.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

66. Yes

He, along with the GOP Congress of 1995-2007 fucked this country up royally.

And those assholes blamed Clinton for everything years after he left office and will do the same to Obama. Fuck right-wingers.