Don't blame Bush!

[MaggieD]

If I had a nickel for every time I heard a conservative say this kind of crap I could retire. "Bush has been gone for 5 years - don't blame him." Or "When will Obama take responsibility and stop blaming Bush." Or my favorite variation, which absolves Bush of responsibility without naming him, "Obama has increased the debt to $15 TRILLION dollars!!"

IMO, the ONLY proper response to the last ridiculous charge, and the one that stops every conservative in their tracks is "So what did Obama spend all that money on? Please be specific." They have no clue, because other than the stimulus bill that was sorely needed and wasn't large enough, Obama didn't spend it. It is the continuing cost that resulted from policies implemented by Bush.

It is completely amazing to me that people really seem to believe that the policies implemented by an administration would suddenly stop costing money the second that president leaves office. Maybe some people don't think it through, but honestly, it's just such a common sense thing my jaw drops when I realize people don't get that concept.

As for the war, the problems with ISIS, the Arab Spring and Bush's "Freedom Agenda" -- how in the world is he NOT to blame for that? He's gone, so it stops being his fault? My personal opinion (before the Iraq war and now) is that Bush broke shit that cannot be fixed.

So let's review what is objectively Bush's fault (and will always remain his fault for decades to come). Please let me know if I forgot anything:

- The enormous budget busting costs of multiple wars that did not stop costing money when Bush left office

- The huge power vacuum that allowed terrorism to explode due to the senseless invasion of Iraq. "Al Qaeda in Iraq" formed in 2004, barely one year after the invasion. That group is now called ISIS/ISIL.

- The huge tax cuts that were unaffordable, especially during 2 wars, that continued on well into Obama's presidency

- The unfunded Medicare Part D mandate that also included $350 billion over 10 years for subsidies to for profit health insurance providers in an attempt to further privatize Medicare. This budget buster was a complete set-up to increase Medicare costs by 30% or more, which allowed a nice segue for republicans like Mittens and Lyin' Ryan to propose voucherizing Medicare, under the guise of "Oh noes, we can't afford it anymore!"

- The enormous cost of the 2008 crash, mostly, IMO, brought on by the deregulate mantra of republicans, and certainly the Bush administration. It is true that most of the TARP expenditures have been or will be paid back, but there is no getting back the gigantic increase in spending that unemployment, food stamps and other assistance that was needed because of the crash.

- The incalculable costs of defense spending that will be needed for decades to come because of the "ME Freedom Agenda" that idiot son started. I don't know if that cost will ever go away (and it won't be just tax dollars either - the human cost is and will continue to be huge).

Am I missing anything?

Yeah, I DO blame Bush. And none of these things stop costing money, or having terrible implications for this country just because Bush is gone and still hiding out in a cave somewhere in Dallas painting bad pictures.

[Capt. Obvious]

1. He spent it on Obamaphones

[JaneyVee]

2. We haven't even begun digging out of the Bush disaster...

We're still trying to recover from the Reagan disaster.

[hifiguy]

5. ^THIS!!!!^

I said for years it would take at least a generation to undo the harm Reagan did to this country. Then along came His Chimperial Highness and dug the hole three times deeper.

[1dogleft]

10. don't let Nixon slide n/t

[rock]

3. I'll stop blaming bush* when the smell is gone

From how it stinks right now, I'd give it several more decades.

[truedelphi]

4. Uh, a lot of those trillions went to the Biggest Banks and Financial Firms in the world

through the Bailout process. Geithner was put in charge of all that, by Pres Obama. And so this Administration saw to it that the largest heist of human wealth went from Middle Class America to the Big Fat Cats, for what?

We didn't even get any regulatory relief, so the same swindle is in the works right now, that was in the works back in 2001 to 2008.

The new swindle has new names for its derivatives, but it is still going on.

[MaggieD]

6. TARP was repaid

Am I missing something?

http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/financial-stability/TARP-Programs/aig/Pages/status.aspx

[truedelphi]

9. TARP was the distraction, MaggieD. The damage was done by Bernanke "lending"

Out trillions of dollars of monies to various big Financial Firms, and experts have declared that
at least 4.7 trillions of those monies will not ever be repaid.

Funny thing, right when that was going on, along came the big PR campaign, by leaders in both parties, telling We the American people that we had to realize Austerity is important, and we cannot have Social Security landing in the greedy hands of granma. That 2.1 trillions of Social Security dollars are needed to offset:
One) the cost of the wars and the Homeland Security and Surveillance

Two) The cost of the Bush Tax cuts, that began under Georgie Pordgie, and that Obama approved and exteneded, instead of letting them expire

Three) The Bernanke giveaways (Oh and Bernanke also did some dickering around and saw to it that the price of oil and gas went skyward

Bernanke may have begun under Bush, but Obama did re-appoint him.

Items in points One, Two and Three total up way more than what is represented in the Social Security funds, but having that 2 + trillion would "be a help." (As the bureaucrats and sold out puppets inside the Beltway see things.)

[MaggieD]

11. I'd like to know more about this...

Do you have any links about the $4.7 trillion that won't be recovered?

[truedelphi]

12. Here are some background links:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/traceygreenstein/2011/09/20/the-feds-16-trillion-bailouts-under-reported/


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-28/secret-fed-loans-undisclosed-to-congress-gave-banks-13-billion-in-income.html
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http://www.sott.net/article/250592-Audit-of-the-Federal-Reserve-Reveals-16-Trillion-in-Secret-Bailouts

Audit of the Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret Bailouts

unelected.org
Sat, 01 Sep 2012 01:33 CEST
Print
The first ever GAO (Government Accountability Office) audit of the Federal Reserve was carried out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve audit in the Senate, but watered down the original language of the house bill(HR1207), so that a complete audit would not be carried out.
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[h2][font color=red]From the archives here at DU
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4638223
[/h2][/font color=red]
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http://www.sott.net/article/250592-Audit-of-the-Federal-Reserve-Reveals-16-Trillion-in-Secret-Bailouts

Ben Bernanke (pictured to the right), Alan Greenspan, and various other bankers vehemently opposed the audit and lied to Congress about the effects an audit would have on markets. Nevertheless, the results of the first audit in the Federal Reserve's nearly 100 year history were posted on Senator Sander's webpage earlier this morning.

What was revealed in the audit was startling:

$16,000,000,000,000.00 had been secretly given out to US banks and corporations and foreign banks everywhere from France to Scotland. From the period between December 2007 and June 2010, the Federal Reserve had secretly bailed out many of the world's banks, corporations, and governments. The Federal Reserve likes to refer to these secret bailouts as an all-inclusive loan program, but virtually none of the money has been returned and it was loaned out at 0% interest. Why the Federal Reserve had never been public about this or even informed the United States Congress about the $16 trillion dollar bailout is obvious - the American public would have been outraged to find out that the Federal Reserve bailed out foreign banks while Americans were struggling to find jobs.
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http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/secret-and-lies-of-the-bailout-20130104
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Right wing analysis of the trillions of bailouts
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/02.10/disaster.html

[MaggieD]

13. Thanks -- I will read up on it

I appreciate you taking the time to provide this information.

[MaggieD]

15. As I read this, I have a question...

Turns out I did know what you were referring too, kinda. I mistakenly thought you were referring to trillions that was not paid back.

I am aware of the discount window and quick turnaround or overnight loans. And I am a little perturbed that banks borrowed this money at such low interest rates, only for the purpose of reinvesting it at a higher rate (like treasury bonds) instead of increasing lending as was the intention.

But just to be clear, you're not putting the words "lending" in quotes because you don't really believe they are loans, right? It's not like we gave away $16 trillion.

[truedelphi]

18. Under the Autumn 2008 cover of Larry Summers and Paulson screaming about how the sky was falling,

The US government started in on an immedite program of "loaning" monies to the very firms on Wall Street who were stating again and again that theywere solvent, and that they were not like Lehman Brothers.

But as we "loaned" tens of billions of dollars, that money propped them up. This is quasi-legal at the very best, and probably totally totally illegal.

When you consider that Tim Geithner was at that time the very head of the New York Fed Reserve, and that it was his manipulations of the situation that allowed for Lehman to be tanked, while Lehman's competitors for the most part go on to succeed, and while Lil TImmy's friends at AIG and Goldman Sachs made out big time, sometimes those two firms just shuffle dmoney back and forth and forth and back, it is appalling that Obama went on to appoint lil Timmy to head the US Treasury. (But then, this illustrates how Obama is nothing more than a Corporate Spokesperson for Big Banking, Big Energy, including nuclear power, Big Pesticide, Big Military, Big Pharma and Big Insurance etc.)

Bernanke went on to loan and loan and loan.

And yes, some of this falls under the heading of discount window and turnaround stuff. But again experts claim that some 4.7 trillions of those dolalrs will not be repaid. (I am thinking off the top of my head, that William Black may be one of those with that number.) The "legit" media of course, only goes to say tht some 1.2 trillions of those dollars will not be repaid. (Such economic-concerned media outlets as Forbes and Bloomberg's)

A lot of this discussion relates to what the word "is" is. If some firm is given twenty billions of dollars as a loan, and they pay it back, but are immediately allowed a fifteen billion dollars of monies as an offset on their taxes, (a tax rebate, it would be called, if you or I had that amount coming) - did they really pay back 15 those fifteen billions of dollars? I mean, technically they did pay it back, as is it their fault if the bought and paid for government officials offer them a tax rebate?

When you consider that Wells Fargo bank accomplished the acquisiton of Wachovia without paying out one red cent of its own, through all the help it got from people like Geithner, then you see the sorry sorry state we are in.

[MaggieD]

19. The sky was falling

Unfortunately. I do think most of that money has been repaid, and what has not been will be. I don't think the fed will end up taking a loss.

Nevertheless, I do think the system is rigged.

[Thirties Child]

7. Don't blame me. I Voted Carter.

The best, and truest, bumper sticker I've ever seen.

[YvonneCa]

8. EXCELLENT post! Thank you...

... I agree completely.

[uponit7771]

14. +1

[logosoco]

16. I will be blaming bush for years to come.

He set this country WAY back and it will take so much time and effort just to get where we were when Clinton left office.

When my grandson was born in January of 2008, my daughter had a baby book that had a section to list "who was president when I was born" and I made her put bush's name and "worse president ever". Just in case I don't live long enough to tell my grandson myself!

[vankuria]

17. The Thousands of Disabled Vets

who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and will need to be taken care of for the rest of their lives. Those wars created a hole new generation of veterans that the government must provide healthcare to.

Also because of deregulation consumers were approved for housing loans which they could not afford and then misled by banks about refinancing options. Many people had to just "walk away", leaving the housing industry in a mess.