To the editor:
As I listen to the news prognosticators try to explain why we are in this financial mess, I do not hear the base line fact that the United States of America is so far in debt that for the first time in our history we are borrowing from foreign countries such as China. Bush and Republicans like Brownback and Roberts have destroyed the notion that America was the focal point of capitalism, the world leader of the free enterprise system. They are now saying the blame belongs to the Republicans and Democrats.
Eight years ago we had a surplus; today we are wallowing in debt. Eight years ago, Bush and his faithful followers eliminated the economic sanctions that safeguarded the average citizen from the corporate greed that eventually destroyed the housing market. When the Democrats tried to bring change two years ago, when they achieved a majority in the House and the Senate, the Republicans like Roberts, Brownback and McCain continued these destructive policies and would not allow good reform to go through. The president's veto power was sustained. Yes, Bush is at fault, and so are all those who backed him when they knew better.
I cannot imagine the pain we are going to go through over the next few years. I do know that if we do dig out of this mess we must elect representatives who will look out for the people and not the party.
E. Kent Hayes,
Lawrence
Comments
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merrill (anonymous) says…
Our local repubs think like D.C. repubs no question about it. Repubs are not the answer!. There are many other reasons not to put republicans in office ever again. Republican presidents have some long history of big time crime taking place within their administrations. How do voters forget so easily? Clintons love affair was not big time crime. Crime against Vets:http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/9559CRIME: What party is in the white house that went around the nation lying to citizens about Social Security? Republicans!http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2005/0505orr.htmlWhat party is in the white house and has been observing the sub prime loan scandals, pretending nothing was wrong? RepublicansCRIME: Who has history with financial institutions going south such as the savings and loan scandal? Republicans! http://rationalrevolution0.tripod.com... Who hosted the Iran Contra secret illegal sale of weapons? Republicans!http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/publications/irancontra/irancon.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/peopleevents/pande08.htmlCRIME: Who brought the nation Iran Contra number 2? Republicans!http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/5/iran_contra_20_how_the_bushCRIME: Which party illegally spied on the democrats to win an election? Republicans! Watergate!http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/watergate/index.htmlCRIME: Which party held secret energy meetings and refused our elected officials its' content and who attended? GW Bush and the republicans!CRIME: Which party lied to congress and the world,went against military advice and created the worst strategic blunder in the history of the USA aka Iraq War? Republican Party!Which party has held secret oil deals with Saudi Arabia?Republicans!http://www.democracynow.org/2004/4/20/did_bush_cut_secret_oil_dealCRIME: Secret Oil deals for Iraq Oil- Republicans!http://www.pubrecord.org/nationworld/262.html?task=viewcrime against the economy: Which party introduced voodoo economics into our system? aka Reaganomics. Republicans!Who still practices Voodoo economics? GW Bush and the republican party!The USA has fewer jobs for taxpayers today as a result of a Texas republican governor exercising his executive decision making powers as president of the usa.crime against democracy : pnac's policy document, "Rebuilding America's Defences," openly advocates for total global military domination. Many PNAC members hold highest-level positions in the George W. Bush administration. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?...
bisky1 (anonymous) says…
ever heard of acorn, barney frank, bill clinton, sub prime mortgages being pushed by the democrats, etc. etc.more ignoance or lies coming the liberal left, a community of hate.
jason2007 (anonymous) says…
Tom Shewmon, you got that right.What the LTE writer forgets to mention is that the oversight committees responsible for keeping Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac in check and regulating the root cause of this mess was headed by Democrats. Bush may take the blame because he's at the top. First rule in leadership: It's always your fault. Yet we cannot blindly accuse one person or their cohorts for this particular problem. The blame is wide and taints both parties.Now, using the first rule of leadership described above, why isn't that applied to the leaders of the oversight committees as well? Answer: Partisan hacks like Hayes believe their party does no wrong which is a big problem in this country today.
markoo (anonymous) says…
jason2007 says - "What the LTE writer forgets to mention is that the oversight committees responsible for keeping Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac in check and regulating the root cause of this mess was headed by Democrats."Admittedly this area is not a strength for me, but a quick Google on the matter came up with this:http://mediamatters.org/items/200810070033?f=s_searchhttp://mediamatters.org/items/200810010014?f=s_searchAnd this was interesting too:But most important, undermining Boortz's baseless charge are actions Frank has taken over the years to strengthen oversight of Fannie and Freddie. In the early 1990s, when Democrats held the majority in Congress before the Republican takeover in 1995, Frank supported bills to increase regulation of Fannie Mae and create a government regulatory agency that would supervise and have authority over some aspects of the company in 1991 and 1992. Moses was employed by Fannie Mae at that time. Moreover, in 2005, when Frank was the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, he worked with committee chairman Rep. Michael Oxley (R-OH) on the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2005, which would have established the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to oversee the activities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. After voting for the bill in committee, Frank voted against final passage of the bill on the House floor, stating that he was doing so because an amendment to the bill on the House floor imposed restrictions on the kinds of nonprofit organizations that could receive funding under the bill. In early 2007, as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Frank sponsored H.R. 1427, a bill to create the FHFA, granting that agency "general supervisory and regulatory authority over" Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and directing it to reform the two companies' business practices and regulate their exposure to credit and market risk. The FHFA was eventually created after Congress incorporated provisions that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said were "similar" to those of H.R. 1427 into the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which the president signed into law on July 30.http://mediamatters.org/items/200810100004?f=s_searchThat quote has links in it for support. I guess what strikes me as odd is this period of time since Bush was in office, the majority in Congress for almost 6 of that 8 years were the Republicans, yet we're to believe it's the fault of the Democrats? Kinda strange.
jason2007 (anonymous) says…
@Markoo: I'll try again and this time I'll speak more slowly so that fanatical defenders of the liberal ideology can understand...BOTH sides are to blame. It is not only convenient to blame one party for this mess, it's absolutely 100% backwards.You bring up Barney Frank so he's fair game now. It has been documented that Frank was involved in a relationship with a high-ranking executive at Fannie Mae during the time that he was on the oversight committee. Is that not a conflict of interest above the level of a lobbyist giving special perks to key members of congress on behalf of their industry?You can keep the MediaMatters links...those were originally funded by the HillaryClinton campaign so it's about as unbiased as DailyKos or the HuffingtonPost.
Confrontation (anonymous) says…
Don't forget kiddies: You can't spell Palin without Pain.
markoo (anonymous) says…
@jason2007:"I'll try again and this time I'll speak more slowly so that fanatical defenders of the liberal ideology can understand:"Boy this site sure has turned quite nasty lately. I assume such trite quips are not just from Conservatives only?"BOTH sides are to blame. It is not only convenient to blame one party for this mess, it's absolutely 100% backwards."Fair enough, and I agree that both parties had a bit of a hand in the mess. The question is, however, a matter of degree, IMO, and it would appear to me that the party that pushed de-regulation the hardest is likely the culprit in general, though I'm sure there were those on the Left that played along as well."You bring up Barney Frank so he's fair game now. It has been documented that Frank was involved in a relationship with a high-ranking executive at Fannie Mae during the time that he was on the oversight committee. Is that not a conflict of interest above the level of a lobbyist giving special perks to key members of congress on behalf of their industry?"First I would like you to give me a link to support your assertion. Secondly, if such a relationship exists, I would like you to demonstrate how that influenced any decisions he may have made towards Fannie/Freddie. You seemed to be hard pressed to read my link, but the paragraph I cited appears to demonstrate that Frank was not terribly influenced at all, and actually pushed towards stricter regulation on Fannie/Freddie."You can keep the MediaMatters links:those were originally funded by the HillaryClinton campaign so it's about as unbiased as DailyKos or the HuffingtonPost."It's also worth noting that the founder of MediaMatters was once a far Right Conservative who was devoted to sliming the Clinton's back in the 90's. That's neither here nor there really, and I prefer giving the courtesy of reading the content and argument presented by someone first, rather than make an ad hominem attack like you just did and then demonstrate a mild case of ignorance in the process.