I originally posted this in September 2010. I want to add this quick addition. I do not blame our current situation entirely on the Democrats. Our current condition results from action of the folks in both parties. To blame this on any one side is simply a uni-lateral view and results more from partisan thinking than honest observation. I believe that, at the core, the real complicated divisions of political view – right wing, left wing, democrat, liberal, conservative are really simpler than that. Political philosophy divides, really, into two main camps – those who want people to be controlled externally and those who have no such desire. And to control others, promises are made in exchange for control. Unfortunately in any society where money has become fiat in nature (elastic and expandable by political action and not by natural economics) then the promises can be funded with slight of hand. True economic principles continue to operate below the surface, but it remains hidden in a sort of la-la land. Most of our politicians have used this infinite credit card to fund their own grabs for power. They have achieved it in this country as the population falls under greater and greater control. The economy has been aberrated beyond recognition – by the unfunded mandates of war, entitlement and of incalculable harm done when true economic value is ignored. And thus we are as we are. The manifestations are complex but the real root is rather simple. And few have had the guts to stand up to it – and as of this writing the national debt ceiling will be raised above 14 trillion. If you took a 60 mile by 60 mile square and divided it into little square inch boxes, it would take about 14 trillion of those boxes to fill the 60 mile square. Just imagine.
I will say that the Republican Party TENDS to be more aligned with Classical Liberalism than the Democrats. But that said of their possible intent, actions speak louder than words – and many Republican actions have differed little from the Democrats.
So I won’t change my post. The Bush wins, mentioned below, were, perhaps, smoke and mirrors. Neither the D’s or the R’s can be fully blamed. The blame falls on ALL of us. We who have allowed ourselves to become ignorant, to become infatuated with media crap, who have accepted the handouts, who have voted in these jerks – and the jerks themselves. Ken Risley 31 July 2011
The day the Democrats took over control of Congress was not January 22nd 2009, but two years earlier on January 3rd 2007. They took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, at the start of the 110th Congress. The Democratic Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995. This is when Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House (2nd in line for the Presidency), and Harry Reid became Majority Leader of the Senate.
For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is “Bush’s Fault”, think about this:
At the time (January 3rd, 2007):
The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
George Bush’s Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB CREATION!
Remember the day…
January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dod took over the Senate Banking Committee.
The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?
BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!
Thank Congress for taking us from 13,000 DOW, 3.5 GDP and 4.6% Unemployment to this CRISIS by dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fiasco’s!
(BTW: Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie & Freddie – starting in 2001, because it was financially risky for the U.S. economy, but no one was listening).
And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac?
OBAMA.
And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie???
OBAMA and the Democratic Congress.
So when someone tries to blame Bush…
REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007…. THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!” Bush may have been in the car, but the Democrats were in charge of the gas pedal and steering wheel – they were driving. Set the record straight on Bush!
So, as you listen to all the commercials and media from the Democrats who are now distancing themselves from their voting record and their party, remember how they didn’t listen to you when you said you didn’t want all the bailouts, you didn’t want the health care bill, you didn’t want cap and trade, you didn’t want them to continue spending money we don’t have.
Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democratic Party.
In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.
For 2009 though, Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the 2009 budget.
And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete 2009. Let’s remember what the deficits looked like during that period:
If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets.
If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself.
In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is “I inherited a deficit that I voted for,
And then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th.”
There is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on!
“The problems we face today exist because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.”
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
You are so right! I have already voted “accordingly” No democrats on MY ballot. I voted for GWB both terms! Both houses were controlled by the dems three years before his second term was over which means he was “in the car but not at the drivers seat!” Very good analogy because that’s exactly what happened! I was sick and slightly depressed when that happened because I knew what we were in for but I never thought that Obama would win although when you have organizations such as acorn bussing people into places like Columbus, Ohio for a temporary change of address, “just long enough to vote democrat” then go back home after the election it’s pretty obvious what kind of results they were trying to get! What I wonder now is if we will ever be able to get things to turn back the other way again! Things were getting better but I also believe that these people are trying to break our economy so that they can make the actual change that they’re trying to make. They know that we the people won’t let them so they’re trying to force it but I don’t believe that they’ll be able to do it! They’ve caused quite a bit of damage though and they did it in such a short time and they’re still in power! I’m still shaking my head a lot over how their propoganda fooled so many! Nuff said? Nuff said!
Great information! I am a conservative trying to muddle through much “stuff” that’s been posted on many blogs. I would like to know the initial source regarding the facts on your post before I pass them on. Thanks.
The DOW only reached 12,474 on January 3rd. It did not reach 12,621 until January 31st.
Also, after Dems took control the DOW surpassed 14,000 on July 19, 2007
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Jones_Industrial_Average
The BEA credited the 4th quarter GDP increase in growth to “personal consumption, higher exports and higher government spending. Imports were lower, which also helped the growth rate. This can be attributed to lower oil prices”.
Sources: http://useconomy.about.com/b/2007/01/31/us-economy-growth-rate-up-35-in-q4-2006.htm
and
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html
HOWEVER, the BEA revised their initial findings to only 2.2 % growth. 3.5 was the projected growth.
Source: http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/2007/gdp406p.htm
The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that unemployment was rate was at 4.4% at the end of 2006(i.e. beginning of 2007). It also highlights that unemployment rose, consistently, from 2003 until 2007 when it started to level out.
Source: http://www.bls.gov/ces/ceshilightsarch.htm (2007)
Not sure how, with the above factual information, you get this notion that GWB had growth for 52 weeks…unless you mean from 2001-2002 when, after (and due to) the September 11th attacks, very few people lost their jobs.
I look forward to your reply.
Cheers
David Wasman
David – Sorry for my late response. I’ve been remiss in keeping up with this site. It is more a hobby with me. I will look over what you said. You seem to have very well considered comments. Interesting thing about summaries, one can find just about any point of view supported by the “facts”. A greater truth is, in my opinion, that the problems facing our country,world and economy surpass the pettiness of Democrats and Republicans. The real sources of suppression supersede the political parties. Ken
I’ve showcased your article in my blog and facebook page. I hope you don’t mind. a friend of mine captured part of your commentary on his facebook page, and I asked him about posting it to my blog, he said it wasn’t his. So, I googled your comments and found you, If it’s not ok, I’ll remove my post, but people need to see that they can’t just go from day to day in a haze and allow themselves to aimlessly end up in the polls with no information about who they’re going to vote for or the issues. There needs to be more awareness that “We, the people”, are the one who are going to have to make the changes we’re standing around waiting to have happen. Thank you for this and I’m really glad to know you’re here, I’ll be around.
~Connie Arthur
Hillrose, Colorado
Connie. No problem. Hope you will reference my website. It changes often.
Ken, your comments above were recently used against me to argue the point that it was Democrats that made a mess of the current economic situation. No attribution was given. I found your page here and I find it interesting that a gizzillion other websites that copy your comments verbatim never ever mention the source. As a seeker of truth, I find this irritating as I don’t know the basis for the allegations given and where it came from. As an IP lawyer, I find this practice inconsiderate and unlawful under copyright law. Although I disagree with your post, I wondered how you felt that your comments are used so prevalently without giving credit to the original author. I also wonder if you ever responded to David Wasman’s comments. Thanks.
WWJ. If you’ll note, at the top of my article (which was an addition made after I wrote the original) I clarified that I do NOT consider the economic collapse of recent to be the fault of the Democrats alone. Also, I never did verify the specific points of David W.’s comments. In recent years I have developed a new policy to check on broad “facts” that come across my plate before publishing. I recently got something about Executive Orders that is circulating around the net. It was completely false and misleading and I wrote the person passing it around warning her of the ill-effects of such activities. I’ll leave this post as is, written a couple of years ago, but acknowledge that each of us should take responsibility in what we say to the extent that we can. Thanks for commenting. BTW, I consider still Obama and many top democrats to be very dangerous to the well-being of this country.
I’ve re-read this article several times. It hits the nail on the head with what’s wrong with this country without being overly complex so that most individuals can understand. The problem is that most people, Republican or Democrat just can’t seem to understand that neither party is looking out for us or even remotely concerned about following the Constitution. I think we will continue down this path of over spending until we go over the edge. At the time this country will be up for grabs. Either we will take back the government which is supposed to be by the people or we simply become another socialist state where we accept whatever comes out of our leaders mouths because we’re too complacent to give a damn. Very dark days ahead.
Ralph – Thanks for your thoughts. Regarding “dark days”. Let me suggest that you stop watching the news. I know it is a bit sacrilegious to say that :-). But you would be amazed what it can do for your outlook. I , and MANY friends, disconnected from all standard news outlets, including talk radio and any type of “talking heads”. I did a thorough evaluation (I’ll write an article when I have time) and realize that the news that we are fed has NO value. What we need to know we can get by other means. What one discovers is that the sun still rises, the tulips bloom and that it ain’t so bad. The insanity at the top of our country will play out. Meantime we create our own economies, our own universes and our own islands of sanity. We increase our spheres of influence and pretty soon we are all joined up. …………Hey – have you seen what Iceland is doing?
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