Top Ten Reasons Bush is NOT to Blame for America’s Economic Meltdown

10). “It was that major league a-hole, Dick Cheney, who absolutely, positively assured me “Deficits don’t matter.”” – G.W.B

9). “Wall Street got drunk, drove into a ditch, and totaled America’s economic engine. And for that, you blame the bartender? I don’t think so.” – Barbara Bush

8). “I think it’s fair to say that George Jr. is not responsible for anything.” -- George H.W. Bush on truth serum

7). “Bush is already responsible for the debacle in Iraq, Katrina, global warming, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo. Blaming him for the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression as well would seem to me to be too much for any one individual to bear.” – Dr. Phil

6). “We are in a crisis mode here, but it would be a mistake . . . and we can’t blink on this . . . because we couldn’t see Russia from our backyard if we did . . . but it would a mistake to blame the current economic meltdown on either global warming or the Bush Doctrine.” -- Governor Sarah Palin

5). “Taxpayers will come out ahead on this fifty or sixty years from now on account of the fact that my administration led the way in burying the Death Tax.” -- Dubya

4). “Capitalism is nothing more than socialism for the rich. The current crisis is simply the inevitability of historical forces engaged in a dialectical process that seeks to reconcile opposing ideologies on a higher plane. President Bush is merely a cog in a predestined historical process through which tragedy and farce are synthesized” -- Groucho Marx

3). Bush has super-duper secret plan to wager $700 billion of bailout money in on-line poker competition against China, North Korea, and Iran. The president is absolutely 100% certain that he’ll win enough money to save the economy.

2). “Where there is crisis, there is opportunity.” – Chinese fortune cookie Bush got at the Beijing Olympics.

1). 53 million Americans voted for a bozo like Bush, a candidate who peddled his economic snake oil with slogans like, “It’s your money, you paid for it.” If you voted for our nincompoop-in chief, then I think it’s fair to say this joke is at your expense.

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It's Your Money, You Paid for It: How the Bush Administration Bankrupted America

Once upon a time -- eight years ago to be precise -- the Bush administration rudely proclaimed that the American economic and political model was the universal blueprint for all humankind. Today, the Bush administration is standing in the rubble of its own hubris.

The meltdown of America’s financial system is a seminal event. The era of America’s financial and geopolitical hegemony is coming to an end. The debacle in Iraq, the bungled federal response to Katrina, and now the virtual collapse of America’s economic order has exposed the moral emptiness that was at the core of the Republican Party’s governing philosophy.

The Bush administration has accomplished the impossible; it has turned a Superpower into Banana Republic. It has managed to reverse and undermine the nation’s economic fortunes by burying America under a mountain of debt. Trillions of dollars have been committed to Iraq -- and the now the looming Wall Street bailout – but the dividends from these “investments” are dubious indeed.

Imagine, for instance, if the United States has spent the trillions it is now spending to buy off Sunni insurgents, and buy out predatory financiers, had been invested in providing universal healthcare, shoring up our infrastructure, and developing alternative sources of energy. We might be well on the road to greater economic competitiveness and energy independence. Instead, we are stuck in a ditch of the Bush administration’s making.

We are mortgaging America’s future to pay for policies that at best simply mitigate the failures and misjudgments of the Bush administration. The Surge has succeeded in lowering violence in Iraq, but growing anarchy in Pakistan, where al-Qaeda has regrouped, is canceling out the increasing stability in Iraq. Put simply, Bush’s simplistic assumption that defeating al-Qaeda in Iraq would deflate the jihadists is nothing more than wishful thinking. Likewise, Bush’s certainty that changing the regime in Iraq would necessarily serve as a catalyst for transforming the Middle East for the better appears more quixotic than ever. In other words, Don Quixote seems like a realist in comparison to Bush.

Invading Iraq has not enhanced America’s strategic position anymore than Bush’s tax cuts enhanced America’s financial health. Indeed, in some sense U.S. troops are hostages in Iraq, and U.S. taxpayers are financing a $10 billion ransom every month to keep the country from exploding. After all, just think what will happen if we stop doling out $300 a month to each member of the Sons of Iraq. The former Sunni insurgents will once again be shooting at U.S troops, but this time with American supplied weaponry.

Bush’s free market fundamentalism has led to a dead end too. Supply side economics, deregulation, and faith that markets are all wise and self-correcting are ideas that now belong in the ash heap of history.

The United States is in the process of finding out what it means to be hostage to foreign lenders. Dick Cheney, who once said we’d be greeted as liberators in Iraq, also insisted that deficits don’t matter. They matter now, however, big time. After all, the federal government either has to borrow the money to finance the roughly trillion-dollar Wall Street bailout or it will have to raise taxes. Needless to say, given America’s already over extended state of indebtedness foreign creditors are certain to insist on higher rates of interest, which will certainly crimp economic growth. The declining strength of the dollar too, will increase the cost commodities like gas and food, thus we are likely facing a period of stagflation – slower economic growth and rising inflation.

Until now, the U.S. has had the luxury of denominating debt in dollars, which is another way of saying that so long as the dollar was the world’s reserve currency the costs of indebtedness were in some sense borne by creditors. With the dollar falling to a nine year low against the euro, however, the U.S. can no longer devalue its debt by simply printing more money.

All this means that average Americans are entering a period of wealth destruction where the value of their assets are eroded by inflation, the declining dollar, negative income growth, higher interest rates, higher state and municipal taxes, and cuts in government services. I can think of no better slogan to sum up this mess than the one Bush used to justify borrowing trillions to finance his tax cut scheme: “It’s your money, you paid for it.”

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Bush and the Power of Prayer

Three centuries ago, as colonists began displacing Native Indians across the continent, smallpox and other epidemics ravaged many indigenous tribes. Undoubtedly, the settlers in so far as they carried and spread infectious diseases, were at least partly to blame for what turned out to be biological genocide. Tragically, by and large the American Indians effected refused Western medical treatment because they believed that supernatural forces caused the illnesses they faced.

It is hard to blame the mistrust Native Americans had for the settlers. In retrospect, however, the triumph of superstitious beliefs over rational forms of explanation and medicine proved catastrophic. History tends to repeat itself, of course. And today large segments of fundamentalist Christians believe that the cataclysmic weather events associated with global warming are really God’s way of punishing the United States for losing its moral bearings, particularly when it comes abortion and gay marriage.

It is tempting to believe that we live in a just world and that a beneficent Deity metes out rewards and punishment to prod individuals (and even nations) in the right direction. History and experience, however, demonstrate that superstitious notions regarding divine interventions are a luxury the human species cannot afford. The Bush administration, in particular, should be Exhibit A when it comes to debunking the religiously inclined notion that a morally righteous leader has anything to do with national flourishing. For instance, the United States enjoyed eight years of peace and prosperity under Bill Clinton, an adulterer who favored abortion and gay marriage. But the United States is in a moral and financial freefall following eight years under the morally abstemious George W. Bush, a leader who championed the pro-life and sanctity of marriage causes dear to his Christian base.

The Bush administration has been characterized by prayer breakfasts, Bible study groups, and an unprecedented merging of faith and public policy. The results, of course, speak for themselves: disastrous decision making, repeated misjudgments, and a general increase in bureaucratic incompetence throughout the government. Put simply, substituting prayer for rational-decision making procedures is a recipe for failure.

To paraphrase Nikos Kazantzakis, the author of Zorba the Greek, praying to God is like knocking on the door of a deaf man. President John F. Kennedy, I believe, took the most mature attitude to problem-solving when he said that the greatest challenges mankind faces have been created by us, therefore they will have to be solved by us. In this respect, religious assumptions concerning the Will of Providence amount to metaphysical baggage that hinder our ability to navigate challenges like global warming, the credit crisis, nuclear proliferation, and the war on terrorism.

It is no secret that George W. Bush relies on his gut instinct to make decisions. He has also said that he derives great comfort from the fact that millions of Americans are praying for him. No doubt, his many religiously inclined followers hoped and believed that God would illumine the president’s conscience and thinking. The fruits of Bush’s presidency – Abu Ghraib, the bungled handling of Katrina, the disastrously managed war in Iraq, and the economic meltdown on Bush’s watch – all belie the notion that God and politics mix.

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Panic in the Street -- The Wall Street Meltdown

Wall Street is melting faster than the polar icecaps. Savings and retirement accounts are evaporating faster than an ice cube in a microwave. America’s wealth is being siphoned off quicker than a keg of beer at a frat house. George W. Bush’s party is almost over, but the national hangover is just beginning.

As George Soros observed, we are entering one of the intensive periods of wealth destruction since the Great Depression. The value of the dollar is plummeting, inflation is rising, economic growth is stagnating, unemployment is increasing, and the stock market is tumbling.

History will probably blame all this on George W. Bush, but in fairness he’s only part of the problem. Besides, Forty-three will have to shoulder responsibility for the Iraq debacle, the bungled response to Katrina, the torture and abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, the failure to recognize and respond to the challenge of global warming, and the unraveling of the Republican Party. There’s only so much blame one person can handle.

Still, the unfolding financial catastrophe represents the complete discrediting of the economic philosophy of conservative Republicans like Bush. Supply side economics (the notion that tax cuts are self-financing) and Laissez-faire economics (the idea that markets are self-regulating and self-correcting) are as officially defunct as Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Lehman Brothers.

Everyone likes tax cuts and rebate checks. But if you cut taxes and fail to cut spending you increase the deficit, which amounts to a tax increase on future generations. Rebate checks are nice too, but there are only two ways the government can afford to send you money: 1) borrow or 2) raise taxes. If you think about it, George W. Bush really made sense when he justified his tax cut plan by saying, “It’s your money, you paid for it.”

George W. Bush has presided over the weakest economic and jobs growth rates in decades. To put things in perspective, Bill Clinton presided over an economy that created over 20 million new jobs while George Bush’s administration as presided over just 5 million jobs created. Of course, Clinton’s exceptional jobs creation numbers were achieved while he raised taxes and balanced the budget. Bush, on the other hand, inherited a budget surplus and managed to turn it into the largest deficit in history.

Thanks to the Bush administration, America now owes a trillion or two (or three) to pay for the Iraq War. America is on the hook for a couple of trillion from assuming the obligations of Fannie May and Freddie Mac. And let’s not forget the expense of Bush’s Medicare package, a corporate welfare boondoggle that should cost taxpayers another trillion or two. Hey, a trillion here and a trillion there. Pretty soon we’re talking about real money.

The myth of the free markets has obscured a predatory form of crony-capitalism where government insiders steer corporate benefactors to the public trough. Enron was just the canary in the coalmine. George W. Bush has cannibalized America with his socialism for the rich policies.

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Sarah Palin -- Not Ready for Primetime

The only difference between Sarah Palin and George W. Bush is lipstick. Actually, that’s not entirely fair to the president, since he presumably knows what the Bush Doctrine is. In fairness to Sarah Plain, however, there have been five Bush Doctrines: 1) America’s right to engage in preventive war, 2) America’s right to act unilaterally, 3) America’s right to establish a Pax Americana, and 4) America’s duty to spread liberty across the Middle East. Ok, off the top of my head I can only name four out of the five Bush Doctrines, but then I’m not running for Vice-President. However, some of my friends think I should run for high office, especially since I can see the Russian coastline from my backyard, which is pretty impressive since I live in Connecticut.

Watching Sarah Palin’s interview with ABC’s Charlie Gibson left me with the feeling that America has long since slipped into a Twilight Zone where the lunatics will be running the asylum for the duration. Palin, of course, showed plenty of grit and gumption in her one-on-one, but no gravitas. She’s clearly smart, but her vacuity on foreign affairs was disconcerting to say the least. As David Brooks of the NYT noted, Palin has tendency to use decisiveness to cover up for her lack of knowledge and experience. This is precisely the same defect that has gotten the current occupant of the Oval Office into so much trouble.

Palin shares another character trait with the much reviled and discredited Bush; both have displayed a glib and even cavalier attitude towards war. One can debate whether including the Ukraine and Georgia in NATO makes strategic sense for the United States, but it was unsettling to see the ease with which Plain accepted and espoused logic that could commit the U.S. to war with Russia. She also seemed unperturbed by the thought that Israel might take unilateral against Iran without consulting the United States, action which would have profound implications for America’s foreign policy and national security.

Palin is clearly not ready for primetime. Just a few weeks ago McCain was lambasting Obama as a celebrity, but the geriatric Senator has clearly pinned his presidential hopes to a political glamour queen. The country is facing a financial meltdown – both on Main Street and Wall Street – severe weather patterns associated with climate change, two protracted and indecisive wars, and the prospect that terror groups like al-Qaeda will acquire WMD. But it seems that throwing in a few cosmetic changes is all that it will take to convince tens of millions of citizens to vote for Bush redux.

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