Study proves it: Bush NOT TO BLAME for economic crash

A new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research proves that Pres. Obama's and the Democrat's policy of "Blaming Bush" for the last 5 years is complete BS!!
The study lays most of the blame for the economic collapse of 2007-08 on the crash of the housing market, which occurred primarily due to Democratic policies.
Is this REALLY a surprise??

"A new study from the widely respected National Bureau of Economic Research released this week has confirmed beyond question that the left's race-baiting attacks on the housing market (the Community Reinvestment Act--enacted under Carter, made shockingly more aggressive under Clinton) is directly responsible for imploding the housing market and destroying the economy."

Let's review:
-President Bush went to Congress repeatedly for years warning them that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were going to destroy the economy (17 times in 2008 alone). Democrats continuously ignored him, shut down his proposals along party lines and continued raiding the institutions for campaign contributions on their way down.

-John McCain (you remember the guy who ran against Pres. Obama) also co-sponsored urgently critical reforms that would have prevented the housing market collapse, but Democrats shut that down as well, along party lines, and even openly ridiculed anyone who suggested reforms were necessary...to protect their taxpayer-funded campaign contributions as the economy raced uncontrollably toward the cliff.

-No one was making bad loans to unqualified people until Democrats came along and threatened to drag banks into court and have them fined and branded as racists if they didn't go along with the left's Affirmative Action lending policies...all while federally
insuring their losses. Even the New York Times warned in the late 1990s that Democrats continuing to force banks into lowering their lending standards would lead to this exact catastrophe.


National Bureau of Economic Research

Consider your source. The blurb about the writer:


"Robert Moon is an award-winning researcher, published author, and former Regional Coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots. He has organized for conservative causes and candidates for the last fifteen years, is a former Precinct Committeeman and is currently stationed overseas."

Next.

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Funding

Between 1985 and 2001, the National Bureau of Economic Research [sic] received $9,963,301 in 73 grants from only four SELF-AVOWEDLY CONSERVATIVE foundations:

John M. Olin Foundation, Inc.
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
Scaife Foundations (Sarah Mellon Scaife)
Smith Richardson Foundation




SOURCE WATCH: National Bureau of Economic Research

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Updated On: 2/10/13 at 05:01 PM

Uh. Do you deny that those foundations are conservative? Simple research shows that they are. Why does it have to be specifically mentioned in that link to be true?

And are you seriously mocking PalJoey for using capital letters to highlight a word? Your posts read like Harry Potter post-puberty with all the capslock.

Again, you ruin this board. Find another hobby. Maybe a positive one this time.

SourceWatch (formerly Disinfopedia) is a collaborative online wiki operated by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), an American progressive organization.

SourceWatch is a propaganda site funded by an extreme left-wing, anti-capitalist and anti-corporate organization, the Center for Media and Democracy. Just like the untrustworthy Wikipedia the content can be written and edited by ordinary web users. Users who all conveniently share an extreme left-wing bias. SourceWatch is frequently cited by those seeking to smear individuals and organizations who do not share their extreme left-wing bias since they cannot find any legitimate criticisms from respected news sources.

They are, indeed, conservative foundations.

Self-avowedly conservative.

SO your study is, by definition, flawed and biased.

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Updated On: 2/10/13 at 08:05 PM

Why are you so embarrassed that the foundations are conservative?

They're certainly not embarrassed.

Why are you?

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Lots of folks have their fingerprints on the financial collapse, so there is plenty of blame to go around. Deregulation had been occurring for decades, and neither party nor any administration did anything to put the guard rails back onto our economy. That said, the GOP response to any crisis is to cut taxes, cut social spending, and cut regulations, and that approach only made matters worse. Our government needed to intervene, and the intervention should have been significantly grander than Obama's stimulus.

And for the record, while we still have a deficit, it has been DECREASING during Obama's presidency.

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Updated On: 2/12/13 at 01:53 PM

Republicans try to warn the Congress that Freddy and Fanny are unstable. Democrats shrug it off; "There is NO CRISIS!"


DemocratsL Freddy and Fanny are doing FINE

From the New York Times in September 30, 1999:

“Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits. . . ."

he LA Times writes on May 31, 1999 that:

"It’s one of the hidden success stories of the Clinton era. In the great housing boom of the 1990s, black and Latino homeownership has surged to the highest level ever recorded. The number of African Americans owning their own home is now increasing nearly three times as fast as the number of whites; the number of Latino homeowners is growing nearly five times as fast as that of whites…."

Another article in the New York TImes from September 11, 2003:

"The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago. . . ." This reform – and another in 2005/06 – were blocked by Democrats who threatened to filibuster the bill in the Senate.
”The regulator has not only been outmanned, it has been outlobbied,” said Representative Richard H. Baker, the Louisiana Republican who has proposed legislation similar to the administration proposal and who leads a subcommittee that oversees the companies. ”Being underfunded does not explain how a glowing report of Freddie’s operations was released only hours before the managerial upheaval that followed. This is not world-class regulatory work.

Significant details must still be worked out before Congress can approve a bill. Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.

”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.” "



Bush and the Republicans were NOT the driving force behind the subprime mortgage meltdown and the financial crisis. President Bush promoted LEGITIMATE homeownership, but he also caved in to the Democrats' racial demagoguery and "went along" with their program to some extent. (Had he not, the accusations of racism would have been non-stop). However, when Bush and the Republican Congress tried to actually head off the subprime mortgage crisis before it was too late, the Democrats opposed them fiercely, as is made clear with the video I posted above.
When the Republicans attempted to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2005, for example, the Democrats called them racists, as usual, and thwarted their efforts by filibustering with only 45 votes in the Senate.

History proves that Pres. Bush merely continued a trend that was begun and set into motion by Democrats decades earlier. He’s not blameless in this mess, but he’s clearly not the scapegoat, either.

Democrats have been repeatedly and very publicly blaming Republicans for their determination to deregulate. But that is a lie. Republicans – specifically including Bush and McCain – DID try to regulate. And it was Democrats who blocked them. That is a fact. It is on full view in the video above and is mentioned in the NY Times article.

When Nancy Pelosi uttered in her incredibly irresponsible speech prior to the House vote on the bailout package, she said it was “failed Bush policies” that created this disaster. If you are going to blame one party, you need to blame the Democrats.
It’s not that Bush and the Republicans should be absolved. They shouldn’t. But they DID try to do something that would have prevented this, and Dems in lock-step prevented them from doing it. Republican's biggest failure was not standing up to Democrats.
Bush/McCain Warn about Fanny/Freddy: THE TIMELINE