Quote Originally Posted by flyingimam
my friend, we must be fair... its not like its all Bush's fault despite how bad this guy has performed in certain fields imo

just take a look @ this
United States public debt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

we have been doing this for over 50 years man, ITS OUR FAULT as well as our politicians fault who stayed silent and preferred the prosperity built on debt, my 2cents
I agree that the long-term situation is not ALL Bush's fault, but I do think he bears some significant responsibility.

What I am faulting him for and also faulting McCain for is this idea that they both have been pushing that nothing is wrong. They both have been saying the economy is fundamentally strong! It is not!

Have Paulson and Bernanke been telling Bush that the economy is fundamentally strong and then in one week make a complete reversal and decide we need a trillion dollars in order to avoid a Depression? I don't think that is true. I think that Bush has known that we are in serious trouble for a long time and has not wanted to say or do anything about it.

This is only my personal theory, but I think Bush was hoping we could push the collapse off a few more months and let the next guy clean it up. He wanted to go on saying everything was OK, and then if it all fell apart in January or sometime next year, maybe everyone would just blame the new President.

There is just absolutely no way that these economic experts in the Treasury and the Federal Reserve were completely unaware of fundamental economic problems that were very serious dangers for our economy for some time and just figured it out last week. That is impossible. If it is true, then they are incompetent.

Or perhaps it is the opposite. Maybe the economy really is strong and this trillion dollars is simply being looted from us for no good reason. Maybe the bailout is not really necessary and it is just a big money grab?