"President Bush has been trying to reform Freddie and Fannie since 2001, and McCain since at least 2003. Which are the two GSE's that put us into the mortgage situation we're in today."

- they were trying to reform fannie and freddie because of an accounting scandal that favoured management bonuses...it had nothing to do with subprime loans...when the subprime crisis broke, fannie and freddie combined had only 18% of the total subprime loans...subprime loans increased from 5% to 21% of the total mortgage loans during the bush administration



"President Bush never signed into policy to make mortgages so easy to get."

- here's president bush signing the american dream downpayment act in 2003...the act was targetted at first time homebuyers with 'impaired credit':
President Bush Signs American Dream Downpayment Act of 2003

here is george bush explaining how he was forcing fannie and freddie to issue $440 billion in mortgages to low income families:
Fact Sheet: President Bush Calls for Expanding Opportunities to Homeownership




"As far as our national debt; part of that can be attributed to the war, part of that can be attributed to the economic situation we're in right now, and part of that can be put onto the American people for being irresponsible consumers."

- that national debt increased by $4.6 trillion during the bush administration (so far)...the iraq war cost less than $600 billion so that doesn't explain much...the US economy expanded significantly in the middle of the bush administration, thanks to his mortgage ponzi scheme, and the national debt was $9.6 trillion before the subprime crisis hit...back in 2002, george bush personally assured americans that the national debt would be paid down to $3 trillion, and the US federal budget would have an annual $500 billion surplus...after all that, wouldn't you blame george bush?

here's george bush promising the pay the national debt down to $3 trillion by 2011, reducing the debt to GDP ratio to 7%:
A Blueprint For New Beginnings -- 1. Pay Down the Federal Debt



"I am no fan of Bush myself but you seem eager in ALL YOUR POSTS, to point blame at this man."

- bush is the man in charge, with dangerous policies, signing dangerous legislation that led to this mess, and submitting budgets with dangerous deficits...i see you posted a link blaming clinton...clinton hasn't been around for 8 years and you're defending the guy who is actually in power when this crisis happened...bush is going to get away with it!



"You give Bush too much credit if you think he was able to do all this. "

- and your link gives clinton way too much more credit for causing the mortgage meltdown...i never said that bush did ALL this...the federal reserve helped by reducing rates to 1%...and the banks are most responsible for issuing all those bum mortgages...the government is supposed to protect the public interest, and george bush is the head of the government...he not only failed to protect the public interest, but he actively undermined the public interest with his spending and tax cuts and unsustainable homeowner policies
maladroit Reviewed by maladroit on . national debt guessing game how much has the national debt changed over the past year? how about just the past three weeks? no peeking: make a wild guess off the top of your head **HINT** it went up Rating: 5