Hello,
I consider myself an independent voter that until recently, bordered on political apathy. Each time a politician speaks about what the headlines refer to as “the huge stimulus plan” and “the massive bailout plan”, he/she begins the discussion with a reference to the ‘…eight years of Bush’s failed economic policy…’ If the economic policy of the Bush years were honestly examined, we would find that six out of the eight years were fairly decent, 9/11 notwithstanding. The last two years of the Bush administration saw the souring of the economy caused by fraudulent and deceitful bank and Wall Street dealings, not a failure of policy. The oversight of the banking and financial sectors were the direct responsibility of congressional committees that did not do their job. Unfortunately, the people responsible for this oversight will never be held accountable for shirking their duties and the economic “disaster” that has resulted. Further, it seems that the people responsible will not experience the dire life style changes that the average citizen seems destined to due to illegal behavior and congressional incompetence. They will receive their substantial pensions, and live their lives out in comfort I’m sure.
We may argue that Bush’s foreign, education, policies were questionable. But, I don’t think that a fair and honest appraisal of Bush’s economic policies would show that the policies were the cause of the current economic failure – It was greedy people and crooks in the banking and financial industries along with the ineptness of the respective congressional oversight committees.
Ciao