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EDITOR:
This letter is in response to the letter writers who blame the President for our economic troubles. I believe you should study your history before you blame President Obama for our economic problems. The high unemployment, low tax income, home ownership problems, increase in entitlement payments and other issues dealing with our economy were all caused by the depression of 2007 and 2008 and by mismanagement from the Bush administration.
In 2007 there was a home buying slowdown. Deregulated banks and mortgage companies had been making risky loans and began to default. They went the oval office and asked President Bush to bail them out. The Toxic Asset Relief Program was signed into law in the fall of 2008 before Obama took office. The meltdown caused the depression of 2008. Economists agree that it may take 10 years or more for the economy to recover. The Bush era bailout cost the taxpayers $800 billion dollars. Instead of paying for it by raising taxes or cutting programs, the money was borrowed by selling treasury bonds, mostly to the Chinese.
In 2001 we got into a war with Afghanistan that cost the taxpayers over $1 trillion and it isn’t over yet. Instead of raising taxes or cutting programs to pay it, Bush sold treasury bonds, mostly to the Chinese.
In 2003 Bush started a war with Iraq (because of “mistaken” information) that has cost us over 4,000 lives, 35,000 wounded and another $1 trillion of taxpayer money. Instead of paying for it by raising taxes or cutting programs he borowed the money, by selling treasury bonds, mostly to the Chinese.
President Bush also engineered another entitlement program — the drug benefit program. Again, not paying for it by payroll deduction (as is the case with Social Security and Medicare) or by raising taxes or cutting programs, but by selling treasury bonds, mostly to the Chinese. He also cut taxes (so-called Bush tax cuts) but again, did not fund it by cutting programs. He borrowed the money, mostly from the Chinese.
His father President George H.W. Bush ran on a platform of “Read my lips…” but paid for the Gulf War to liberate Kuwait by raising taxes. That was the correct thing to do.
Now, President Obama wants to create jobs by improving our national infrastructure. He wants to pay for it by rescinding the Bush tax cuts for the rich. The House refuses to fund the job creation bill. Apparently, the House Republicans would rather be Red than right. Now, Mr. Romney wants to cut capital gains taxes and he says he is going to pay for it by cutting programs. If you believe that you believe in the Easter bunny.
Our huge deficit was caused by the depression and funding wars, banks and entitlements with borrowed money. And you have the chutzpah to blame our economic problems on Obama.
HARRY ZELINKA
Diamond Springs
R.J., I’m sorry but it looks like he has you. I knew all the above, but too old and tired to write it — Mr. Zelinka does an excellent job. You say that President Obama blames a lot of it (or all of it) on Bush. There’s a reason for that as Bush is responsible and the Party of NO has time after time blocked President Obama in trying to right the ship. Bush left a horrible mess that will impact us for 10-20-30 years. Thank you George.
Well, if Obama knew all the ‘terrible things’ President Bush had caused, and how ‘terrible the economy was, etc, etc, etc, then he shouldn’t have said that if he didn’t turn things around during his first 4 years, that he should only be a one term President. On that one item, I completely agree with him – He not only didn’t improve things, he made everything so much worse.
Yeah, too bad we couldn’t just use our magic wand to fix the crap pile Bush left us. Doesn’t matter who is in office, the Republicans would have some excuse for why they didn’t (or couldn’t) fix it. They would say they didn’t have enough time if it was a Republican president. I say it has not been enough time for Obama. And for the record, I don’t believe anything that the Mitthead says!
Darrin, you say not enough time for Obama? Ha!I would say he doesn’t have enough tax payer money left. His arrogance, poor decisions and lack of experience have divided this country. He has to go!
There’s not enough taxpayer money because Bush/Cheney spent it all on their illegal wars and tax cuts for the rich. They divided this country well before Obama got into office. 4 years is not enough time to clean up their mess especially with congress blocking everything he tries to do no matter if it is better for the country or not.
Bush spent the USA into oblivion. Obama furthered the cause with QE1, QE2, and QE3. The USA’s credit rating was recently downgraded to A-. Many prominent economists are predicting world wide financial ruin. The value of the dollar and the stock market are facing potential collapse followed by hyper inflation. Be stocking up on food and survival items.
Mr. Zelinka, what good does it do to point fingers? Does it solve our fiscal problems? As I recall Bush’s two wars were approved by Congress while Libya was not. As I recall Sen. Obama voted for TARP then used the money that was left over for his own objectives. As I recall Pres. Obama pushed for and got the stimulus package which was more pork than stimulus. Then he pushed for and got another huge expensive entitlement. There is more than enough blame for everyone. The seeds of the 2007 depression were sown during the Carter administration and fertilized by everyone involved including Congress, the FED, multiple presidents, banks, Fanny and Freddie, and finally by greedy and/or stupid individuals who signed for loans that were too good to be true, paid more for homes than was required for shelter, or who withdrew equity to live the high life. In other words WE are to blame. We turned out the Republicans in ’06 but the new Congress proved to be worse. We then changed the head man. How well has that worked? Last time around, we changed half of Congress. Still the message is not clear to those in Washington. Let’s all of us stop the blame game and start working for solutions to our problems. I invite you to provide concrete suggestions on how to solve the looming fiscal crisis.
Terry, Mr. Zelinka has to point fingers because Tea/Republicans have pointed fingers saying it’s all President Obama’s fault. What makes your finger pointing special?
James, I point the finger at all of us because it is closer to the truth than pointing at R’s, or D’s, or bankers, or any single group, or individual. We collectively ask too much of government and do not speak up when government oversteps their constitutional authority. We can continue to point fingers are we can have discussions on the merits of different solutions to the problems. So James, do you plan on being part of the problem or part of the solution?
Terry, you are so right. It seems like most of us have just been doing a tit for tat and it’s not getting us anywhere except for more division. I’m with you Terry. Due to your suggestion I’m going to try really hard to contain myself for the next week of so. So my first of many suggestions would be that we start being fiscally responsible and stop the friviolus and wasteful spending at the local, state and federal levels. If an elected official or politician wants to spend public monies then he or she had better have a good reason why, explain it throughly and be accountable for it. Can we all agree on that, irregardless of political beliefs?
Terry, I wish I had a solution. It’s a complex problem and not amenable to frivolous and rapid solutions. In my opinion, in the long view, we need to stop the austerity today option which will only drive our economy lower. I believe countries in Europe have seen the folly of that. A balanced approach over time with cuts in government spending and, hate to say it but increases in taxes will help balance the books. Of course, the devil is in the details — What to cut and how much to increase taxes? Therein lies the problem and food for continuing debate.
Social programs or national defense? From my personal experiences over the years I know there is massive waste in the military. Procurement of military systems beg to be tighten up. However, the screams from defense contractors encourages the Department of Defense to lean towards making the cuts in personnel numbers, pay and benefits. As if these military systems can fire and maintain themselves! So, what’s the solution? Darn if I know, let me know if you come up with one.
James, DB, thanks for the truce. Now maybe we can make some progress. In nearly 40 years of sitting around conference tables trying to solve business and technical problems, I have learned that often there is 80% agreement around the table and 20% disagreement. Unfortunately, most people concentrate on the 20% hence no solutions are arrived at. I prefer to concentrate on the 80% first and then solve the 20% later. I firmly believe that the majority of Americans would back tax increases. However, in the past, any tax increase has just disappeared into more spending hence the reluctance to raise taxes again. We see this especially at the state level. Before tax increases will be acceptable there has to be significant reductions in spending. James, I agree with you, there is waste throughout the federal and state budgets. Both need massive reorganization and both need to look strongly at what the proper role of government is. It took us over 40 years to create this mess; it will take 20 years or more to fix it. It seems to be an impossible task. Raising taxes slows the economy, cutting government workers will slow the economy, printing money slows the economy due to the inevitable inflation and interest rate increases. Cutting entitlements hurts many people especially the ones that did not do much planning. An increase in domestic economic activity would help our cause dramatically. One way to make this happen is to go after natural resources we have within our borders, coal, oil, gas, timber, etc. Basically, we need a full court press that will require sacrifice from all. Most of all we need politicians who will tell us the truth. But they are rare as hens teeth.
The United States Of America>>>The Divided States of America.