Cheney has a ready excuse for the economic debacle: 'Stuff happens'
By David Neiwert Sunday Mar 15, 2009 4:00pm
Interviewed by John King on CNN's State of the Union this weekend, former vice president Henry F. Potter Dick Cheney wasn't really able to tell us why Republicans like himself should have any credibility whatsoever when it comes criticizing the Obama economic plan, considering how well theirs worked out.
Here's how theirs worked out:
Here's how Cheney explained it:
Well, there are all kinds of arguments to be made on that point. But there's something that is more important than the specific numbers you're talking about, and that had to be priority for our administration.
Eight months after we arrived, we had 9/11. We had 3,000 Americans killed one morning by al Qaeda terrorists here in the United States. We immediately had to go into the wartime mode. We ended up with two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some of that is still very active. We had major problems with respect to things like Katrina, for example. All of these things required us to spend money that we had not originally planned to spend, or weren't originally part of the budget.
Stuff happens. And the administration has to be able to respond to that, and we did.
... We always said -- I always said that wartime scenario is cause for an exception in terms of spending. It was appropriate in World War II, certainly, and I think it's appropriate now.
So his excuse for the sour economy was 9/11 -- which happened six years before the economy started heading south -- and the Iraq invasion -- which turned out not to have been quite as necessary as advertised.
But earlier in the same interview, Cheney had claimed that it was actually all Democrats' fault:
Well, I don't follow the news quite as closely as I once did. But there's no question that what the economic circumstances that he inherited are difficult ones. You know, we said that before we left. I don't think you can blame the Bush administration for the creation of those circumstances. It's a global financial problem. We had, in fact, tried to deal with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac problem some years before with major reforms and were blocked by Democrats on the Hill, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.
Well, there's no doubt that the Fannie/Freddie debacle was part of the latter stages of the economic debacle. But an honest and thorough look at the causes of the economic meltdown -- such as that offered by Wall Street Watch earlier this week -- has plenty of blame to pass around, and no small portion of it falls on the shoulders of the Bush administration.
The report found 12 key steps that led to the debacle:
Financial deregulation led directly to the current economic meltdown. For the last three decades, government regulators, Congress and the executive branch, on a bipartisan basis, steadily eroded the regulatory system that restrained the financial sector from acting on its own worst tendencies. "Sold Out" details a dozen key steps to financial meltdown, revealing how industry pressure led to these deregulatory moves and their consequences:
1. 1. In 1999, Congress repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, which had prohibited the merger of commercial banking and investment banking.
2. Regulatory rules permitted off-balance sheet accounting -- tricks that enabled banks to hide their liabilities.
3. The Clinton administration blocked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from regulating financial derivatives -- which became the basis for massive speculation.
4. Congress in 2000 prohibited regulation of financial derivatives when it passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act.
5. The Securities and Exchange Commission in 2004 adopted a voluntary regulation scheme for investment banks that enabled them to incur much higher levels of debt.
6. Rules adopted by global regulators at the behest of the financial industry would enable commercial banks to determine their own capital reserve requirements, based on their internal "risk-assessment models."
7. Federal regulators refused to block widespread predatory lending practices earlier in this decade, failing to either issue appropriate regulations or even enforce existing ones.
8. Federal bank regulators claimed the power to supersede state consumer protection laws that could have diminished predatory lending and other abusive practices.
9. Federal rules prevent victims of abusive loans from suing firms that bought their loans from the banks that issued the original loan.
10. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac expanded beyond their traditional scope of business and entered the subprime market, ultimately costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.
11. The abandonment of antitrust and related regulatory principles enabled the creation of too-big-to-fail megabanks, which engaged in much riskier practices than smaller banks.
12. Beset by conflicts of interest, private credit rating companies incorrectly assessed the quality of mortgage-backed securities; a 2006 law handcuffed the SEC from properly regulating the firms.
It also notes that the behavior was bipartisan: both Republicans and Democrats alike bellied up to the lobbying trough the financial sector created in the decade before the meltdown, and they likewise voted for and approved the policies that followed.
But let's be clear about this: This was in every respect a conservative enterprise. Deregulation is a cornerstone of conservative dogma, and when Democrats have indulged it, it has been their way of establishing their "centrist" or "conservative" bona fides. Liberals have never favored deregulation except as a sop to conservative conventional wisdom.
Cheney may not want the blame. But as one of the major figures in power among conservatives in the period during which these ultimately catastrophic decisions were made, history will assign it to him nonetheless -- and deservedly.
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Yeah with all those memos flying around about it beforehand, who could have seen it coming?
P.S. SO? Go fuck yourself.
P
D
B
!!!!!!!!
screw all that memo crap.
he was in the bunker and prevented the defense of the Pentagon.
per Norman Mineta and his censored 9-11 testimony.
They foretold the disaster and they did nothing to stop it.
That's the most benign explanation!
O'Neill, fired in a shakeup of Bush's economic team in December 2002, raised objections to a new round of tax cuts and said the president balked at his more aggressive plan to combat corporate crime after a string of accounting scandals because of opposition from "the corporate crowd," a key constituency.
O'Neill said he tried to warn Vice President Dick Cheney that growing budget deficits-expected to top $500 billion this fiscal year alone-posed a threat to the economy. Cheney cut him off. "You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don't matter," he said, according to excerpts. Cheney continued: "We won the midterms (congressional elections). This is our due." A month later, Cheney told the Treasury secretary he was fired.
http://www.ontheissues.org/2004/Dick_Cheney_B...
All else is self-explanatory.
And besides, Tinkerbell says the uptick last week is thanks to Bushie.
Will Ferrell nailed Bushie this weekend on HBO.
to arrive in the mail. I hope I get a good laugh now that he's out.
Will was hilarious last night. It was incredible.
WHEN will this asshole finally GO AWAY??
Hopefully he'll go away when he faces justice for his multitude of war crimes.
where they arrest war criminals.
When he strays too far from his casket and the rising sun hits him and he dissolves into a pile of ashes.
Uncle Cheney do you remember the day of 9-11 you had a drill running and refused the air support that was needed to stop the planes?
Uh, do you remember who was in charge in New York? Do you remember building 7?
This guy fucked us up, plane and simple, he and his Bush family with their Nazi ties fucked us hard, and now he's getting paid to appear on TV.
Simple bitches, convincing simple bitches.
9/11 had nothing to do with iraq
had the media been doing its job, the american people would not have been sold a bill of goods
...if there had been no "New Pearl Harbor" ( which was 9/11),
how many Americans do you think would have stood up to go to war.. anywhere??? Of course, the media was complicit in selling the invasion of Iraq (which the PNAC had planned in order to steal oil and build forward military bases from which to "democratize the whole ME) - the media had no problem doing that since Mr. Cheney had just arranged for most Americans to be put into a state of fear
after watching 9/11 ----over, and over and over again.
'Reagan proved deficits don't matter," Dick Cheney told Paul O'Neill during a Cabinet meeting. "We won the (2002) midterms. This is our due."
Mr. Cheney.
Are you familiar with False Flag Terrorism Tactics and Disaster Capitalism. Because more and more people are becoming aware of your Shock Doctrine Style Politics. And more and more people are starting to call you out on it. Your fear shit ain't working any more you dirty scumbag son of a bitch.
Fuck you. And go Fuck yourself.
Of all the rancid fucktards in Bush's disastrous ensemble, this guy has to be the nastiest, meanest, most putrid wank-hole of them all. There's just nothing likable about this man. Nothing.
He's just a fat, vile sack of shit.
Edit: Sorry, I forgot "sneering". He's a fat, vile, sneering sack of shit.
FUCK YOU AND FUCK 9/11!
Yes, indeed! Scumdarth knows all about 911 and how he ran it from his bunker. That's why DBag Bush could sit around for 10 minutes knowing we were under attack while continuing to read "My Pet Goat". He didn't have a concern in the world that he, as POTUS, might just be in danger, did he?
Hit the nail on the head. I believe that when Card announced to Bush "We're under attack", Bush believed it simply to be a drill. He probably believed that someone had put his staff up to it in order to test his mettle under fire.
Of course, even if was a drill, it was an EPIC, COLLOSSAL FAILURE!
I am so sick of you misinformed people spouting this disproved lie.
......it was "THE Pet Goat."
Scumdarth MillionLies strikes again! Is he plastering his ugly mug all over the tube today in advance of the obvious fallout of the discovery of his "covert death squads"? I think so.
It's only serving to remind every american that this man is Culprit #2 when it comes to the people calling for the imprisonment of the Bush Crime Cabal.
Scumdarth was the brains behind the entire operation and broke every law of this country, discarded the constitution and violated every convention we've ever signed. He's public enemy #1 right now.
A campaign to bring this thug to justice immediately so we can turn to him and utter smirkingly "stuff happens tricky Dick - yes, it certainly does!".
I agree What a scumbag, & they aare Republican leaders does that mean all Republicans ascribe to this type of behavior as normal?????
The chimp can't walk and chew gum at the same time and he has been taking orders from somebody, a whole lot smarter than him, for his entire political career and for his whole life, for that matter! Cheney was the REAL president for the past 8 years and for those who don't believe that , I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn! FUCK Cheney and his hand puppet George The "FUCKING CHIMP" Bush! May they both rot in HELL!
Don't self censor yourself. It only goes to strengthen this type of bullshit politics. Let the truth be told. Lies fold in the face of the light.
Don't let us be made out to be the fools when all is said and done.
[Not exactly what you told another poster upthread in a post I disappeared. Don't tell posters to "learn English" and what they can and can't post. The flag button is there for you to use. Don't bother flagging the comment that offended you. There's nothing wrong with it. And don't mess with this note either-Sitemonitor]
did you call my name? lol.
It used to be known as muckraking journalism.
"Chase after the truth like all hell" ~ Clarence Darrow
"The Truth is an Offense, but not a Sin" ~ Bob Marley
Wartime mode? Against a tactic? So what if everyone had the same "intelligence"? Bush and Cheney were the only ones to act on it.
Blaming everything on 9-11 and Iraq, again.
Jerk.
I just wish someone would charge this guy with murder and other high crimes and misdemeanors...I mean, stuff happens.
Jerk.
How pre-dick-table of him to use Sept 11th as a excuse. It's the excuse of most reichwingers, and neocons. Yes it was a horrible tragedy, although it was one that you had more than enough info to prevent. They did not keep us safe, and they used something so very painful to people worldwide to assault freedom, and human rights wherever they could. Please Darth Vader stop reminding us of the horrible tragedy you chose not to prevent.
which tortured detainees warned them about Heathrow.
that isnt how the intel was gotten...and that bald headed fuck knows that
it came through the normal intel channels
he opens his mouth and lies come out
was faked. there's no proof the brits knew anything about anything that was made public without the approval of our cia.
doing it's job for their corporatist masters and the government wing of corporatism, aka repugs.
we never had to be in a "wartime" mode...and this evil bastard knows that
and how fucking dare he bring up katrina
and how fucking dare he blame dems for holding up oversight bills
and how dare cnn for allowing him to blather on without one challenge
8 FUCKING YEARS YOU ASSHOLE
8 FUCKING YEARS AND YOU KILLED THIS COUNTRY
GO BACK INTO YOUR HOLE YOU BLOOD SUCKING SOB
Thanks Joe for making it so that I don't have to think of a reply. You said it well.
who insist that the msm did and do do their jobs
they dont
why is it that stewart, with less staff than cnn, has vids ready to be played
i know, cheney has his pat answer
"everything changed after 9/11"
it is the biggest crock ever
"blather on without one challenge"
It's in their conditions to appear agreement.
P.S.
Send more bacon.
this is the shit that got us into iraq in the first place
the msm serve no one but themselves
to see Darth Cheney interviewed by Jon Stewart?
"and how dare cnn for allowing him to blather on without one challenge"
He claims they had to spend money on Katrina. But hasn't much money allocated toward Katrina recovery not yet been spent?
He claimed that after 9/11 we were in a wartime situation and had to spend money. Except in every other wartime situation in American history, taxes were raised to pay for the war, not lowered to benefit the super wealthy. We certainly didn't have to spend billions on no-bid contracts to companies with ties to the Cheney-Bush administration.
This is the Cheney-Bush Depression and no amount of spin is going to change that.
to watch el druggo debate the president
i wouldnt pay for either
but i would pay top dollar to watch the evil freak stand in front of a firing squad
Thanks David!
...and it always seems to happen when Republicans inherit sound economic conditions.
Not only were we running at a surpluss when they took office but we had a competent FEMA and peaseful relations with most of the world.
So, the stuff that happened, happened because of Republicans. Right?
So, who could have seen it coming? Anyone who knew Republicans.
Cheney was president for 8 years. He and Rumsfeld took us to a phony war, trampled all over our constition and our freedom, took away our status of dignity and esteem in the world, drove our economy into the ground and our country off a cliff, they are hated and detested by most of the free world...and THEY STILL WON'T GO THE HELL AWAY!!! Instead of doing the talk show circuit on tv, people like Cheney, Perino and creepy Ali Fleischer should be on trial for treason, war crimes and crimes against our constitution. They ran the country while little George was told to just hang out and watch....and that they would make him a great president. All they did was expose him for the great mess that he is and make a great mess of our country. And they won't even go away while our new President Obama and his cabinet and staff try to clean it up. Go away disgusting Cheney and take your band of thugs with you. JUST GO AWAY!!!
This is what bothers me most is that these jerks are continually being paraded on the MSM. John King has a "State of the Union" show and he brings on the previous administration's VICE president? What the hell for? NOBODY gives a shit what this guy thinks or any other previous admin. hack (eg. Ari, Karl, etc)
CNN, can you help me understand why this is happening?
The Cheney story dovetails perfectly with the Dana Perino story from today as well.
If you didn't catch it, as Cheney was saying the bad economy wasn't Bush's fault, Dana Perino was saying that the uptick of the last 4 days in the market could be credited to Bush.
A perfect summation of how Bushies see themselves. Nothing bad is their fault, anything good is.
Cheney said: "We had 3,000 Americans killed one morning by al Qaeda terrorists here in the United States. We immediately had to go into the wartime mode. We ended up with two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq."
Wow, is that supposed to be a synopsis of events? 9/11 directly to "wartime mode" and we "ended up with two wars"? That just, like, HAPPENED? I think you left out a few details, there...
Not everyone is so deft at leaving out the details though. Luckily we have the internet now to compile the information too.
"The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity... the country behind this propaganda is the U.S." -- Robin Cook - Former British Foreign Secretary
We Shall Overcome.
Robin Cook is an Al Qaeda denier.
In Missouri that would make him a terrorist.
If I was able, I'd love to punch Cheney right in the face as hard as I can. All the families in Iraq who have had loved ones murdered and all the entire millions of families who have had to move out of their country would probably support me.
This excuse for a human being will have his day in court, I have to believe that. If he doesn't, then the American people are sheep and deserve the punishment they've been given by George, the screwup, Bush.
Then they, the people of the US, own their own misery and pain and cannot complain to the world because they sat on their asses and let these criminals go scot free.
Obama, hear that? Enough of that damned "can't look back, got to look forward" crap! Old saw, not relevant and you know it, President Obama.
I don't ever want to hear a fucking word from Cheney, Bush or any of their henchmen. They ruined our country for 8 years. Now we're cleaning up their mess.
In fact, that the U.S. is almost entirely responsible for.
Japan, China and the rest of the world didn't start sinking until the Battleship U.S. was nearly underwater.
And it was, by no means, unpreventable, Dick. Bernake stated on "60 Minutes" that it was lack of regulation and oversight that caused the problem.
This "the whole world's in recession" thing is just part of the standard Repuke, "blame anyone and everyone besides yourself for the problem" modus operandi.
He can't accept responsibility for his actions, because if he ever did so even in the smallest degree, it would open the floodgates to all his other crimes.
Well said, my friend. It was a global crisis originating right here with the deregulation of everything, which allowed a mortgage crisis to be wagered upon at 40 to 1 odds. It started with Reagan, Clinton aided it, and Bush accelerated it to a point from which we may not return. And we will not return to how it was even last year for a long time.
Dick Cheney is the "STUFF" that happened.
.
He smells like that "STUFF" too.
And sulphur. He smells like that too.
War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War,War.
so does Obama.
just that he will run it more effectively.
imagine that. running a war more effectively - i.e. killing more people that didn't attack us.
we've already killed 1 million+, just how more effective do we need to be?
We ended up with two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?
What's this "we" shit,whitest of men?
Oh yah "we" being us,wich somehow isn't you's.
STFU already.
Everyone knows what should happen to Dick "war criminal" Cheney. They are afraid to say it because it's borderline against the law. But we all know what his fate should be.
we should remove his batteries!!
Cheney is a murderer .... it can be proven that he engaged in propaganda and deception in taking us to war in Iraq ... all those deaths are murders on both sides and Cheney is the murderer. We put serial killers to death for their sick crimes and yet this piece of human filth is carefully protected. Our government is in the hands of the elite who decide when we go to war and who will be held accountable to the law. Cheney has done the bidding of the elite who wanted this war ... to them he is a hero ... he knows nothing can happen to him because he id 100% protected ... no law can tough him. Wouldn't it be great to see him dragged into prison and executed for treason and crime against humanity? Yes.
Chart illustrated here should show unemployment up 81%, not 3.4%.
I guess there is some kind of anti-gentlemen's agreement not to sue each other for copyright infringement, since Cheney's excuse for wrecking America is exactly the same as Rumsfeld's excuse for wrecking Iraq.
I think we've got a new motto for the Republican party. STUFF HAPPENS.
How is it that this clown is not in jail? Is there no justice at all in America?
I love how stupid this fuckers exuses are. "We had to spend money we didn't plan on spending." Oh gee, really? That would pretty much be the definition of government you fricking asshole!
Why is this guy still alive? Please, please Satan, call him home already!
I've always said that the attack on the US should have been handled by Interpol and not by Cheney's band of thugs.
Cheney certainly is a sad excuse for an American. He screwed you all royally and by not getting him and Bush etc in court you all are sheep and own what has happened to your country. You're as complicit as he is if nothing happens to them.
How can anyone feel bad for you if you don't stand up for yourself?
I was hoping someone upthread was going to point out that not all those who died were American...fwiw. OTOH, it doesn't really matter to Cheney as long as he gets what he wants.
.
D!ck Cheney = ASSASSIN, PLUNDERER, THIEF!
.
to adequately describe what a condemnable piece of shit that man is. His very words are nothing short of a terrorist attack on our nation.
It's beyond me why they keep hauling this big fat sack of lying horse manure out. Dick Cheney is going to rot in hell someday, and I can't think of anyone who deserves it more.
I'll say it again:
A man outs a CIA agent during wartime, sells weapons parts to our enemies, gives a standdown order during an attack on the country, disrupts terrorist financing investigations, silences whistleblowers, creates assassination squads, spies on 300 million Americans in violation of the 4th Amendment, goes on vacation while an entire American city drowns, and helps bankrupt the country by starting an illegal war based on blatant lies, and yet no one as the guts to state the OBVIOUS -- that he has committed TREASON.
A rough equivalent would be if Jeffrey Dahmer had been literally gnawing on some poor goober's severed femur in Times Square, live on national television, and rather than putting him on trial and then locking the crazy bastard up, our "leaders" in law enforcement, government, and media simply asked him, "Would you like hot sauce on that?"
The party of personal responsibility continues to refuse to take any.
What a bunch of sanctimonious hypocrites.
I can't believe how quickly he tried changing the subject to 9/11. Cheney is like a pull-string doll that can only say one thing. Psychologists should study his fetish with 9/11.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF0KaTW3Hg4
Rudy Giuliani should join him right on that shrink couch...
If he had any brains, he'd hunker down in Wyoming and be VEWY VEWY quiet, lest we prosecute him for treason.
But no, it's pathological. The dip still thinks he has his hands on the reigns of power, and that he can get away with anything.
I appreciate that Obama's got a whopping shitload of crap to deal with that the Bush Administration dropped in his lap, but both he (who's role is enforcement and execution of the law) and Congress (who's specific role is investigations and oversight) have a duty to ACCOUNTABILITY as well.
We cannot fully "move forward" or "look ahead" while these crimes remain unpunished.
It's like building a house with a poor foundation.
If we allow them to get away with the notion that SOME people are above the law simply by virtue of power, wealth, or position, we weaken the very basis of the country which is founded on EQUALITY under the law.
We are a nation of laws, not of men.
Privilege should not exempt one from adherence to that law. And one reason why our economy and everything else is in trouble right now, is because MANY men in both government and the world of finance, not just Cheney, were allowed to set themselves above the law.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOKK8mAkiUI
Didn't anyone pay attention when GWB ADMITTED he "Fell Off The Wagon" while he was president?, which I always believed anyway?
That, given his aversion to admitting "mistakes" should tell you just how far he fell and for how long. He's an ALCOHOLIC!!! Alcoholics can't have just ONE little drink.
No one can defend any decision, harmful to our country, made by anyone in the Bush administration, when they were being led by a DRUNK. An unreasonable, fanatical, war hungry, nut job of a drunk was in charge of hundreds of nukes for 8 years. I'd say we got lucky that he actually left before he got to use them.
"Fell Off The Wagon"? He did no such thing. He was never "On The Wagon" in the first place. We have been under the influence of this ALCOHOLIC, who alternated between drunk or hung over for 8 YEARS and now we have to be "lectured" by his worst, most enthusiastic "ENABLER"? I don't think any of them have a leg to stand on.
Unemployment went from 4.2% to 7.6%. The chart states that this is an increase of 3.4%. This is incorrect. UNEMPLOYMENT ROSE 44.8% if the numbers 4.2 and 7.6 are right.
Of course he didn't mention his shadow budget which was subcontracting services that are normally provided by government (at a reduced cost and with bidding being competitive) to private sector contractors, his Halliburton being one of the major recipients, who received no-bid contracts at hugely inflated costs to taxpayers. Sleazebag Cheney doesn't take credit for any aspect of the economy that his administration created or set up or supported, and which helped get us into the financial mess that we are in right now. Cheney seems to take it all very lightly and laugh and joke about it as America and the rest of the world struggles to tread water to avoid drowning. What does he find to be so humorous about this situation? This freak is a real pervert. He's showing his face to the media now much more than he ever did while he was slinking around the halls of power. And why is this? To sabotage the new government that the American people elected to clean up the bush/cheney fiasco? Cheney is doing his best to deride and put down the Obama administration and to use whatever influence he has to thwart as best he can the work being done by the new government to correct the abuses and problems created by the bush/cheney administration. Cheney should not be giving interviews. He should be in jail for war crimes, for crimes committed against the American people, and for crimes committed against the Constitution. He should be in jail for the rest of his life.
You cannot fight a war and cut taxes at the same time. A five year old would know better than that.
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