Why would anyone consider George W. Bush credible on the economy?
By David Neiwert Friday Jun 19, 2009 1:00pm
Why exactly does George W. Bush think he has even a smidgen of credibility when discussing economic issues? Here's what he said yesterday:
"I know it's going to be the private sector that leads this country out of the current economic times we're in," the former president said to applause from members of a local business group. "You can spend your money better than the government can spend your money."
Repeatedly in his hourlong speech and question-and-answer session, Mr. Bush said he would not directly criticize the new president, who has moved to take over financial institutions and several large corporations. Several times, however, he took direct aim at Obama policies as he defended his own during eight years in office.
"Government does not create wealth. The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States," he said to huge cheers.
Brian Williams briefly mentioned it in his newscast yesterday, pointing out that it was actually Bush who signed the first bailout packages for the banks and auto and insurance industries. But that was really only the half of it.
Ed Shultz, on his MSNBC show yesterday, did an admirable job of tackling the rest of the matter:
What did he do? Attack the president of the United States and basically did what he does pretty well, which is rewrite history. Now Bush is babbling, trying to make sense out of the worst eight years this country has ever had since the Great Depression.
And if he‘s going to go out and do this, and I think we need to remind the American people, and I think we have an obligation to say this—Bush gave us what? Record deficits, record foreign debt, record trade deficits, butchering the middle class, letting the financial sector run wild with absolutely no oversight. Those are a just a few things—I don‘t have a whole hour to do this, but the American people are not stupid. Our new NBC News poll proves this. The American people do not blame Barack Obama for the fiscal condition of this country.
Here are the numbers. Fifty-three percent say that Bush and the congressional Republicans are to blame. Only six percent blame President Obama. Now, weeks ago, the president said he didn‘t want to second-guess the current president. That‘s exactly what he‘s doing. Bush is lying and he is setting the framework for the Republicans to make the case against President Obama at a very tough time. Gosh, how one speech can change people. It‘s almost like the state of the union address, the 16 words.
This is the last person that anybody in the Obama administration should pay attention to. Bush has no credibility. He has no authority. He has no clue what‘s going on. You see, he didn‘t stop with the economy. Brainless Bush went out and goes after, with a generic statement about health care reform. He really cared about that. He goes on to say, “There are a lot of way to remedy the situation without nationalizing health care.” He also said - “You can spend your money better than the government can spend your money.” I tell you what, just a couple of dandies out there on the rubber-chicken circuit.
This is a man who sat there for eight years—eight years—and did absolutely nothing when it comes to the number one issue in this country for families, which is health care. He told you to go out and get a private savings account. This is vintage Bush, appealing to the lowest common denominator when it comes to the problems we face as a country. I guess you could say that things haven‘t changed. They think we‘re stupid. But in the words of the former president, “Fool me once, you can‘t get fooled again, or whatever that was.”
Thanks, Ed. Somebody needed to say it. Too bad you seem to have been one of the few doing so.
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It's Frist Friday! Praise Jebus and all the winged post humans in the clouds!
Let him eat yellow cake!
... that has to count for something, I guess...
And if he‘s going to go out and do this, and I think we need to remind the American people, and I think we have an obligation to say this—Bush gave us what? Record deficits, record foreign debt, record trade deficits, butchering the middle class, letting the financial sector run wild with absolutely no oversight. Those are a just a few things—I don‘t have a whole hour to do this, but the American people are not stupid.
Yes they are stupid and lazy and drunk and fat and self absorbed.
That's a generalization of course. Bush is just another "pro wrestler" to them. He waved a flag and took a dive! The new President is the "good guy" wrestler! All teeth and biceps, but behind him is the same game plan. Make a show and make the audience feel good! Either way they pay for a ticket! And will buy another one!!
I wonder if they still torture and eavesdrop and wiretap and read everyones email and listen in on every one's conversations when the good guy wrestler comes to town...
Yes they do!! The same programs are still running!
www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/06/02-6
"Yes they are stupid and lazy and drunk and fat and self absorbed.
That's a generalization of course."
Generalization????? That's exactly what it looks like from abroad. Fact. Just look at America in 2009, and keep in mind the 8 years of total apathy.
.
The other day, while waiting for the bus, I heard some guy railing against Obama and how Obama is a Socialist. I had to interrupt and asked, "What makes Obama a Socialist?" The guy retorted, "He's a Socialist because of all the bailouts. Starting with AIG..." I interrupted him there. "Excuse me, but the bailouts and AIG started under George W. Bush. Where was your outrage then?"
The guy simply looked at me and swatted the air and said, "I'm out of here."
I thought to myself, "Yep, you sure are..."
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That hand waving gesture is pure republicani sandbox voodoo!
It is republicani thinking illustrated.
It's 'dogma swats down insight' in pantomime.
Otherwise know as the "phooey on you" gesture.
It's easy to mentally outmaneuver the right because they aren't rational. They live in a pretend world filled with make believe heroes who are self reliant, morally perfect, self righteous, condo owning sales managers. This make believe world has never ending resources, no brown people, big titted blondes who fuck on demand and only care about clothes, and is full of strip malls and parking lots. When you confront them with reality it shakes their illusionary world. They go into deep denial. They get nasty.
Some get violent.
...is the amount of energy they expend defending the people who are screwing them over 6 ways to Sunday. Gives truth to the old adage that "none are so perfectly enslaved as the slave who believes himself free".
They certainly are not very bright. Chronic stupidity is a tragic disease.
THAT. IS. STELLAR.
Did you come up with that? I have to tell you now, I WILL be using in conversation. For the duration of this thread I am your Cheetah, Ape-man.
lol
You should have asked him what "socialism" actually means. A blank stare would probably follow.
But his point was to blame it all on Obama, and excuse Bush from anything to do with the present American depression. They all suck, Bush more than most.
The biggest welfare "socialist" queens in the history of mankind are the corporate republicans who are always calling someone else a socialist.
He's not uninformed. You are just ignorant of the meaning of the word "hypocrite."
(Whispering) Remember, this world champion failure fucks up everything he touches.
.
Of course it's not Socialistic bailouts when a Republican does it...
... YES?
.
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Dear Ed Shultz,
Bush lie? Is it really lying when one has to refer to note cards to speak?
... And even then, phonetically spelled note cards don't work.
.
Cheney's handwriting isn't what it used to be.
...tends to curl and blacken the hands into gnarled root-like masses making hand-printing anything very problematic.
Ed couldn't have said it better. Dumbya was only Cheney's Dick Licker anyway.
Oh hell! Trust bush's word on anything? Give me a fu*king break. Even a case of amnesia wouldn't make me trust that SOB with anything or trust anything he will ever say.
...through my cranium to buy into anything that chimp has to say.
C-Cookie?
(waaait for it! Near the end)
Let's show 'em socialism: The Million Can March counter protest to the July 4th teabagging party.
... is "an environment where people take risks ".
I don't reject the concept in totality, only when it affects the welfare of the population. I would be in favor of some mechanism where those saving for retirement can park their savings with a guaranteed reasonable growth rate until retirement. How many people have lost more than 50% of their nest egg due to risk takers who sold before the long-term investors had any idea what was happening.
What good is risk-taking in healthcare if insurance companies go belly-up? Banks have the FDIC, what do insurance companies have? Bailouts?
No CAPITALIST PIG should get rich off the misfortune of the population at large.
... with everything I just said.
creates wealth when government creates perpetual war. Wealth for those who have made the right investments in the war machine.
Bush is saying the same BS he said for eight years and it's no more true today than it was the first time he said it. He might as well have mentioned wmd in Iraq while he was at it.
Pence and some dem passed a resolution today in the house and a similar one is working its way through the sentate, expressing their support for the people in Iraq who are fighting the election results there. Maybe they could have not done this just yet as it now gives the Iranian govt. fodder for saying the US in sticking its nose in their business Now they'll have some proof that we are.
NO..........the BUSH legacy handed us record unemployment,financial crisis,economic crisis,war(s),
HUGE deficit,TAX cuts for wealthy,automaker bailout and a weak dollar.
Don't stop there!
If this little puke had even the tiniest shred of honor, he would go to his temple at the NYSE and commit "Hary Karry."
George W. Bush can go straight to hell. He is the shittiest president we have ever had and he has the nerve to second guess Obama? This sack of shit needs to be put in his place by the Obama people. NOW!!!!! Bush screwed up this country more than any civil war did. More than the Great Depression. More than even Reagan did. In the old days he would have been tarred and feathered and rode out old town on a rail. God I long for the old days.
Great commentary by Ed Shultz. I like his style.
"The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States," he said to huge cheers."
Or, as in Bush's case, to collapse it completely.
He said to cheers?
Those must be the same american hating economic terrorists that run corporate fascist Bushco. Don't forget their faces.
Irony is totally lost on this stupid little bastard. The two worst presidents in the history of America when it came to creating jobs were both named BUSH!
Lying sack of shit moron!
This is so sickening I could just puke. I wish Bush was in front of me so I could spit in his face.
I can't believe the Republicans would want Bush out there. It only reminds people how stupid he is and who got us into this clusterfuck. I say wheel Bush out every damn day and let him spew his idiocy. It would remind Joe Sixpack and Betty Winebox why they are getting foreclosed on or don't have a job or are working for $8.00 an hour or their kids can't find jobs or they can't afford to send them to collage or why they have to drive a beat up old car or can't pay their electric bill or can't afford to have that cyst removed from the side of their face or can't take a vacation this year or why they are living in a 20 year old motor home. Yeah, get Bush out there and remind us why this country is so fucked up right now.
They are even dumber than he is. My in-laws are so cluelessly fucking ignorant AND stupid it makes my eyes hurt to listen to them.
You could line them up against a wall, beat them with 2 x 4's while burning their houses down after stealing everything they own, and if you told them you were a republican when you were finished taunting them, they would say thank you and consider you their friend.
There is a large section of this country that is so detatched from reality, that I fear the only way things will improve is for father time to eliminate them from the equation.
Unfortunately, I am from that baby boomer generation myself. But I do have hope for the younger generation.
These Republicans are actively TRYING to extinct their party. I think the Democrats should pay to have Bush show up at fundraisers. This is something that Lee Atwater would do to screw up a Party intentionally. Hahahahahah lololololahahhaha hahhhahahahalol
Or maybe the Nixon plumbers (remember them???) would do something like have a fundraiser and invite Bush just to screw with the Party.
the Nixon Plumbers? It's true. Bush has been thoroughly neutered. Don't worry too much about him.
We need to constantly remind the media and the public that the REPUBLICAN CONSERVATIVE AGENDA destroyed our economy and everything else it meddled with. And Bush is responsible for implementing those FAILED ideas.
"And if he‘s going to go out and do this, and I think we need to remind the American people, and I think we have an obligation to say this—Bush (Cheney, Rove, the Republicans) gave us what? Record deficits, record foreign debt, record trade deficits, butchering the middle class, letting the financial sector run wild with absolutely no oversight. Those are a just a few things—I don‘t have a whole hour to do this, but the American people are not stupid."
Check out this post that blows this argument out of the water.
Oddly enough, the clip in this post is from the Ed Show as well.
http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=1858
Ed's tha man!!
and say shrub was the worst ever.
Ed's no Alan Colmes that's for sure.
You said mouthful there! Ed is a masher.
I was thinking that maybe his rather big personality doesn't fly as well as I had hoped on the teevee, but to hell with that. Besides, the people that Ed is trying to reach (I mean, folks like us on this chat board are already relatively in agreement with him) seem to respond only to bigger personalities and a little bombastic flair, THEN the message starts to filter through. When listening to GOP water-carrying liars, this is unfortunate. At least with Ed they are getting some and true information.
...and a liar
...had he said war criminal too he would have just about covered all the bases.
Bush took Bill Clinton's legacy of peace and record prosperity and turned into 2 failed wars and a global recession while at the same time managing to kill countless Iraqi civilians and 4500 American soldiers in the process.
From our economy, to our military reediness, to the biggest terrorist attack in US history on his watch, to anthrax, to Katrina, to wiretaps, to torture lies, to the trampling of the Constitution, to alienating the entire free world while emboldening our enemies, Bush could not have done more damage to the United States if he and his criminal undemocratically installed regime were an Al-Queda sleeper cell.
I have to say that Ed Schultz is doing a pretty good job of getting the point across. He did a good job of calling Rush out a couple weeks ago too and he is ON TOP of the health care clusterfuck.
...the other day in a BIG way, too. He really appreciated the support he got from his listeners on the matter. No matter how right or how stalwart you are, even a guy like Ed must need a little back-up when coming out that strong against the forces of evil.
"Why would anyone consider George W. Bush credible on the economy?"
Why would anyone consider Bush credible on anything?
Including wanking.
"You can spend your money better than the government can spend your money". Sorry, George, but it isn't their money and never was. It stopped being "their" money the moment they started consumming government services and benefitting from the vast cornocopia of societal benefits that derive directly from government programs. Only children believe that there is such a thing as a free lunch, something for nothing. They eventually outgrow that fantasy. But some never do. As adults, we call them theives and sociopaths.
"Government doesn't create wealth". What government does is create the secure environment from within which wealth can be created and protected. Absent that government role, you have only the wealth creation opportunities that are found in places like Somalia, where only the most ruthless predators have a chance, and their own predation sets the ultimate limits on the wealth that the predators can amass.This lame argument is nothing but a manipulative subtrefuge used to excuse the theft of national treasure by acts of unscrupulous and dubious transfers of the People's wealth into private hands. Theft under cover of red-herrings.Theft from the many to enrich the few.
I am so glad this irredeemably corrupt shithead is out of power.
and so is anybody that listens to him.
"Government does not create wealth..."
I dunno, they created a shitload of wealth for Halliburton and Blackwater.
Bush credible on the economy? I seriously doubt that he even knows how to spell it.
I am surprised this stupid little weasel (chimpy) can even go out in public without being stoned to death.
And ONLY 53% blame Bush and the repukes in congress? How freakin' brain-dead are the other 47%? WTF? If you have almost half the people in this country who are so f**king stupid they cannot figure out who screwed everything up, how can we possibly fix the problems?
The complete detachment from reality of so many americans astonishes me.
If they don't have the cajones to try and incarcerate this traitor to his country,he needs to crawl in a hole and just fade away secure in knowing that his legacy is he was the worst by far, and he really doesn't even care. He doesn't need to be giving advice on how to right the financial condition that he alone by his idiotic but demonic decisions put this country and the world into. so now we should heed his advice. middle america, wake up. you were led by an idiot to the brink of destruction and he would do it again.
I am so tired of this propoganda still being peddled as if the American people haven't been smacked alongside the head hard enough from Herbert Hoover, Ronald Reagan, and the George Bushes. Here's a news flash. It doesn't work because when you allow private sector to regulate themselves, guess what? They don't. They can't. They are obliged to make as much money as possible and screw everyone. GREED is their motto. Saying something stupid like, "You can spend your money better than the government can spend your money" sounds great but can they pay their taxes like everyone else has to or do they get to put it all into offshore accounts like Cheney's Halliburton? Greedy cheating bastards. Don't believe their lead henchman, George W. Bush
I am perfectly happy having Bush attack Obama on the economy and forign affairs. He has no credibility and is generally the most detested president ever. I remember how people had emotional breakdowns over Jimmy Carter criticizing Bush, and I was grateful that Carter stepped up to the plate and confronted the sleazebuckets when he did. The idea that ex-presidents should keep their mouths shut after leaving office is truly some nonsensical political correctness.
there was no net "private sector" employment increase during his eight years. All the job increases were in the government sector.
This assclown, who should have been the target of Iran-class protests when he stole the election in December, 2000, just wants some more invitations for his $150,000 speeches.
Who has any credibility on the economy?
The math. 100% of economic booms end in an economic bust. 100% of inflations end in deflation. Republicans and democrats can play politics all they both want, but math is non political. The math doesn't care what Bush or Obama say. The math is.
The day of reckoning ALWAYS arrives. 1.8 trillion dollar deficits and 10 trillion dollar FED portfolios won't prevent what the math says is 100%.
There is no free lunch.
This monkey brain not only spews his lies about President Obama while rewriting history, stirring up what is already a dangerous population of right-wing-wingnuts, this puke is getting Secret Service protection e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e he goes.
We are paying for this clown's ESCORT SERVICE...for life!
Curtsie!
One thing you can say about George Bush - "NOTHING"
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