From who did Obama "inherit" the economic mess?

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by spence

What were you doing watching MSNBC?


Depends...Quite often the Executive branch is quite assertive to ensure the Congressional agenda is in alignment with the President's objectives.


Hmmm, if things were so good why did the Democrats take over the legislature?


You're talking about 3% of the Senate...and not any of them sat on committees with direct impact to the economy.


I recall reading some time ago "The legislative branch has more influence on the legislative agenda than the executive branch." If you subscribe to this they it sounds like the GOP should be the target of your wagging finger.


I'm not aware of any Dem filibuster just before the economy tanked. Most of this story is from 2003-2005 and when looked at in detail reveals mistakes by both sides of the leadership. This has been discussed in detail in older threads.


That's because despite what they pretend to aspire to, the GOP has a really chronic debt problem. Google up the rate of debt change as a percentage of GDP for the past 60 years and look at the parties in charge.



Nobody has said they were innocent bystanders...but the economy was under Bush's watch for 8 years and he left Obama with a massive recession. I'm not sure this is really in dispute.

Generally speaking, in the media Presidents get to take credit for success and blame for failures regardless of the trends or systemic actions that actually drive them. Examples of this may be the tech boom, 9/11, lack of terrorism after 9/11, the 2009 recession etc...

I work in Sales and I'll tell you the best factor that determines the success or failure of a salesperson is the TIMING of when they take their job given the product and market needs.


I think you confuse the word "liberal" with "irresponsible". Borrowing beyond your means isn't a Liberal tendency, it's an irresponsible tendency that both parties too often suffer from.


I come from the pragmatic center where we try to balance ideology with observation.

-spence

Spence -

"if things were so good why did the Democrats take over the legislature?"

Read a history book. It wasn't because of the economy, it was because of the Iraq war.

"You're talking about 3% of the Senate...and not any of them sat on committees with direct impact to the economy."

Spence, please put down the Kool Aid and think straight for 2 seconds. The chairman of the house banking committee was Barney Frank, the chairman of the Senate Banking committee was Chris Dodd, both Democrats. My point was (which you carefully avoided),is that the Democrats inherited a robust, thriving economy in 2006.

"I'm not aware of any Dem filibuster just before the economy tanked. "

None of us know everyihtng. In 2006, the GOp introduced legislation to regulate Fannie and Freddie, Senators Obama and Dodd fillibustered. I doubt it would have saved the economy anyway...

"Nobody has said they were innocent bystanders..."

Please Spence. Please. Obama blames EVERYTHING on the previous administration, and has said REPEATEDLY that the previous administration (NOT THE PREVIOUS CONGRESS) drove the car into the ditch.

Spence, you're going to say with a straight face that Obama and the Dems haven't placed all of the economic blame on the GOP?

"I come from the pragmatic center where we try to balance ideology with observation. "

Thanks, I needed a good laugh. Spence, every post you have ever written can be summed up thusly:

liberal = good
conservative = bad.

The only "middle" you occupy is the middle between Ted Kennedy and Mao Tse Tung.