In 2004 Bush Campaigned For Re-Election On The Backs Variable Rate Subprime Mortgagaes

Don't forget how we got into this mess. Worst. President. Ever.

Bush's "reform agenda" loved variable rate subprime mortgages. His "ownership society" was based on owning all your responsibilities: home, healthcare, education, retirement. He boasted about how more Americans own their home under Presidency, but he now fails to take credit now that the sham has crushed the world economy.

"President Bush during his first term aggressively sought to loosen mortgage loan qualification standards for first-time homebuyers, seeking to reduce or even eliminate down payments for those who might otherwise have trouble affording their loans."

Source: Roll Call

via ThinkProgress:

"During the 2004 campaign, President Bush declared his pride in making America what he called “an ownership society.” He promoted expanding home-ownership as the best way to ensure a strong economy, campaigning constantly on the idea:"



"Further, the quest for an all-encompassing ownership society led to the policies that have created the crisis. From dramatically low interest rates to ignoring the warnings about predatory lending to quashing state regulations that would have helped prevent such massive Wall Street investment in subprime loans, Bush and his allies built an economy on a house of cards that was bound to collapse."

Source: ThinkProgress

As George said recently, “There will be ample opportunity to debate the origins of this problem.” If Republicans are going to stand tall for an unregulated market, then let them embrace ALL the excesses of that market, as well:the exaggerated losses as well as the exaggerated profits.

An unregulated market will not work for long, because it’s perfectly suited to reward fraud and corruption in the short term. Then there is no long term because an unregulated market will not last until the long term comes to be.

“The market” is not some abstract mechanism like the celestial spheres of Ptolemy. It’s a complex interaction of society, economics and even psychology. It should serve the society, not the other way around.

Bush Is The "Picture Of A Beaten Dog"

New Gallup poll had Bush approval rating at 27%, a new low for him. 73% think he's doing a horrible job. As if we couldn't see this coming 8 years ago. The current historic financial crisis is the exclamation point his failed administration. New York Magazine’s John Heilemann, on MSNBC, noted Bush after his speech on Monday "was the picture of a beaten dog. That was the picture of presidential impotence right there."

As the Washington Post writes today, yesterday’s failed bailout vote

“marked the biggest legislative defeat of Bush’s tenure and underscored the vanishing influence of a president who could once bend a pliant Congress to his will on wars, taxes, surveillance and a host of other high-profile initiatives.”

Party is over for the Republicans, have fun on Nov 4.



Read on at Gallup

Don't Trust Bush

If President Bush says the $700 billion bailout is something we have to sign fast, with no accountability, and that we have to trust him, isn't that the kind of government behavior what got us into this mess? I say yes, this is something that has to be treated quickly, but let's put some effort into this. Don't these 32 words, taken from the proposed bailout package, scare you:

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Unchallengeable by courts and ungovernable by the People's duly sworn representatives?

I know a lot of people are to blame, but Bush is a great lighting rod because he is an idiot guy who makes poor decisions based on cronyism and ideals. He hates debate and oversight and his mindset has influenced the markets to bend the rules because they know they would not be caught or prosecuted, and in the event of total failure, they would be bailed out. Bush stood on the sidelines of the economy he crafted and watched it crumble, but not just boo-hoo crumble, it historically failed. Between his made up wars and corporate bailouts, Bush has wasted and squandered more taxpayer money than anyone else. And the money who couldn't spend, he just borrowed with interest from the Chinese. Worst. President. Ever.

Senate Banking Committee chairman Sen. Chris Dodd sums up some of my feelings:

"I spent quite a bit of time last night with my colleague from Alabama, Sen. Shelby, who is the ranking Republican on the banking committee. I ran into Mel Martinez of Florida, the Republican senator from that start. I’ve talked to others here. This isn’t just Democrats. This isn’t a natural disaster like the Gustav hurricane. This is a man-made, avoidable, preventable problem — and a lack of oversight and accountability was one of the problems."

I also like it because Dodd’s comments were a swipe against President Bush, who last week cited the financial crisis in the same breath as terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

Where Is Bush?

In all that has happened in the past three days, plus what went down over the weekend, where is Bush? Just like on 9/11 and after Katrina, he is no where. Hiding like the failure he is.

Not like he could do anything, or understand what is going on, but it would be a good sign to be a little more visible.

UPDATE:
Bush gave a short 2-minute speech today, 9/18, but did not take questions. I guess it’s tough to face the music when his administration is responsible for the worst economic collapse we’ve seen since the Depression.

5 Years Too Late

I'm not saying I'm into death photos, but I do think it's disrespectful to bar images of soldiers coming home. Not the cute ones with husbands meeting wives and kids on the tarmac. I'm talking the ones that made the ultimate sacrifice. Seems Bush and Rumsfeld had a bias against dead soldiers. "Make them go away" so we can sell our fake war without the moral and human destruction creeping into their fairy tale.

A new bill has been introduced to change that:

The Secretary of Defense shall grant access to accredited members of the media at military commemoration ceremonies and memorial services conducted by the Armed Forces for members of the Armed Forces who have died on active duty and when the remains of members of the Armed Forces arrive at military installations in the United States.

The current Defense policy, which was updated in 2003, states that there shall be no “media coverage of” the returning war dead. In the five years of the Iraq war, during which more than 4,100 U.S. troops have died, photos of military caskets have leaked out on at least three occasions. Military officials have defended the rule by saying it is in place out of respect to service members and their loved ones.

Who made that decision? The families?

Photographs of returning military dead were permitted during Vietnam. Those images reminded us how horrible war is. Bush's 40 year coke/booze bender helped him escape that fact. Too bad for the 4000+ dead.

Bush Administration Borrow Billions

We all know it's better to pay things off up front rather than borrow and pay back with interest. It costs more. It's also the right thing to do. By not raising the appropriate tax receipts now, by cutting taxes for the top 1%, you're just delaying the responsibility of running the government and asking to pay more down the road. You're letting the top 1% keep more of their money and passing on the negative consequences of these reckless tax cuts to the other 99%. When the Bush Administration has to borrow money to pay for its current budget, it's like writing a massive I.O.U. to the country.

"The Bush administration gave details Wednesday on how it plans to borrow the billions of dollars it will need to finance soaring budget deficits. Those plans include raising $27 billion by selling a new 10-year note and a new 30-year bond at the regularly scheduled quarterly auctions to be held next week. The government needs to borrow $171 billion during the July-September quarter, second-highest quarterly borrowing on record. ... Democratic critics say the soaring deficits show the total failure of the Bush administration to put the government's fiscal house in order,. They contended that whoever wins the presidency in November will inherit a huge financial mess that will severely restrain the next president's ability to fulfill his own campaign promises. The administration projects that the deficit this budget year, which ends Sept. 30, will total $389 billion, more than double the $161.5 billion deficit for 2007."

I love this part, too. How can they not include these numbers to show how screwed thing are?

"That deficit estimate could go even higher. It does not include the expected full cost of funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or costs associated with the housing rescue measure Congress passed last week and President Bush signed into law Wednesday."

It's just asking the next generation to assume all this debt. So not only is he ruining the economy now, he also leaves a legacy of debt for the next guy. Look how Clinton left things, there was a surplus. Bush took us from a surplus into a massive deficit. The MBA President from Harvard? What a joke.

Read on at USA Today

The Will Of The People

In a statement regarding new sanctions against Zimbabwe today, President Bush declares that “no regime should ignore the will of its own people“:

The regime has also continued its ban against NGO activities that would provide assistance to the suffering and vulnerable people of Zimbabwe. No regime should ignore the will of its own people and calls from the international community without consequences.

Bush proudly ignores public opinion in the United States. Cheney had his "so" answer when told, "many say War not worth it". The Bush administration has runs it's course. The neocon movement, although good at the power grab, has failed. The latest Fox News poll reflects his success, he's at 27% approval, the lowest rating yet in that poll:

Bush Shoots From The Hip, Off Camera Of course

George Bush is well liked by his Kook-aid sipping base. For everyone else, he just talks some much BS, you can pretty much do a 180˚ on anything he says. His rhetoric is maddening.

But look what happens when they turn off the cameras, wink wink. He actually lets some truth slip out. Admitting his friends in big business screwed up, Bush states, "there's no question about it. Wall Street got drunk ---that's one of the reasons I asked you to turn off the TV cameras -- it got drunk and now it's got a hangover. The question is how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments." Watch the video and make up your own mind.



I like the drunk analogy, Bush has some experience with that. Knowing that Bush has a grasp of right and wrong and still walks the party line and blindly backs the wrong horse all the time is why he is the worst president ever. Ignorance is one thing. He knows and hides the truth. That's evil.

Off Shore Drilling Is A Failed Policy And Bush Knows It

Why doesn't President Bush act first and lift the ban on off-shore drilling? There are two prohibitions on offshore drilling, one imposed by Congress and another by executive order signed by Bush's father in 1990. The president took the position that Congress has to act first and then he would follow behind. Keep in mind, Bush's brother, Jeb, fiercely opposed offshore drilling when he was governor of Florida.

Keith Hennessey, the director of the president's economic council, said: "He thinks that probably the most productive way to work with this Congress is to try to do it in tandem."

You know this is bullshit. Here's what is means: Bush Translated - "I know it won't work, so I'll keep blaming it on Congress."

Bush Following Obama's Policies

The Headline: Bush Agrees To "General Time Horizon" For Troop Reductions. Apparently Gen. Timehorizon is a new commander in the Bush Army of Never Ending Occupation to Procure Oil. Read on

So Bush is agreeing to a time table to exit Iraq. He is also meeting with Iran. All that talk for all these years has amounted to nothing. He is pretty much doing what Barack Obama has outlined in his policies as he runs for office. Hold Iraq accountable, engage Iran, draw down troops, and focus on the real centers of terror like Afghanistan and Pakistan. These are the realities of diplomacy, not the fantasy WMD stories or Wars-that-end-in-obvious-victories the Right likes to repeat. We can't control people 6000 miles away with force. The Republican Kook-Aid bunch are trying to lessen the impact of their failed administration by adopting, even if it is at the last minute, what the Democratic Congress was voted in place to do: end this occupation and bottomless spending.

If you were to take 5 actions that are the same, one done by a Republican and one by a Democrat, see how different the press would report on it. Democrats who want time tables are cutting and running and losing the war while Republicans who want time tables are winning and claim Mission Accomplished.

Whether you're Right or Left, here's what Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, describes Iraq, "I won't go so far as to say that progress in Iraq from a military perspective has reached a tipping point or is irreversible _ it has not, and it is not."

No long term success, no peace, just bundles of money spent and lives lost. The Right Wing are changing horses in the middle of the race and they know it.

Bush Legacy: He Tries But It's Always A Failure

Let's just say I think George Bush has done a lot to screw with Americans. His big idea is personal ownership. For those with money this is not a problem. You need health insurance? You buy it. Want a chance at a good education? Pay for it. By making the government less responsible for taking care of people, he was eroding the public services and safety people count on. Ownership, above all, was the answer. You control your destiny.

Privatizing Social Security was a big stomping point for 2004. Own your retirement. Bush wanted to give individuals the power to create private accounts so they could manage their own funds. A move that investment houses and banks loved. More fees and profits for them. The relative security of getting your monthly Social Security check was deemed restrictive, Bush wanted you to take risks and invest it your way under the guise of empowering the people. Best case scenario: shrewd investors will make more money.

His country-wide attempt at selling it to the people failed. They knew it was a failure waiting to happen. Let's say this was something Bush got through and you had your life savings invested in Triple A rated mortgage securities, you saw it as a sound investment. As like the hedge funds, banks and international investors, your money would have vanished into thin air in a crisis like the sub-prime lending fiasco we are seeing today. The Wall Street types would have drank your milkshake. You'd be wishing for that monthly check. Although investing for some savvy retirees is fun, for most, Bush's push to get the Social Security privatized was a bad idea. Social Security is a safety blanket, not a casino. Just think about if all those baby boomers lost their shirts investing in supposed safe bundled mortgages and had no money to retire on?

Now look at another seemingly honest initiative: Bush's push for home ownership. On the surface it's a nice idea. Own your home, have a nice life. But the reality is you don't own your home, per se, you have a bank loan which after 30 years you will own the home. Any appreciation in the those years is gravy. Best case scenario: the housing market only goes up.

When the housing market is going up, no one cares that all you are doing is buying into a banking system and not "owning" your house. You're paying interest, too. So you are paying more than you borrowed. When the housing market goes down you see very quickly what you "own". Lose your job? Stop making mortgage payments? You'll lose your house. If you own your TV, you won't lose that if you lose your job because you own it. See the difference?

How was this best case scenario housing market perpetuated? Bush had a sideways stock market for years and the Fed kept interest rates low to fuel the economy. Any rise in interest rates would shock the stock market. Bush was spending more money and cutting taxes, starting wars he couldn't pay for, and issuing all the debt to Asian markets. His actions destroyed the dollar and the Fed thought just printing new money would solve the problem. The eventual side effect of this abundance of cheap cash was the housing boom. You can make money flipping homes easier than trading stocks. Towards the end, you didn't need income or collateral to get mortgages. I'm not saying Bush directly made these bad loans, but he oversaw a government who did not heed any of the warning signs. His constant "best case scenario" mentality made him unable to see what might happen if greed entered the game. He was not interested if things went bad, his home ownership agenda was one of his only public successes.

But, as with Bush's Social Security ownership model, you own the good, but more importantly, you own the bad. The best case scenario has turned into a nightmare for homeowners and investors alike.

From the NYT:

"One of the strongest warning signs came Monday, when shares of the nation’s most important mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, plummeted. After falling almost continuously over the past month, in just one day Freddie Mac tumbled another 18 percent, and Fannie Mae lost 16 percent amid concerns that the companies would need to raise billions of dollars in fresh capital.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the nation’s largest buyers of home mortgages, and traditionally the government’s backstop for the housing economy. But with Monday’s plunge, each of these giants has now lost more than 60 percent of its market value this year. The declines, along with a falling stock market and growing unease about the possibility of more red ink at big banks, reflect a growing conviction consensus among investors that the current housing slump will last longer, and prove more severe, than initially feared."

All those mortgages that Freddie and Fannie bought on the secondary market are not doing too well. What if they became insolvent?

So people lose their homes, maybe they should not have had them in the first place. But for those people who have homes who are losing value because of this mess, I feel for them. They played by the rules. It's in these tough times, when the news is bad, you need someone to tell you the straight truth. Be honest, try to manage the pain, set a path toward recovery. Is Bush that guy? He sees no insurgency, no recession, no failure, no occupation, no division, no hypocrisy.

All the ownership models and best case scenarios that Bush proposes are from the perspective of the big money guys. It's not, "how does this help people?", it's "how can we make more money for big business?" And when the big money guys screw things up, unlike the small guy who is devastated, they just get help from the government. Bear Sterns has no value? Credit crisis? Liquidity problems? Just pump $20 billion into the market. I understand that they have to help out but it seems there are not the same consequences. I'm sure the CEO has his millions in bonuses from last year. The unregulated, anti-oversight, pro-Big Business government that Bush runs doesn't really protect the little guy, just the fat cats.

Overall, I think people get it right in spite of it's leadership. The government is a big flawed, inefficient system, no matter who is running it. Bush just seems to be gifted in his ability to fuck it up better than anyone else. Your best case scenario is to get a new set of people in office on November 4th.