My response to the "Democrats have ruined the economy" email.

[rkc3]

Got this email from a family member - who doesn't really think about this stuff but just sends it along. Some of the recipients on the original email are rabid RW nutters, so I was compelled to respond.

I'm pretty sure some of my response was wrong - but the intent was there - and I'm even more sure the original email was more incorrect than I was.

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What a load of horseshit. This email is so monumentally stupid, I’m surprised my computer didn’t catch on fire when it pulled it from the server.

So let’s look back.

When Bush took office gas was $1.29 a gallon. Dick Cheney commented high gas prices were a sign of a failed presidency during their first run. So we put two oilmen in office along with another few dozen oilmen as advisors (Condi Rice has an oil tanker named after her) and gas went to $4 a gallon. Bush was going to be the first CEO president. Remember that? And he did become the first CEO president – and like all the companies he ran before he took office, he ran this company into bankruptcy too. And the Saudis bailed him out in Texas and they and the Chinese are bailing him out now.

We got the biggest tax cuts for the top 1% the country has ever seen. Then we experienced the downturn after the dot com bubble and then the worst terrorist attacks in our history. Then we started a good war in Afghanistan and then a bad war (remember Weapons of Mass Destruction that didn’t exist and a country that had nothing to do with 9/11). These wars were financed with credit. Credit from China on the backs of the jobs that were shipped over there.

Quietly over the last 30 years we’ve deregulated ever major industry – because regulations make it expensive to run a business. So banks and mortgage companies could lend money to anyone with a heartbeat, they could over leverage themselves at 25-30 times the money they have in reserves. And the best part is that they packaged bad mortgages and sold them as assets a hundred times over. A few people saw the writing on the wall and we got runs on banks, collapses of banks that had been running the economy for 100 years, and the largest bailout by government since the Depression. All from the party of ‘small government’ and ‘personal responsibility’.

Guess what happens if one of us lose our jobs? There’s little money in many states' economies for unemployment insurance and no one to pick up the payments on your mortgage or healthcare for your kids. That’s OK as long as we take care of the companies who helped to put us in this mess.

And that’s just the short list.

It’s 9:30 on a Monday and I’ve already had to break into my desk tequila. Holy shit.

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George Bush has been in office for 7 1/2 years. The first six the economy was fine.

A little over two years ago:
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) the unemployment rate was 4.5%.
4) the DOW JONES hit a record high--14,000 +
5) Americans were buying new cars, taking cruises, vacations overseas, living large!...

But Americans wanted "CHANGE"! So, in 2006 they voted in a Democratic Congress and --yes-- we got "CHANGE" all right.

In the PAST YEAR:
1) Consumer confidence has plummeted ;
2) Gasoline is now over $4 a gallon & climbing!;
3) Unemployment is up to 5.5% (a 10% increase);
4) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $12 trillion dollars and prices still dropping;
5) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
6) as I write, THE DOW is probing another low -- $2.5 trillion dollars has evaporated from their stocks, bonds and mutual funds investment portfolios!

YES, IN 2006 AMERICA VOTED FOR CHANGE... AND WE SURE GOT IT!!

Remember THE PRESIDENT HAS NO CONTROL OVER ANY OF THESE ISSUES, ONLY CONGRESS.

And what has Congress done in the last two years?? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Now the Democratic Candidate for President claims he is going to really give us CHANGE -- ALONG WITH A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS!!!!

Just how much more "CHANGE" do you think you can stand?