Let There Be No Mistake: The Republican Wars Have Put America in Its Dire Economic Situation

[berni_mccoy]

HUNDREDS of BILLIONS being spent on the War.
That money isn't going to the masses.
The U.S. loss of international respect has contributed significantly to the drop in the dollar.
The Debt being wracked up by the War is contributing significantly to the drop in the dollar.
The war has destabilized the supply of oil in the middle east, causing the price of oil to go up 3-fold since the war.
The war has consumed tremendous amount of material goods, causing an increase in demand and thus, cost.
The increase costs of energy and material goods has put extreme pressure on the middle-class, driving Americans to cut costs and spend less, increasing our trade deficit with low-cost goods from China.
Increased consumption of low-cost goods has hurt manufacturing and industry further.
With the government's focus on the War, they can't solve other economic impacting issues like Health Care and Education.

Almost every country who has ever committed to multi-year wars and military campaign suffers economically. The working class becomes poor, the poor end up becoming pawns in the military campaign, and the rich continue to profit from War.

[zanne]

1. I think most people....

Even most Republicans, have to agree with that. I haven't heard many claims of "It's Bill Clinton's fault" lately...

[leftchick]

2. the democrats own the wars as well

has anyone even tried to stop funding the insanity? And it is 2 trillion at least JUST for Iraq.

[berni_mccoy]

5. I'm not going to give the dens a pass, but this is a GOP started war

as have been most wars since WWII

[Thothmes]

6. Funny

Thought Harry Truman was a Democrat he gave us Korea. And Lyndon Johnson raised the stakes in Vietnam from 16,000 in 63 to 400,000 in 67 based on a trumped up incident in the Gulf of Tonkin. Agree this is stictly a Repub started war. But we need to realize that It was a Democratic President that took Viet Nam from a war where we were advisors and support to one where we became the main combat force.

[Blarch]

3. To be honest.

I think the tax cuts have hurt us more. Every year Bush is adding 500-600 billion to the national debt....I think Carter added 270 billion in 4 years

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. But the wars are the elephant in the living room

The pundits talk about having to cut "entitlements" to balance the budge,t but they act as if wars are free.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

7. What about the Bush Administration's decision to allow hedge funds to be unregulated

The Bush Administration specifically argued that there should be a 'hands off' policy towards hedge funds. They didn't want the SEC to investigate them, to regulate them, or to even know what was going on in the hedge fund world. Unfortunately, hedge funds unlike mutual funds do not even have to register with the SEC and are issued in "private offerings" under current law. Isn't it the fact that hedge funds with dubious value were backing a lot of these packaged home mortgages that led to the burst of the housing bubble that in turn started us on this slide? Or am I unfairly accusing the Bush Administration. I have seen virtually no blame directed towards Bush regarding the housing slump that has been one of the principal causes of this current economic downturn.