Look at where all of our financial disasters started and by whom:

[EV_Ares]

The depression was caused by and started under a republican administration.

The Savings and Loan Bailout was caused by and was under a republican administration.

This disaster now is being caused by and under another republican administration?

The republican party, who advertises themselves as the experts & saints with their conservative financial values hopefully will soon be unveiled as who they truly are, nothing more than the party of financial disasters.

The republicans have protected these people who have squandered the public out of hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars, and then stick the tax payers with the losses. Remember Enron whose employees lost all of their retirement money.

When will the press set the record straight and report this as it should be reported and when will those responsible be held accountable?

[wanpete]

1. make no mistake about it, we are on the brink of another depression.

[greyghost]

10. Damn straight and it's coming soon.

[alittlelark]

2. Tony Soprano would be proud.

.....Really.

[liberalmuse]

3. They steal from the middle class.

That's the only reason these fuckers seek office. So they and their cronies can loot the Public Treasury, and pull schemes like sub prime mortgages, which we end up bailing them out of, so essentially, they are stealing from not only us, but our children, and our children's children, and so on. It makes me want to go Bolshevik on all their asses.

[FirstLight]

4. Ya...and they call Obama a "Robin Hood" with his tax plan

I'd say we need one right about now!

[Triana]

9. Better a Robin Hood than ROBBER BARONS...

..which is what Republicans are and always have been.

[anaxarchos]

5. Actually, everybody got into the act...

FDR created Fannie Mae in 1938. Thirty years later it was "privatized" by LBJ, in part to get it off the books and disguise the budgetary impact of the Vietnam War. Two years later, a Democratic Congress created Freddie Mac as "competition". It is easy to argue that from that point to today, two things were inevitable: 1) That the positive impact that Fannie Mae had on home ownership would take second place to profitability; 2) That this particular Vietnam War chicken would eventually come home to roost. Yes, Republican de-regulation/lax-regulation set up the present crisis but it has been stewing for a long time. It ain't just about political parties - it is about policy, with many Democrats as hostile to the FDR "social contract" as Republicans. Finally, only a handful of Democrats really seem to appreciate the actual costs of war. Will the chickens from Iraq take 40 years to roost as well?

[EV_Ares]

6. There is not anything you said there that takes away from the fact that

all of these disasters occurred under republican administrations and were caused by these republican administrations who have protected the very corrupt individuals who have brought them on with republican policy.

It doesn't matter if FDR created Fammie Mae in 1938, he was not responsible for the disaster that occurred.

What has LBJ got to do with anything?

You can twist and turn all you want, it is easy to see where the responsibility for these disasters is.

[stillcool]

8. "Appreciate the actual costs of war"?

Don't you remember, how much the Bush Administration stated the actual costs of the war would be, how long it would last?

July 11, 2002

PBS Wide Angle

Richard Perle : “Well, first of all, Iraq is a very wealthy country. Enormous oil reserves. They can finance, largely finance the reconstruction of their own country. And I have no doubt that they will…So I don't think we need the Europeans and their bank accounts.”

September 2002

What would war with Iraq cost?

In September (2002), White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels disputed an estimate by Bush economic adviser Larry Lindsey -- who has since left the White House -- that war with Iraq could cost $200 billion.

Daniels said he believes Lindsey's estimate was "the upper end of a hypothetical," Duffy said. Daniels told The New York Times in an interview published Tuesday (December 31, 2002) that such a conflict could cost $50 billion to $60 billion -- the price tag of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.


January 2, 2003

What would war with Iraq cost?

“I hope we're not headed to war in Iraq," said President Bush.

In September 2002, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels disputed an estimate by Bush economic adviser Larry Lindsey -- who has since left the White House -- that war with Iraq could cost $200 billion.”

“Daniels said he believes Lindsey's estimate was ‘the upper end of a hypothetical,’ Trent Duffy, an Office of Management and Budget spokesman, said.

"He (Mitch Daniels) said it could -- could -- be $60 billion," Trent Duffy, an Office of Management and Budget spokesman, said. "It is impossible to know what any military campaign would ultimately cost. The only cost estimate we know of in this arena is the Persian Gulf War, and that was a $60 billion event.


January 19, 2003

Secretary Rumsfeld Media Stakeout

Q: Mr. Secretary, on Iraq, how much money do you think the Department of Defense would need to pay for a war with Iraq?

Rumsfeld: Well, the Office of Management and Budget, has come up come up with a number that's something under $50 billion for the cost.

January 29, 2003

DoD News Briefing - Secretary Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: "His regime has the design for a nuclear weapon; it was working on several different methods of enriching uranium, and recently was discovered seeking significant quantities of uranium from Africa. The regime plays host to terrorists, including al Qaeda, as the President indicated."

“The cost was mentioned here, and that is not something that one ought to worry about, because the cost of 9/11 was so much greater than the cost of a conflict in Iraq that it dwarfs it… and you can't know, because you can't know if it's going to last four days, four weeks or four months, so when someone speculates that it could cost as much as -- I think they said $47 billion…”

February 7, 2003

Rumsfeld Holds Town Hall Meeting at Aviano Air Base, Italy

“…it is not knowable if force will be used, but if it is to be used, it is not knowable how long that conflict would last. It could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.”

[lutherj]

7. Republicans are parasites. In the past they had enough sense to let

the democrats take over occasionally and pump some value back into the system. But now the parasitic worm has matured, and it will suck until the host is dead.