When are people going to stop this silly finger-pointing and grasp the facts of the economic situation? While some supporters love to point out that Obama inherited the current economic crisis, they make no mention of the fact that George Bush also inherited an economic recession (according to the BLS) dating back to the third quarter of 2000 when Clinton was still in office. The budget surplus of the Clinton administration didn’t prevent the dot-com bubble from bursting or the problems in the energy and telecom industries.
The Bush tax cuts helped everyone, not just the rich, and everyone seems to have forgotten that after 9/11, the stock market crash, and airline industry collapse, the U.S. had a period of almost five years of record economic growth, low unemployment, and high stock market averages.
Neither Bush nor Obama “caused” the housing market, lending institution auto industry collapse or high unemployment, yet both sides want to blame each other and some folks want to just blame those “evil” rich folks or greedy corporations. The problem is that raising taxes alone will not fix the budget deficit and will only hurt economic growth in the long run.
If we can’t find a way to cut spending and encourage expansion in the private sector, then we surely will be headed for a 1930s-style Great Depression. I can only hope that down the road clearer and more intelligent thinking prevails.
— Emerson Bolen, River Forest
