You steal it, you own it – GOP this legacy is yours

On looking back over the reign of Bush we mustn’t forget the protest that took place during his inauguration. How ironic is it that while the religious right was basking in the glory of his victory the rest of America was protesting? It is without a doubt that Bush was not the people’s selection and most felt he was no more than a thief; him and the GOP.

My how the truth must hurt now? Bush was unacceptable for the bulk of the American people back then and he is still just as unacceptable. There is no hiding the fact that 3 out of 4 Americans can not wait until he’s finally out of the White House. It must be small and cold comfort that only 23% of billions of people find that Bush did a wonderful job as president.

After 8 years of Bush’s blatant naked aggression against Iraq – a war crime – the end result is that he has not only bankrupted the US, he and his cohorts have brought the entire world to the brink of economic ruin. The near destruction of America by an arrogant ruler brings to mind Rome.

If you can believe the words of a religious bigot, Pat Robertson, then you will think he spoke words of wisdom when he said:

“As the most dominant empire since Roman times, America has helped to bring great wealth and prosperity to the world.”

Yet, it must be noted, ironically, that Robertson left out the most important detail regarding Rome when he compared America to Rome’s dominance and prosperity: Rome fell.

Ironically, Rome fell for the same reasons that the good old USA might ultimately fall. Rome had despoiled their land, waged war upon both the small farmer and the laborer, outsourced its industry, devalued their currency and subverted their products from labor. Sounds familiar? Lest we forget Bush has always considered himself to be an emperor/dictator.

It seems Bush has already pulled out his fiddle and even now can be heard playing on the mountain tops as America burns from the weight of the GOPs failed ideology that lead directly to an economic collapse.

America is indulging in the same wasteful practice as Rome under the leadership of the GOP. The fact that our deficit is the highest in the world only goes to show that the GOP economics has made America less productive and very much close to complete bankruptcy. This is not just a Bush problem. This is a GOP problem. The idiom of their ideology which they represent with the constant mantra of less government and more fiscal responsibility is also inclusive of less oversight of our industries – banking, auto, coal, etc., less building of productivity as a country via labor, and the systematic outsourcing of jobs under the guise of free market.

As recently as 2006, many blogs, newspapers and electronic media were reporting a ‘global economic boom’. Bands might well have played ‘The Charleston’ or ‘Varsity Drag‘, the newsreel soundtrack to heady days of fast bucks and faster women, rowdy days in which the belief that anyone could get rich was encouraged by the GOP. What was in it for them? Votes! The GOP was living in a past best remembered for the Stutz Bearcat and Racoon Coats soon to be followed by “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”

The Republican Great Depression began in 1929, not 1932, and it was the direct result of 9 years of unrelenting trickle-down economics delivered under three Republican Presidents (Harding, Coolidge and Hoover) and their treasury Secretary, the anti-tax, anti-regulation corporate titan, Andrew Mellon. — Yeah, Right: “This Economy Is Strong and Other Tall Tales

The recovery from the depression took a war (World War II) in order to restore people back to work. During that period, fair and progressive taxation took place. Unfortunately, the GOP stepped in and with their usual ideology the rich were taxed less and less and productivity fell. Hence, disparities in income distributions occurred. As such the rich got richer and the middle class shrunk.

Not since Ronald Reagan have our national deficit grown so completely out of whack. Reagan was by far one of the worst fiscally responsible presidents. Our budget ballooned, there was no trickle down effect, productivity declined, unemployment rose, and job growth declined. Under Bush’s control of the government such is the case again.

To constantly play the game that the Democrats were also perpetrators of the GOPs’ crime, though fashionable, is totally false. That no lessons have been learned by the GOP is evident unto itself. We had Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Anderson, Countrywide, even a depression to help us learn from our mistakes but nothing stop the GOP machine of less government and less regulation.

It’s as if everyone in the GOP was reading the same handbook on how to destroy our country in 8 years or less. There was a pervasive belief that every bubble would last forever.  Never mind the fact that we’ve seen quite a few bubbles burst.

All Democratic Presidents have presided over greater economic growth and job creation than any Republican President since World War II (all emphasis is ours).

• When Bush Jr took office, job creation was worst under a Republican, Bush Sr, at 0.6% per year and best under a Democrat, Johnson, at 3.8% per year.
• Economic growth under President Carter was far greater than under Reagan or Bush Sr.  In fact, economic growth in general was greater under Johnson, Kennedy, Carter, and Clinton than under Reagan or Bush. [Democrats always outperform a failed party: the GOP!]
• The job creation rate under Clinton was 2.4% significantly higher than Ronald Reagan’s 2.1% per year.
• The “top performing Presidents” by this standard, in order from best down, were Johnson, Carter, Clinton, and Kennedy. The “worst” (in descending order) were Nixon, Reagan, Bush.
• Half of jobs created under Reagan were in the public sector–some 2 million jobs added to the Federal Bureaucracy.  (Hadn’t he promised to reduce that bureaucracy?)
• Reagan, though promising to reduce government and spending, tripled the national debt and left huge deficits to his successor.   (Bush Jr’s record will be even worse.)
• By contrast, most of the jobs created on Clinton’s watch were in the private sector.
• Put another way:  All Democratic Presidents beats Republican Presidents since World War II.

(Source:  the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, CBO, and BEA)

This current economic problems is not a Bush problem, it is a GOP problem as well.  The GOPs’ ideology has proven that it is unworkable, flawed and unable to substain a growing nation.  As such, this current economic crisis is not only owed by Bush but by the entire GOP. As Bush is currently on a mission to repair his tattered legacy, it would be wise for the GOP to join him in that endeavor.  The current state of affairs is not just Bush’s legacy but belongs equally to the GOP and their failed ideology.

Republicans and the Housing Bubble

If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be – a Christian. ~ Mark Twain

One of the easiest and simplest tactics for the republican party to employ when all else fails is to play the blame game. They play this game with an excellent degree of deliverance, skill and acumen.  The game is played even in the face of the complete collapse of the GOP’s ideology.

Of course such game playing undermines and lessen the correcting of failed policy which was created by deluded ideology.  The game playing also affords the offenders with the capability of existing in a bubble which further distance them from reality.

Contrary to the beliefs of the anti-social and right wing propaganda, “sub-prime” loans were not just designed to help only minorities and poor people get their first homes.  Nor can the bursting of the home mortgage loan bubble be laid at the feet of aiding minorities in getting homes through Fannie and Freddie.

The first thing to understand is what a  sub-prime loan is:  A type of loan that is offered at a rate above prime to individuals who do not qualify for prime rate loans. Quite often, subprime borrowers are often turned away from traditional lenders because of their low credit ratings or other factors that suggest that they have a reasonable chance of defaulting on the debt repayment. The housing bubble bursting is directly caused by a practice that was loosely regulated and lawlessness that allowed predators to be bred.  There was no transparency, rules or ethnics being employed by any of the parties involved.

There are plenty of culprits, like lenders who peddled easy credit, consumers who took on mortgages they could not afford and Wall Street chieftains who loaded up on mortgage-backed securities without regard to the risk.

But the story of how we got here is partly one of Mr. Bush’s own making, according to a review of his tenure that included interviews with dozens of current and former administration officials.

The  sub-prime loans benefited home-improvement contractors as well.  It gave them a way to sell their home inventories at super inflated prices. Sub-prime loans were especially rampant in states like California, Nevada and Florida.

Predatory loans sometimes involve a conspiracy between loan agents and unscrupulous home-improvement contractors, as well as appraisers who inflate the value of a house so that families will borrow more than the houses are really worth.

Predatory mortgages often include last-minute, hidden second mortgages. Using bait-and-switch tactics, predatory lenders tout low interest rates in ads targeting the elderly and residents of low-income, working-class, and minority neighborhoods, without explaining the actual interest rates or that adjustable-rate mortgages mean that the rates will increase.

Borrowers are enticed with deals that require them to pay little or nothing down. The unscrupulous lenders approve borrowers for loans even if they’ve recently been bankrupt or don’t have sufficient income to keep up the payments. These lenders don’t document an applicant’s ability to pay back a loan. They often just accept the borrower’s word about his income and expenses.

The scam worked more efficiently through the support of the Federal chairman, Alan Greenspan, the President, Bush, Fox News and any other idiot financial reporter on TV that was selling the support of the loans, that were being handed out like free popcorn, as an excellent deal.

The loans were structured very simply. The receiver of the loan needed very little money to put down on the their new home or, in some cases, received the down payment from the government.

Concerned that down payments were a barrier, Mr. Bush persuaded Congress to spend up to $200 million a year to help first-time buyers with down payments and closing costs.

The president also leaned on mortgage brokers and lenders to devise their own innovations. “Corporate America,” he said, “has a responsibility to work to make America a compassionate place.”

And corporate America, eyeing a lucrative market, delivered in ways Mr. Bush might not have expected, with a proliferation of too-good-to-be-true teaser rates and interest-only loans that were sold to investors in a loosely regulated environment.

Loan payments were initially set at a low rate which stayed stable for a few years. There you had home owners making low payments for very expensive property. The bursting of the bubble was when the demand for the higher interest rate kicked in (adjustable-rate mortgage, ARMs).  In some cases the increase of ARMs was as high as 30% for some home owners.  The simply fact that sub-prime loans were loosely regulated aided the total collapses of mortgages that could no longer be afforded by people’s who’s income stayed stangnant and saw no growth even as the ARMs kept rising.

He [Bush] pushed hard to expand homeownership, especially among minorities, an initiative that dovetailed with his ambition to expand the Republican tent — and with the business interests of some of his biggest donors. But his housing policies and hands-off approach to regulation encouraged lax lending standards.

In the beginning this was seen as a win for all parties involved. The new home owner got a home, the home builders got paid lavish premiums for their inventory, real estate companies and loan brokers got rich from the sales, Wall Street banks that packaged and repackaged the scam loans sold them throughout the world and made hundreds of billions of dollars. Even president Bush (the psychopath) benefited from the illusion that the economy through home ownership was good and that belief gave him the luxury to believe that he could afford his illegal war with Iraq without even raising taxes.  Sub-prime loans did not begin with President Bush’s administration:

… by the early 1980s, the lending industry used its political clout to push back against government regulation. In 1980, Congress adopted the Depository Institutions Deregulatory and Monetary Control Act, which eliminated interest-rate caps and made sub-prime lending more feasible for lenders. The S&Ls balked at constraints on their ability to compete with conventional banks engaged in commercial lending. They got Congress — Democrats and Republicans alike — to change the rules, allowing S&Ls to begin a decade-long orgy of real estate speculation, mismanagement, and fraud. The poster child for this era was Charles Keating, who used his political connections and donations to turn a small Arizona S&L into a major real estate speculator, snaring five Senators (the so-called “Keating Five,” including John McCain) into his web of corruption.

but Bush was certainly a sleep at the wheel when it came to overseeing the banking industry since it played into his ideology of freemarket and less government regulation, which as we all know is the republican way.

As for Mr. Bush’s banking regulators, they once brandished a chain saw over a 9,000-page pile of regulations as they promised to ease burdens on the industry. When states tried to use consumer protection laws to crack down on predatory lending, the comptroller of the currency blocked the effort, asserting that states had no authority over national banks.

The administration won that fight at the Supreme Court. But Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s attorney general, said, “They took 50 sheriffs off the beat at a time when lending was becoming the Wild West.”

Now the chickens have come home to roost. On the surface very little sympathy should be afforded to those home buyers that were willing to buy homes that far exceed there normal yearly incomes. Yet, those people were victims of a scam that was being systematically employed throughout our country.

The hardest hit are the innocent borrowers of sub-prime loans. Many of them are working- and middle-class families who fell victim to the country’s economic squeeze, a hardship not of their own doing but a symptom of the Bush years. They faced layoffs, stagnant wages, and rising costs of home heating, gasoline, utilities, food, and child care. For those without health insurance, one serious medical problem wiped out their savings. At a time when soaring housing prices were out of whack with the rest of the economy, sub-prime loans were the only way they could purchase a home. But when they could no longer keep up their mortgage payments, they had no safety net. They began skipping their monthly mortgage payments, especially after the adjustable-rate mortgages kicked in with higher interest rates, as high as a 30 percent spike for some borrowers.

The ironic part is that this was the exact same type of scam that Bush Sr. ran in the 1980s via the Savings and Loans real estate fraud bubble. Bush Sr. used that scam to pay for the Contra war (no telling how many billions he and his fellow crooks siphoned off on the side). It is something to also note that both father and Son used the same Federal Chairman, Alan Greenspan who in effect was in charge of banking.

The problems occurred in the Savings and Loan industry as they relate to theft because the industry was deregulated under the Reagan/Bush administration and restrictions were eased on the industry so much that abuse and misuse of funds became easy, rampant, and went unchecked.

There are several ways in which the Bush family plays into the Savings and Loan scandal, which involves not only many members of the Bush family but also many other politicians that are still in office and still part of the Bush Jr. administration today.  Jeb Bush, George Bush Sr., and his son Neil Bush have all been implicated in the Savings and Loan Scandal, which cost American tax payers over $1.4 TRILLION dollars