In January 2009 after it became clear that the leftist majority in Congress would pass President Barack Obama's $862 billion economic stimulus bill without a single vote from a Republican, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) defended her partisan approach, telling Politico: "Yes, we wrote the bill. Yes, we won the election." Last Friday, some 19 months after the stimulus bill became law, the Labor Department issued its monthly jobs report showing the US economy shed 131,000 jobs and unemployment tread water at 9.5% as 181,000 workers left the workforce entirely. [...] Desperate to shift blame away from her economic policies, Speaker Pelosi released a statement Friday blaming President George W. Bush for the economy's anemic recovery: "Today's report shows our teachers, police officers, firefighters, and nurses are still feeling the worst of the Bush recession."
Madam Speaker, it's been seventeen months. (Even more when you factor in that during the last two years of the Bush Administration, the Democrats were already in the majority in Congress.) Perhaps it's time to start taking responsibility?
Yes, President Bush's housing policies caused the financial crisis but it's disingenuous of Democrats to keep blaming him because they supported those efforts. They defended Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and they continue to believe that government has a role not just in providing "affordable" housing, but in regulating the entirety of the economy.
Meanwhile, unemployment continues to hover near 10 percent, businesses are still failing, the Democrats are preparing to raise taxes, and billions in "stimulus" money is still forthcoming while the economy is waiting for the part that's been spent already to yield any significant, long term results. But, hey, this is all Bush's fault, remember?
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