Excellent thread, limitdown. Interesting how none of the Rightsters has presented a single substantive argument.
Meanwhile, you and your incessant action figure smiley emoticons are just a two-dimensional cartoon. Th-th-th-that's all, folks!
I'm no fan of George Bush, but I can't blame him for the economic mess. The collapse of the US economy began in 1999 when Congress passed (overwhelmingly by Democrats and Republicans) the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act that had, since 1933, separated legitimate banking activities from risky investment activities. On top of that, both Democrats and Republicans supported lowering credits standards so that more people could buy homes. In September of 1999, an article in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/30/business/fannie-mae-eases-credit-to-aid-mortgage-lending.html) predicted the banking collapse that began in 2006 (see paragraphs 7 & 8). Neither Democrats nor Republicans will tell you this information because then they would have to take responsibility for what they did. To understand the outsourcing of American jobs requires a history lesson that goes back to the 1940s. After WWII, the United States had 4% of the world's population and 70% of the intact manufacturing and transportation infrastructure because all the other major industrialized countries (Germany, Japan, Russia, Poland, etc.) had been decimated in the war. For about 20 years, while everybody else caught up, the United States was the major producer of products in a world with rapidly expanding demand. Worldwide demand for US products drove up prices and workers' wages. This relationship between supply and demand created a prosperous middle class here in America. But by the mid-1960's the rest of the world had caught up. And by the 1980s-1990s China and India came into the picture. Stagnation of wages had nothing to do with presidents, parties or tax policies, and everything to do with the fact that the rest of the world entered the game. It pretty tough for a US manufacturing worker making $30 an hour to compete with someone in China who works for $30 a week. That's reality and there's no getting around it.
However you may wish to frame the context of the deregulation that had taken place at the end of the Clinton administration, what is your response to the fact that the Right still does not wish to impose any financial reform despite the calamity that the deregulation helped to precipitate?
Both parties have their agendas and act accordingly. When the Bush administration tried to impose tighter lending regulations, Barney Frank and the Democrats killed it. Now the Republicans play the same game. My point is that both parties are corrupt to the bone. Choosing between Democrats and Republicans is like choosing between a steaming pile of shit and an oozing puddle of vomit. My wife is an Australian citizen and next summer we are packing up the kids and moving to Sydney where I and my children will become Australian citizens. At that point we can move to any country in the world and choose the best place to raise our kids. I don't know where that will be yet, but I do know that neither the Democrats nor Republicans offer my children any kind of a decent future.