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Jewish World Review Oct. 10, 2012/ 24 Tishrei, 5773 Quit blaming Bush By Jonah Goldberg
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"Now Gov. Romney believes that with even bigger tax cuts for the wealthy, and fewer regulations on This is Obama's core message. In one way or another, he says it all the time. It's his kicker on the stump. You cannot watch an interview with the president or one of his subalterns without hearing it. And yet, I don't think I've ever heard a TV interviewer, host or pundit ask, "What are you talking about?" Finally, the Klein is right. So is Kessler. "It is time for the Obama campaign to retire this talking point," Kessler concluded, "no matter how much it seems to resonate with voters." He would have given it the full four Pinocchios save for the fact that Obama occasionally throws in "deregulation" along with "tax cuts" as part of the explanation. In its defense, the Obama camp says it means all of Bush's policies, not just the tax cuts it harps on almost exclusively -- never mind that even Obama admits Bush issued more regulations than he did. The question of what caused the crisis is obviously still controversial (though, Kessler notes, the official inquiry makes no mention of Bush's tax cuts). But a consensus seems to be forming around the following narrative: The federal government, out of an abundance of concern for the plight of the poor and middle class, made it too easy to buy a home. A mixture of greed, idealism, cynicism and stupidity led to the practice of bundling those iffy mortgages into financial instruments that When the Some Obama defenders will say that Bush's deficits made it harder to deal with the crisis. That seems reasonable, even if it's a red herring in the debate about what caused the crisis. And Obama's record on deficits hardly gives him much standing. I once thought that Obama's relentless Bush-blaming was simply a mix of political expediency and gracelessness. But the truth is more complicated. Liberals have smartly, albeit cynically, laid the case that Bush was Obama has done largely the same thing. The first bailouts of the crisis were supported by Obama but launched by Bush. The same goes for the first stimulus. Obama simply tripled down on all that while claiming he was breaking with Bush. Or maybe I have that all wrong. Maybe we could get some clarity by asking the president, "What are you talking about?"
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