How Did The Economy Get So Bad?
(by Rovin)

This essay is in response to a Kenneth G. Davenport article called Bush Fatigue

When Bush came into office in 2000, I believe he still clung to the conservative principals of a smaller and more efficient government----less regulation on business's and yes lower taxes that provided investment and spending. 9/11 changed much of the process of Bush's agenda.

(This is where a partial theory sets in, but also facts that transpired to support the "theory")

Somewhere around early 2003, Karl Rove, and some in Bush's leadership had convinced Bush that the best way to defeat the coming tide of the left in the 2004 election cycle was to take much of their agenda/platform off the table by passing key legislative bills favorable to the Democratic Party. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, (signed by Bush in Dec of 2003) was among the largest of these programs that barely passed in congress, but also took a major platform/agenda off the democrat's table.

Bush had at this point opened the door to big spending programs and a culture of more government-sponsored dependency, popular enough to get re-elected, but scorned by the true conservative portion of the electorate that literally stayed home in protest in 2006.

Enter the 20+ years of an experiment in socialized housing to millions who could not afford to purchase a new car let alone a new house, and presto---a trillion dollar financial crisis arises that may not get cured for a generation. A once rich and powerful nation has again forsaken the principals of creating wealth through individual achievement and opened the "credit extension" doors that led us to the first depression, the S&L crisis, and again today's fiscal disaster. We're two steps away from a complete socialized government and the dependency that comes with it. If you think the current deficit and national debt is huge now---"you ain't seen nothin' yet."