Is Washington making things worse?

I disagree with your time line Mr Martone. The main stream media started shouting about the bad economy is 2002. Even when records were being set for low unemployment and high stock market sales and the economy was growing at 3-4% annually, the MSM kept hammering the same doom and gloom message. Eventually it had the desired affect and the president was blamed for a bad economy. Then, the economy collapse and it's now the ex-president's fault. The government educated are easily led. I think the lefty's call it being normal.

"I know it's hard for some in Washington to exaggerate the truth a little" Well, Mr. Martone, it would appear that you've forgotten that the folks on the right, from Bush on down to the pundits on Fox, were telling us for several months (or for months before the failure of the banks, fannie mae, freddie mac, etc) that the economy was just great. Didn't seem to work then, probably won't work now, sir. GGpap

As usual, GGap and Justus find a way to blame Bush and the Repubs for all the problems. I guess those millions of government backed homeloans that Maxine Waters, Barney Frank, and Christopher Dodd were touting years ago as "secure" that have come back to bite us in the butt have nothing to do with any of this. And isn't it interesting that the president and a little senator by the name of McCain warned us that more regulation in this matter was needed years ago and these same liberal nitwits said that we were "trying to fix a system that isn't broken." Take the blinders off, guys...there's plenty of blame to go around in both parties, past administration, and with the incoming administration. Don't believe me? It's all in public record. Try congressional testimony by Franklin Raines back in 2004 on Youtube if you don't believe me, which I'm sure you don't.

there are 110 million taxpayers in usa. 23 million are govt employees either fed state or county/city. one in 5 is retired and gets social security and medicare. another one in five gets some form of welfare. how long do you think this is going to last? the false economy created by enourmous debt
is crashing. the velocity of money is slowing rapidly. we print money and give it away to keep things going. it aint gonna last.

Yeah, yeah, blame the messenger. If you haven't realized on your own the economy is in the toilet, then you haven't been paying attention. Many of us don't like being told what to think and only idiots want to be lied to.

Then again when you and everyone around you is coughing, sneezing, throwing up, and running to the bathroom with diarrhea you can pretty much tell you and everyone else is sick. You don't have to have anyone else tell you. I agree with justus, too many dittoheads who can't come up with an idea without being spoon fed by the right wing radio crowd. It was all so good, now that the bottom is falling out, it's not the fault of the person in charge. Blame the Dems who have had the Presidency 8 of the last 28 years, the House 14 of the last 28(but only 2 of the past 14), and the Senate 12 of the past 28. So you can give the Dems 29% of the blame as far as the Presidency for the last 28 years, 50% for the House(14% of the last 14 years), and 43% for the Senate.

and while all of u lefties and righties are playing pass the potato
the house is burning down.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/iainmartin/4295219/Gordon-... Gee, why does the expression "canary in a coal mine" leap to mind as I read this piece??? Hmm...an economy similar to ours, but on a smaller scale, doing the same things we're about to do, and... Hmmm...gosh, there could not possibly be any connection, there. Months/years from now, when the bills from the Bush/Paulson/Bernanke "rescue", and the even bigger Obama/Geithner/Franks "rescue" can be accurately tallied, and we realize what sort of "goods" we have purchased with our great-great-great grandchildren treasure, we ought to at least have the good graces to be ashamed. Of course, at that point, Dems will be pointing at Republicans and saying "nobody told us! It's their fault!" and Republicans will be pointing at Dems and saying, "It was their idea! We just voted 'yes' to be postpartisan!" But deep down, we all know that, truly, TANSTAAFL...

GGpap, if you are going to spew, at least spew facts. Fact is, Bush and McCain attempted to reign in Fannie and Freddie only to be defeated by the likes of that guy (?) Frank and Dodd (DIMs) who were the ones saying everything was okeydokey with F&F and another DIM, Kerosene Mouth (Maxine) Waters who said about F&F, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I do love making bigger fools out of leftist fools like you with FACTS.

"and while all of u lefties and righties are playing pass the potato the house is burning down." ---- Yep, with help from the anarchists, too. No one accepting responsibility anymore, and then they wonder why their kids grow up to be equally irresponsible????

Dang Sandy you said something we agree on. Imagine that - a Zionist and old world traditional conservative can find common ground.