What is Digg?Sponsored by Travelzoo
Take Advantage of Ridiculously Low Holiday Airfares view!
travelzoo.com - Flights $52 and up for Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year. But move on it now.
130 Comments
- inactive, on 01/19/2009, -12/+53MrBabyMan can bite my *****
- inactive, on 01/19/2009, -12/+38"George Bush leaves the White House with a dismal economic record. By almost every measure—GDP growth, jobs, median incomes, financial market performance—he stacks up as probably the least successful President on the economic front since Herbert Hoover."
Well, not only in that front. The executive power is in responsible for:
Preserves, protects and defends the Constitution (FAIL)
Faithfully executes the laws of the United States (FAIL)
Executes the instructions of Congress
May veto laws but the veto may be overridden by Congress by a 2/3 majority.
Executes the spending authorized by Congress (FAIL)
Executes the instructions of Congress when it declares war or makes rules for the military (FAIL)
Declares states of emergency and publishes regulations and executive orders (FAIL)
Appoints judges with the advice and consent of the Senate
Has the power to grant pardons for crimes against the United States
Where I didn't write (FAIL) is just because Im not sure, it doesn't mean he didn't fail on those too. - casuallyevil, on 01/19/2009, -8/+29This is a bit unfair - there are quite a few economists that think the Bush tax cuts were responsible for large GDP growth during his first term. Additionally, a LOT of these were more congress' fault than Bush's; see Sarbanes Oxley. And a lot of them were the result of global macroeconomic factors, like energy prices. It's certainly true that there were missteps by his administration (the Fed's easy-money policies for example), but to blame all these problems squarely on one man is both unfair and a very bad precedent; to prevent these things from happening again we need an objective view of what went wrong and why, not a scapegoat. After all, just about anything the government does to the economy screws it up in some way, and all this attitude does is encourage legislation to solve problems that legislation itself caused.
- poprocksandsoda, on 01/19/2009, -7/+26I thought Congress controlled the purse strings. When did the US Constitution change?
- Willtheway, on 01/19/2009, -10/+26What a terrible list. None of those explain how the banking, automobile, and the other big corporations failed which led to the recession. Sounds like more "Blame Bush for Everything" *****. How about instead of blaming one guy, you get your heads out of your asses and look at other possible options?
- Nosferotu, on 01/19/2009, -5/+21I'm burying this just b/c it's MrBabyMan.
- AnotherDiggGuy, on 01/19/2009, -11/+25The only thing Bush did that ***** up the economy even more is he didn't undo all the bull ***** the 4 presidents before him put into motion.
Oh, and pushing the bailouts... that was ***** too - moracity, on 01/19/2009, -8/+20Having a discussion about economics on digg is an exercise in futility. Bush got the tax cuts right. They actually increased revenue to the gov't - that's what low taxes do, period. High taxes stall the economy. Just look at the history of the world. It's all there.
The problem is that Congress turned around and spent it all and then some. Bush never used his veto power to stop it. Even if you take away the war, we'd be in the same hole. The gov't is not capable of not spending money. It believes your money is not yours - that you only earn a wage in order to feed the gov't. That's why you will hear politician talk about tax cuts "costing". Tax cuts are free. Tax cuts must coincide with spending cuts in order to reap the rewards. The U.S gov't is sick with power and greed. If you think Obama is going to change that, you are living in the Matrix. - atmenterprises, on 01/20/2009, -5/+159. Continuing Clinton's mortgage policies.
- akchrs, on 01/20/2009, -5/+15# 9 Barney Frank
#10 Chris Dodd - cree8iv1, on 01/19/2009, -5/+14Only eight? That's actually a surprise.
- MrFisty, on 01/20/2009, -1/+10Can someone explain to me the psychology behind being a power user? It just seems like a hell of a lot of work. I understand it keeps the Digg wheels spinning, but power users just seem to take it to a whole other level. I mean, if people like MrBabyMan actually wrote their own editorial then I'd understand, but to me it just seems like a dog obsessively bringing in sticks from the yard.
- JamesBondJr, on 01/19/2009, -5/+14There's got to be more than 8 mixed in there
- wtbuser, on 01/20/2009, -2/+10What do Hoover, FDR, and Bush all have in common?
They're all Keynesian interventionist! - stix213, on 01/20/2009, -4/+11I think telling people to go out and spend was actually good advice for the events that were happening. People were hiding in their homes watching CNN all day every day and not spending any money, which was making the recession inherited from Clinton much worse than it should have been. Reminding people to still take part in the economy instead of allowing it to collapse all around us was exactly what Americans needed to hear.
Now if he was saying that in November 2008, I think that would have been stupid, but in Sept/Oct 2001 that was good advice - BotchaMcCoola, on 01/20/2009, -2/+9Excellent. Weren't these two supposed to be guarding our financial and banking health?
- vacax, on 01/20/2009, -1/+8Nine pages for eight paragraphs... thanks for the horrible layout.
- ethanpack, on 01/20/2009, -1/+8Katrina (late response) perhaps?
- SkittlesUSA, on 01/20/2009, -0/+6Exactly, the problem is the way government spends money....
People are most careful with what they do with money when they spend their own money on themselves. People area least careful when they spend other people's money on other people, and this is what the government does.
The government will always spend money because the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury will always get elected.
And that is how democracy fails, when people realize they can vote themselves money from the public largess. - URnotheonly1, on 01/20/2009, -4/+10My economy was great until the democrats took over congress
- atmenterprises, on 01/20/2009, -1/+7I don't know why you were dug down. I dug you up, though. People on here don't understand the truth.
- stix213, on 01/20/2009, -2/+7Yeah, they act like Bush has been King of America for the last 8 years with near god-like powers.
- DanNZN, on 01/20/2009, -0/+5Yes, there has definitely been a shortage of Bush bashing. /s
- JagPop, on 01/19/2009, -5/+10Lame.
You would barely sense, from reading this, that the Titanic -- make that The Enterprise -- is about to sail over the edge of the Earth.
It almost seems like a sucker punch article. You read through items 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7 and then you come to 8, the Paulson Bailout Swindle, and it reads like Bush is getting a C grade on this. Come on! - JK1150, on 01/20/2009, -6/+11The stock market reached it's highest level during Bush's presidency, then the Democrats took over and made Bush a "lame duck" President as they so proudly called him. Now we are in this mess and the "all powerful" Bush is being blamed.
- Trekhawk, on 01/19/2009, -2/+6In his defense, the DJIA did reach an all-time high of over 14K just last October. And yes I know that height was completely artificial and unsustainable. Just making the case.
- edstate, on 01/20/2009, -0/+4According to the MSM you are an idiot.
:) - roxgod666, on 01/20/2009, -2/+6Wow two front page stories next to each other both submitted by Babyman. Hey Digg, are you done fixing the site yet?
- herojon, on 01/20/2009, -0/+4Who was the last President who wasn't a Keynesian?
- edstate, on 01/20/2009, -1/+5As a fiscal conservative, and a decent public speaker, Bush makes my skin crawl at times... but you are way, way correct.
It's interesting to note the same people who give Clinton 100% credit for "his" good economy are also the ones so eager to blame Bush 100% for this gem. - markhere, on 01/20/2009, -2/+6hello.. congress regulates and investigates fannie, freddie, bernie, lehman, etc and delivers the information to the president. It its shortsighted to ignore the facts and make a scapegoat of one person. Key people in the congress directly benefited by creating the environment for the economy to reach this point. I don't think you can say that about Bush.
- JoeMax, on 01/20/2009, -0/+3To add to your points:
-Executes the instructions of Congress - (EPIC FAIL). Signing statements and hiding behind executive privilege to ignore congressional subpoenas come to mind.
-Veto Laws - FAIL - pretty much rubber stamped whatever came to his desk - or backhandedly put the above mentioned signing statements on them.
-Executes spending authorized by Congress (PASS) everyone has to admit the govt has been pretty good at spending authorized money over the last few 8 years. To the best of my knowledge he hasn't spent any non-approved money.
-States of emergency and executive orders (PASS) - he did this pretty well, though some of these executive orders probably helped him in failing some other parts of this list.
-Appoints judges with the advice and consent of the Senate - (PASS) - he did nominate judges, and the senate reviewed them. Not everyone agrees with the appointees, but the process appears to have been followed to at least the intent of the law.
-Grant Pardons - (PASS for now) - he has issued a few pardons, and will probably issue more in the next 14 hours, but regardless, he will probably not use this power to the extent of his predecessors. - R0am3r, on 01/20/2009, -4/+7Maybe you should familiarize yourself with the US Constitution. Congress writes the laws! Are you that stupid to understand this fact?
- inactive, on 01/20/2009, -0/+3Katrina dude.
- inactive, on 01/20/2009, -0/+3Apparently 8 people think that bush can hand out $500,000 mortgages to people on a yearly income of $40,000. Then their house devalues to nothing spontaneously and they have no collateral to back up the remaining debt and declare backrupcy sending the country into the beginning of an economic meltdown.
Yes, people BUSH did that. It was americans own stupidity that caused the economy to go flat. Bush helped it out with certain factors, but it was primarily your own faults. - MasterChief4134, on 01/19/2009, -3/+6Declares states of emergency and publishes regulations and executive orders (FAIL)
how did he fail that? - Barackalypse, on 01/20/2009, -2/+5There were only 3 blunders:
1. Spending too much money
2. Easy money policy (low interest rates ultimately, making speculation and borrowing attractive).
3. Stepping in to rescue people that made bad investments because of #2. - gfryesc, on 01/20/2009, -4/+7sorry, time has put obama on its cover 13 times in 12 months. it's biased rag.
- inactive, on 01/20/2009, -0/+2Dunno - The last sensible one?
- guyincognitoo, on 01/20/2009, -1/+3This one was submitted 1 minute later.
http://digg.com/gaming_news/8_Great_Video_Game_Kin ...
From Time to gamepro in under a minute. How? and more importantly, WHY? - wonderchemist, on 01/20/2009, -1/+3My economy sucked until the democrats took over congress.
- inactive, on 01/20/2009, -0/+2Don't you get it, blaming things on scapegoats is how we work. Rational thought and reason have been thrown out the window. It's much easier to just point fingers at someone.
- onestrawplz, on 01/20/2009, -0/+2High taxes stall the economy when they're implemented at the wrong time. Same with tax cuts. It's called counter cyclical fiscal policy. Changes in tax need to be implemented at just the right time to be effective.
- datastorageguy, on 01/20/2009, -0/+2How about federal subsidized mortgages to people who couldn't afford them. Thanks Democrats?
- jbmcb, on 01/20/2009, -0/+2@freedomics -
Check the stats, since the crash of 2000-2002, taxable income has steadily been rising.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8HH2VM08& ... - zelig, on 01/21/2009, -0/+2Yeah, we didn't quite get to 100% negative press, but it's not 'cause they didn't try.
- zelig, on 01/21/2009, -0/+2@Dairy1209:
You mean like the gestapo? Been done. - Bauer22, on 01/20/2009, -1/+3You know if you big time writers actually wrote about Bush's problems before his last week we would not have been in this mess.
- URnotheonly1, on 01/20/2009, -1/+3I just managed to get back up after the dot com, and then I had to do the same thing after 911, lifew was getting much better until two years ago.
Just a fact for me, deal with it how you want -
Show 51 - 100 of 133 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is