US Economy Who Is Really At Fault

Author: Ron Spangler

Throughout American history it has always been easy to blame our presidents for everything that could possibly go wrong in America and for that matter around the world. The reason we blame our presidents is because we believe one man has total control of the nation. We somehow think our presidents have the ability to look into the future and make new laws that will prevent new catastrophes from ever occurring. We forget unless the president has total control of everything our Congress does, he cannot make any new laws. The one area the President has the most power in is conducting foreign policy and even here when it comes to treaties and war he has his limitations.

In today's election climate everything known to man has been blamed on one man, President Bush. Senator Obama has said Bush is at fault for invading Iraq and consequentially fighting a loosing war that has made America less safe. Senator Obama has blamed President Bush for mishandling everything in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina. Senator Obama has blamed President Bush for the downturn in the American economy. And now Senator Obama is trying to scare the American people into believing Senator McCain is some kind of clone of President Bush.

Here are some facts:

Every Ally and our American Congress believed Hussein had to be replaced and voted to forcibly remove his regime. Obama had the luxury of not being in the Senate at the time and did not have to vote. Considering his record of voting over 90% in concurrence with his party we have to wonder if he would have voted yes like most of his party or went against the popular decision at the time and voted no. During his Democratic Primaries, at the time he was belittling Sen Clinton for her vote on the war, he was quoted as saying:

"I think what people might point to is our different assessments of the war in Iraq," Obama said at the time, "although I’m always careful to say that I was not in the Senate, so perhaps the reason I thought it was such a bad idea was that I didn't have the benefit of U.S. intelligence."

Was the war mishandled, probably so. Just like President Lincoln had to find his General Grant, President Bush had to find his General Patraeus. What makes Senator Obama think he is smarter than the generals we train to fight our wars, now I know, it must be all of the intense military training and experience he has had fighting in past wars.

Has the war ended in Iraq, no. Are we winning in Iraq, yes. Will Al Qaeda try to make another comeback with spectacular attacks in Iraq in order to sway our Nov elections, probably. Will Obama use it to say, "See I was right. The war is lost, we must reduce our forces and leave the fighting to the Iraqis." The answers is yes he will.

After hurricane Katrina Senator Obama and the media blamed everything that went wrong in New Orleans on President Bush. In Senator Obama's world the President has total control of every governor and mayor in America. At the time, Obama seemed to think all state and local decisions were made at the federal level by the President. He somehow thought the President personally ran every department of the government and all decisions including where to stage buses that would be used for evacuations. With the last two hurricanes Obama has refused to congratulate President Bush on how well these disasters have been handled or admit that with different governors and mayors we sometimes have a completely different outcome to similar disasters.

Senator Obama has now began to use a line from President Reagan's first presidential campaign. Obama is asking, "Are you better off now than you were eight years ago?" For the first six years most Americans would answer yes. Since the 2006 election the economy started a slow decent and with the sharp increases in the price of energy over the last year and the housing market bubble bursting, most Americans have experienced hard times making ends meet. Until oil hit $140 a barrel and gas prices went over $4.00 a gallon the unemployment rate was under 6%. With the cost of fuel effecting everything the results have been;
a) industry has cut back
b) consumers cannot afford to spend money on nonessential products and
c) the unemployment rate went over 6%.

During this time the Congress has been controlled by Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Starting in 2007 the president asked Congress to open up America to more drilling and free ourselves from foreign oil. Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and most in Congress said no. They said we know where the oil is and we have given 68 million acres, drill there. The experts told Congress there is not enough oil in these leases to make it worth drilling for, let us drill off the coast in the same area Cuba and China are getting ready to drill. Congress is still saying no. As their position became more unpopular Democrats started to rebel against their leaders. Nancy Pelosi told them, "that's OK let me take the blame for not allowing a vote on drilling. I will be re-elected you will get re-elected and we still will not allow drilling." After Senator Obama started to drop in the polls over his position on oil, he now embraces "limited drilling" and Pelosi says she will allow some bills to come before the House. Now they are working on a bill in the Senate but neither will have a chance before the Congress adjourns.

The effects of this Democrat controlled and led "Do Nothing Congress" are now being seen in our economy. For two years they have made a lot of promises but stood by and watched as our economy began its decent into dangerous territory. For two years they criticized and blamed the President for everything, yet they have not sent one Bill to the President that addresses the real issue, the cost of energy. As the speculators bail out of the oil market, due to investigations of market manipulation and cutbacks in demand for oil, the price of oil has fallen below $96 a barrel. With the recent hurricane Ike greed has resurfaced in the form of gasoline price gouging and Congress, Pelosi and Reid remain silent. The refineries were undamaged but gasoline in the Southeast and along the East coast have sky rocketed overnight. The media and some governors say its due to companies speculating there will be gas shortages later on. Meanwhile these companies are seeing higher and higher profits from these price increases and the consumer is getting hosed. President Bush has warned price gouging will be prosecuted and placed getting the refineries back on line a top priority.

The question Senator Obama should be asking is will Americans be better off with a Pelosi, Reid, Obama government rather than with a McCain/Palin government. In November the American voter will answer this question and this "Do Nothing Congress" may be in for a big surprise. Two years of doing nothing but trying to run and win another election has worn very thin with the American public.

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