Friday, September 12, 2008

President Bush: a "C" For Protecting America

Seven years after the 9-11 attacks, the federal government has made only limited progress toward preventing a catastropic nuclear, biological, or chemical attack on U.S. soil and stemming the proliferation of WMD abroad, according to a report issued on 9/10/08 by 22 former U.S. officials.
 
The Bipartisan Partnership for a Secure America, a panel co-chaired by Lee Hamilton, gave the U.S. an overall grade "C".  Once again, Mr. Bush's tough talk about keeping America safe are contrary to the facts.  John McCain, if elected president, will continue the Republican tough talk and we will still be in Iraq fighting the wrong war under his leadership.  McCain is a military veteran, and we should be proud of that, but he lacks common sense when it comes to fighting the people who harmed us on 9-11 and instead fighting a war in Iraq for 100 years.
 
By the way, McCain publicly said he knew how to win wars.  Has any one heard him say what war he has won?  I am surely not aware of any wars he has won.  And if he knows how to win wars, maybe he should share this knowledge with the proper authorities so we can actually win the two wars we are fighting, instead of keeping this information secret and only releasing it if he is elected President.  When you think about it, McCain is almost blackmailing the American people to vote for him to win the war.  Once again, this just proves that the Republicans lack the basis values of truth, or any other value for that matter.  

Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac: Another Government Bailout

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson recently announced the take over of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the federal government.  The move was done, said Paulson, in a bid to help reverse a prolonged housing and credit crisis with the idea being to keep owners in their homes.
 
It has been estimated that the bailout will cost at least $250 billion, but Paulson said he could not say for sure.  Regardless, it is another bill the tax payers will be saddled with, and once again it happened on the Republican watch.  While speaking about the financial crisis a few weeks ago, President Bush who thought the mic were off said, "Wall Street got drunk."  What he failed to say was Wall Street got drunk because of his own policies --- no oversight and a lack of regulation by the regulators charged with that responsibility.
 
We have the Wall Street scandal of manipulating the market, the mortgage scandal, and the federal bail out of Bear Stearns along with the infamous Enron scandal --- all on Mr. Bush's watch.  I have mentioned in previous articles how Republican administrations seduce the public with tax cuts that benefit the wealthy and then get into the tax payers pockets a hundred different ways. If the voters took time and examined the fiscal and economic record of the last three Republican presidents, Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43, which covers a 20 year period, they would be shocked to find how badly they performed compared to the Democratic administration of Bill Clinton.
 
Bottom line: a vote for John McCain in November is a vote for the continuation of this Republican pattern with its reckless policies.