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Bush Says Nothing in His Economic Statement
The President of the United States was scheduled to attend Republican Party fundraisers in Alabama and Florida but canceled the trip. What could be more important than raising funds for the party? According to Mr. Bush, he had to stay in Washington to “closely monitor the situation in our financial markets and consult with my economic advisors.” Based on what he then added, he should have gone on his trip.
In recent weeks, the federal government has taken extraordinary measures to address the challenges confronting our financial markets. We've taken control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- the home finance agencies -- to help promote market stability and to ensure they can continue to play a role in helping our housing market recover. This week, the Federal Reserve acted to prevent the disorderly failure of the insurance company AIG -- a development that could have caused a severe disruption in our financial markets and threatened other sectors of the economy. Yesterday, the Security and Exchange Commission took action to strengthen investor protections and step up its enforcement actions against illegal market manipulation. Last night, the Federal Reserve, in coordination with central banks around the world, took a substantial step to provide additional liquidity to the US financial system.
These actions are necessary, and they're important. And the markets are adjusting to them. Our financial markets continue to deal with serious challenges. As our recent actions demonstrate, my administration is focused on meeting these challenges. The American people can be sure we will continue to act to strengthen and stabilize our financial markets and improve investor confidence.
That’s it. He did little more than recite an 8th grader’s current events report. He should have explained why the actions were “necessary” and “important.” If his administration is working to strengthen and stabilize markets and improve investor confidence, the “how” could have been added.
It’s rare to find bipartisan hostility to Mr. Bush on Capitol Hill. Yet Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, said, “Once again the Fed has put the taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars to bail out an institution that put greed ahead of responsibility and used their good name to take risky bets that did not pay off.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stated, “The most recent bailout initiated by the Bush administration -- that of AIG -- is just another example that George Bush is a failed manager. Because of the inattention, or a decision on their part to have crony capitalism in our country, Americans across the country are feeling the pain of this.”
It seems like Mr. Bush is just counting the days under January 20, 2009, when he can lay down the heavy burden of the presidency once and for all. As of now, he had 123 days to go.
© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.
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