Republican's went wrong

In the State of the Union Address we heard President Obama blame the Bush Administration for all the problems including leaving a 1 trillion dollar deficit for President Obama to inherit. The deficit number is certainly true and the fact that President Bush did not properly fund the wars is also true. President Obama and the Democrats like to state that we did the "deregulation" and "tax cut" things under Bush and judging by the deficit, we can clearly see that it did not work. Therefore we must undertake the very socialistic approach of the President and his most left leaning supporters.

The problem is that this is a very good twist of the facts. The facts are that President Bush and the Republicans failed miserably on the economy but it is not capitalism that failed. The Bush Administration spent too much. Conservative capitalism must be just that... Conservative. Spending like drunken sailors (not including the wars) is not conservative. Had the Bush Administration adhered to true conservative principals, we would not be where we are today. There may certainly have been the Banking and Housing crises however, those are also not caused by conservatism or capitalism. Conservative capitalism would never allow the Freddie and Fannie debacle. Conservative capitalism says that if you can't afford it, you don't get it.

Keep in mind that the last years of the President Bush's term in office was with a majority Democrat House and Senate. He could only sign (or veto) the things that comes across his desk.

Americans as individuals need to take accountability for their own actions as well. This is not the popular thing to say but let's just cut to the quick. Those who financed a home on an arm and bought into the "the market will only go up" argument were foolish. Americans who refinanced their homes to buy fancy toys that they otherwise would not have been able to afford were foolish. Believing that a $350k home could possibly have a thousand dollar a month payment was foolish. At some point, we must look at the mistakes that we made as our own and quit calling bankers and Wall Street professionals evil. We all know that there were many criminals out there looking to take advantage but the math is not hard. It does not take a college degree to see that these deals just didn't make sense. Let's face facts. It was nothing more than individual greed that drove the housing bubble. The buyers, sellers, flippers, and the rest were all too greedy to get more for nothing than ever before and they all got burned. In the midst a many good people also got burned. The point is that it wasn't the government's fault and it wasn't all the evil bankers. Everyone has fault here.

Now back to the point at hand... By blaming everything on the previous administration President Obama is setting up the straw man argument that it was conservative capitalism that failed. The facts are that it was abuses by criminals and those who knew better that caused this problem. How many times have you heard, "If it sounds too good to be true, then it is"? We've all heard it and we've all messed up before.

I'm not against some regulation and I believe that modest regulation to protect consumers are prudent. These regulations used to be in place until the Clinton Administration lifted much of them and then the Bush Administration followed suit by further lifting them.

The Bush Administration never acted as a true conservative capitalists therefore it was not conservative capitalism that failed. It was President Clinton followed by President Bush combined with a healthy dose of human greed that led to the perfect storm. Now President Obama will have you believe that it's merely capitalism that failed. I personally blame the failure of President Bush to adhere to strict conservative principles and human greed that set the stage for President Obama's straw man argument. Please see it for what it is and do not allow the economic system that made this country great to be tossed out the window like the baby with the bath water. Remember, the government only deals in disparity, not prosperity. The government cannot make you wealthy unless you are a politician or a lobbyist.