Jeb Bush Is Right: Stop Blaming W

by Michael Sean Winters

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Jeb Bush is right: The Obama campaign needs to stop blaming his brother, President George W. Bush, for the bad economy. (Of course, according to most polls, most Americans still hold Bush more responsible than Obama for the economy.) I do not think Bush's policies helped the economy, but I don't think they were completely responsible for the economic collapse either. The Glass-Steagall Act was on life support when a GOP Congress and President Bill Clinton finally drove a stake through its heart in the late 1990s, and it was the repeal of this Act that did more than anything else to lay the groundwork for the downturn.

But, the real culprits were not the politicians but the financiers, that class of investors who recklessly tried to exploit every opportunity for financial gain, no matter the economic or social consequences. So, stop blaming Bush and start blaming Romney, the venture capitalist extraordinaire.

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