Mr. President? Your "Blame Bush" Card Has Been Declined

For over three-and-a-half years, President Barack Obama has placed all of the economy's ills squarely on the shoulders of George W. Bush.  He constantly claims he "inherited" the economy and the deficits.  He says he didn't know how bad the economy was.  And he was at it again yesterday. (H/T to laceyunderalls at the AoSHQ)

So, if he's going to continue trying to pay for his bad behavior with the "Blame Bush" card, I figured I should explain to him why it's being declined.  To do so, we'll take a look at some of his claims and assumptions and explain (again) why he's wrong.

1) "I inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression."

This is wrong on so many levels, I almost don't know where to start.

No, Mr. Obama, you did not "inherit" anything.  You sought it.  Running for President is hard, it takes a lot of strength and endurance.  That you successfully did it indicates you really, really wanted to be President- and all that comes with it.

Not only did you ask for the economy, you ran an unnecessarily nasty race to get it.  Your opponents weren't just opponents, they were racist xenophobes.  Sarah Palin wasn't merely unprepared, she was a bubble-headed bimbo.  John McCain wasn't simply wrong, he was evil.  I could continue, but I'm sure you get the point.  Again this indicates you really, really wanted the job.

Further, it was not, at the time you inherited it, the "worst economy since the Great Depression."  It wasn't even as bad as Stagflation under Jimmy Carter.  It was bad, we were in rough shape, but not nearly as bad as you would have us believe.

2) "We didn't know how bad it was."

Even assuming that's true (and, since you're saying it, I tend to believe it isn't), why not?  At the time you were running for President you were a sitting US Senator.  You had access to all the information the President did.  Once you secured your party's nomination, you started receiving daily briefings in much the same way that the sitting President does.  There is simply no excuse for you not to have known the extent of the damage.

3) Assumption: The Deficits and budget explosion happened on George Bush's watch

In 2008, when a budget would normally be passed for the following year, George Bush declined to sign a budget bill.  He gave a couple of reasons for this, but at least one was his thought that you should be allowed to craft the first budget of your own presidency.  So the 2009 budget was passed in January of 2009, and you, Mr. President, signed it into law.  That makes the 2009 budget yours, not Mr. Bush's.

4) Assumption: Lowest Government Growth

This is almost not worth debunking it is so laughable, but you and your team keep advancing the point, so it demands reprisal.

Let's start at the beginning.  As already mentioned, you, not Mr. Bush, signed the 2009 budget into law.  It was your budget, passed by Democrats for a Democrat President.

Then there was the Stimulus.  You remember, that, don't you Mr. President?  "Shovel ready jobs" which didn't exist so the money somehow, completely by coincidence I'm sure, ended up in the pockets of your donors and constituent groups?  That stimulus?  Yes, it was front-loaded into 2009, and (here's the kicker) the dollars were added to the baseline calculation.  It may not look, percentage wise, like your growth is that much, but that's only if you get to avoid responsibility for both the 2009 budget and the 2009 Stimulus bill.  Further, even if you could avoid said responsibility, you would be overseeing incredibly large increases in spending, by absolute dollars.

Further, your numbers conveniently omit ObamaCare.  This is actually semi-legitimate, because the outlays for ObamaCare haven't really started yet.  You remember, don't you Mr. President?  That would be your healthcare bill that will destroy the budget and explode the deficit, but that you claimed would "cost less than $1Tn" because you used 10 years of tax income to offset 6 years of outlays.  So even if you were telling the truth about the first part (you aren't), you would be failing to admit that your budget-busting Trojan Horse for Socialized Medicine is right around the corner.

Mr. President, the economy is yours.  More than three years in, you own it.  You had a super-majority in congress for two of those three years, and you chose to address Health Care instead of the economy.  You chose to address a phony "banking crisis," largely of your own making, by the way, instead of focusing on rebuilding the private sector.  You own it, Mr. President, and all your protestations will avail you nothing.