Put blame on housing bust where it belongs

In his recent editorial, Les Ayres used Right Wing World's current talking point of blaming the Democrats for the economic disaster the Republicans created. And who are the main culprits? Why they are Jimmy Carter and their ever-popular scapegoat Bill Clinton because, "they made banks give loans to poor people."

In Right Wing World, anything that went wrong during the Bush administration is usually Bill Clinton's fault, but this time they dusted off Jimmy Carter in order to blame him as well. Unanswered is why, even if this were true, did the Republicans not do anything about it during the six years they controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency? This was the case when Bush supposedly issued his "warnings" about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as when Alan Greenspan, whose economic policies contributed to this economic disaster, issued his.

Right Wing World, as usual, refuses to acknowledge some basic facts: 1) that many of the foreclosures were due to sudden job loss by the primary wage earner; 2) that Bush himself encouraged banks to loosen credit so more people could become part of "the ownership society;" 3) that developers aided this disaster by only building $300,000-plus housing and refusing to build houses middle class people could actually afford; and 4) that once the banks ran out of people to lend to who could afford these palaces, they attempted to keep the housing boom going by making riskier loans. The banks did this willingly with eyes wide open. The Republicans abetted this by deregulating the banks, letting them do whatever they wanted to, and establishing the "anything goes" mentality that preceded the collapse.

It is time for Right Wing World, who holds out the Republican party as the "party of responsibility," to finally put the responsibility for the economic disaster where it belongs. The American people did so in droves last November.

Charles E. Crouse

Elgin