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Obama inherited his own mess

Obama inherited his own mess

Democrats took over the House of Representatives and Senate at the start of the 110th Congress on Jan. 3, 2007, not Jan. 22, 2009. This is the first time Democrats controlled the majority in both chambers since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995.

Liberals like to propagate the fallacy that everything is “Bush’s fault.” On Jan. 3, 2007 the Dow Jones closed at 12,621.77. The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5 percent. The unemployment rate was 4.6 percent. Bush’s economic policies set a record of 52 straight months of job growth. It was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee. The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in Banking and Financial Services.

It started with Jimmy Carter’s Housing and Community Investment Act of 1977, brought by Bill Clinton, enforced by Janet Reno, and then sent over the Cliff by Frank and Dodd. Obama, as an attorney in Chicago working on behalf of ACORN, successfully sued Citibank for loan discrimination under Reno’s tenure. The Frank & Dodd fiascoes dumped $6 trillion of toxic loans on the economy. Bush asked Congress no less than 17 times to stop Fannie and Freddie, starting in 2001 because it was financially risky for the US economy. Who took the third highest payoff from Fannie and Freddie? Obama.

When someone blames Bush, remember Jan. 3, 2007 the day the Democrats took over. Obama was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as president to complete 2009. In 2007, the deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. Whatever Obama inherited, he inherited it from himself.

Ron Levitt

Naperville

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