>> The President shares much of the blame. He sets the direction. He
>> carves out the major policies. He controls the agencies that submit
>> the budgets. When his party is in full control of the Congress (as the
>> Rep's have been for most of Bush's term) he shares an even larger part >> of the blame.
>
> Having a slight majority in congress is often of little benefit since you
> can't pass legislation over the president's veto. You really need both the
> congress and the presidency to get your legislation through.
>
> What happens when the Republicans have both the presidency and congress
> can be seen with the results of the Bush presidency. The biggest deficits
> in history, gutting of key environmental legislation, housing
> foreclosures, mega-mergers that reduce the competitive environment driving
> up prices, huge increases in the cost of basic necessities like fuel,
> food, and health care. This is just what Republicans do.
>
> I was just up in Oregon, where the fishing industry is still reeling from
> what Bush's interior department did to them by diverting river water to
> corporate agriculture (that supported the Republicans politically),
> effectively destroying the salmon industry. Now Bush wants to cut the aid
> to the salmon farmers from $170 million to $100 million, in order to use
> the $70 million to close a funding gap for the 2010 census.
>
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"> Here's a problem that Bush's policies created, and he then wants to screw > the people that be caused to lose their livelihood.>
It's not exaggerating to say that nearly every major problem the U.S.
> faces today is due to the policies pushed through by Republican presidents
> all the way back to Reagan. If Obama wins the presidency, he'll inherit a
> far bigger mess from W, than Clinton inherited from the Reagan/HW Bush
> presidencies. Clinton was fairly successful in undoing a lot of the damage
> from Reagan/HW, but Obama will have a far more difficult task ahead of > him.