Bush Describes Bailout Decisions As 'Difficult' When He Means 'Irresponsible'

Today, George W. Bush gave his last press conference of his Presidential career. Here's the sort of line he's decided to go out on:

You know, one of the very difficult parts of the decision I made on the financial crisis was to use hardworking people's money to help prevent there to be a crisis, and in so doing, some of that money went into Wall Street firms that caused the crisis in the first place. I wasn't kidding when I said Wall Street got drunk and we got the hangover.

Oy. If this wasn't his last week on the job, maybe it'd be important to point out to the man that his "decisions" on the "financial crisis" -- namely, to lend out the monies of taxpayers to prop up the economy -- were NOT DECISIONS THAT "PREVENTED" THE CRISIS. They were the decisions that were left after another set of decisions, made over many years, inevitably led to the crisis.

[WATCH.]

As far as Wall Street getting drunk, well, the record should show that Bush's decision was to hand off the mess to Henry Paulson, who subsequently decided that what Wall Street needed was more of the hair of the dog that bit it, only with watered-down returns for those "hardworking people's" money:

Henry Paulson may be the most powerful manager of money in the world and he still couldn't do for taxpayers with the $700 billion bailout of American banks what Warren Buffett did for his shareholders in investing in Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

The Treasury secretary has made 174 purchases of banks' preferred shares that include certificates to buy stock at a later date. He invested $10 billion in Goldman Sachs in October, twice as much as Buffett did the month before, yet gained warrants worth one-fourth as much as the billionaire, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Goldman Sachs terms were repeated in most of the other bank bailouts.

[...]

The transactions are "just egregious," said (Simon Johnson, former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund and a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington). "You want to do it the way Warren does it."

[...]

"If Paulson was still an employee of Goldman Sachs and he'd done this deal, he would have been fired," (said Joseph Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001).

[...]

Buffett received 43.5 million Goldman Sachs warrants valued at $82.18 apiece on the date of the transaction, or $3.6 billion, Bloomberg analytics show. Paulson, who served as the New York-based bank's chief executive officer until 2006, injected twice as much taxpayer money into Goldman Sachs a month later and got 12.2 million warrants worth $72.33 each, or $882 million.

Comments

[USA2Sense]

GWB - New Address - House warming gift......­....Pass it on........­..

Send shoes - send shoes - send shoes -

George W. Bush
10141 Daria Place
Dallas, TX 95229

[elleebelle]

I think that the word coward is the defining characteristic of Bush.

[helonias]

prevent there to be a crisis

cause the crisis

WTF

[loki]

I dont know if anyone else mentioned it here, or elsewhere, but here is the leader of the USA, a person who went to Harvard and Yale, and who was a pilot in the Guard, and yet during his last press conference of his last days as President, he , on many occasions, speaks of "helicopter drivers".
Now I do not have the prestigious educational background as Bush does, and I only fly smaller planes ( not as much as I would like anymore) but I at least know people who fly helicopters are not called " drivers" by anyone over the age of 3 years old. Tells you a lot about the education Harvard and Yale educated people. Then again, they are the ones who brought our economy to its knees, again.

[Gidster]

His education like his military record were purchased for him by his father, he did not need to rise to those challenges on his own merit.

[SpeakSense]

As an American I can truly say that this press conference was the final embarrassment to the presidency of George W. Bush. At least I hope he doesn't do anything else in the next 7 days.

[GJR227]

Unfortunately, the low-life will be on corporate prime-time again this week to spin his legacy.

Amazing to watch his criminal mind in action ... that is if you can stomach watching.

[jennytaylia]

I can't... and I won't.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[realpolitic]

Funny how the Republicans are the party that does not trust government, yet they want government to be as non-transparent as possible. When the Treasury Department first proposed the $700 billion bailout their proposal was written on three pages and said: "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

This language reminds one of the time Cheney went to the Supreme Court so as to keep secret whom he met with to formulate his energy policy and what was said. When governance is conducted in such secrecy the results are always anti-democratic and usually a failure. Why is Bush and team surprised? It is their very philosophy of government that they were elected and the people have no business knowing what they are doing that leads to such monumental failures that have defined the Bush presidency.

[jhamm1]

"You know, one of the very difficult parts of the decision I made on the financial crisis was to use hardworking people's money to help prevent there to be a crisis"

That reminds of that bullshit he cooked up during the Iraqi War, by discussing the so-called "courage" required to send other people to do his fighting and dying for him.

As usual, he's the ultimate coward, who constantly boasts over his propensity for making "tough" decisions, knowing everyone but himself will ultimately pay the consequences.

[peterg76]

The decision was neither difficult nor irresponsible. Little George simply thinks there is nothing wrong with taking money away from the poor, and he thinks the ultra-rich having to account for their gambling debts is a 'crisis'. And rescuing banks means rescuing bank CEOs, not bank customers.

[RobtBrock]

Face it - Bush doesn't give a damn about anything. He never did. Dude is a loser.

[jhamm1]

Sure he does. There's him, him, and of course, him.

[joycehelene]

He never should have handed over the money to Paulson. He can't even talk in coherent sentences, I think that all of his early drinking killed a lot of his own brain cells. Thank goodness this was his last press conference, don't think we could take any more. Why does he have to give a fare-well address, does he think he is Washington and that what he says will be long remembered.

[Openeyes]

As Captain of the Titanic, it was a difficult decision to order people into the lifeboats, but it had to be done.

[TheEmptinessOfTruthiness]

But keeping the little people out of the lifeboats.­..that wasn't difficult at all. They're little people!!

[MissingAmerica]

Sadly, this will most likely not be our last Bushism!

[ThermoChemist]

[a] "...use hardworking people’s money to help PREVENT THERE TO BE A CRISIS..."
-- Dubya, Jan. 2009

"...That thankfully our founders were wise enough to say we have this position and it's constitutional -- vice president will be able to be not only THE POSITION FLEXIBLE, but it's gonna be those other duties as assigned by the president. A simple thing."
-- Palin Oct. 2008

Dubya and Palin. Truly "two peas in a pod".

[b] "...take, for example, the immigration debate...t­he outcome of the initial round of the debate was that some people said, well, Republicans don’t like immigrants.

The "debate" that he's referring to (IMO) is not about immigration, it is about ILLEGAL immigration.
[as always, clueless..­!]

[igorz]

We can all take some comfort in that, however much immeasurable harm that he has done to America, he has done worse things to the Republican party and perhaps *that* will be his lasting legacy.

[jhamm1]

What troubles me is not how much of the republican party he has harmed, but how much of the Republican Party has become him.

[Cybesq]

At the same Wall Street was "drunk" in Bushworld, Bush was out telling people that they should be able invest their life savings by handing it off to the drunkards. Can you imagine if Bush had been successful in taking social security private? Bush's legacy is secure = worst U.S. President.