Bush: War Boosts The U.S. Economy
Countdown's Worst Persons and surprisingly the number two spot instead of number one went to George Bush for this.
Bush: War Boosts The U.S. Economy:
President George W. Bush argued in 2004 that the best way to grow the U.S. economy was by waging war, according to former Argentine Prime Minister Néstor Kirchner.
Kirchner, in a meeting with Bush, suggested that the United States replicate the successful nation-building strategy it implemented at the end of World War II.
"And he stood up from his chair and got angry. He told me, 'A Marshall plan! No! That's a crazy idea from the Democrats. What needs to be done here, and the best way to revitalize the economy is -- the United States has grown based on wars,' he told me. That's what he told me," Kirchner recounted.
Bush added, said Kirchner, that "all the economic growth that the U.S. had had, had been based on the different wars it had waged."
Peggy Noonan was runner up for this hackery: Noonan falsely claims EPA chief "went to a New York fund-raiser" during oil spill.
And then there's winner nut job Glenn Beck: Glenn Beck leaves no child behind. Or unmocked.
Glenn Beck is nothing more than a third string radio shock jock - no different than the, literally, thousands who pollute the airwaves every weekday morning. You know why he was hired by FOX? Because he has a track record of pissing off sane people (aka Liberals). Nothing he does surprises me, and I don't ever expect him to hit bottom with his hateful bullshit. This is a cretin without any shred of decency or compassion. All he has is his crazy shtick for which he gets paid extremely well.
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
Apparently W learned war profiteering lessons quite well from his ancestors. Family values and all that.
Did the words he say actually infer that his aim, one of many, was to lift the US economy out of the Recession of 2001-2003 through war?
The war, indeed did fuel massively large expenditures that were eventually piped through defense contractors, oil industry, shipping, and raw and finished materials for construction of the military bases and outposts throughout asia.
Those purchases of materials caused shortages in materials for local home builders and contractors, whom passed those rising costs along to home buyers, causing inflation in home prices. Aided by low borrowing costs, those homes were sold at inflated prices due to unnatural material costs. Yes, the war did have an impact on the recession in 2001-2003. It caused the inflation in home prices during 2004-2007. Capped with a huge increase in fuel costs ($147/bbl) in 2008, the result was a catastrophic economic collapse.
I was here at ground zero- Michigan- when the economy started to tank. The real estate bubble burst because we just don't make much stuff any longer, meaning we don't pay people to make stuff any longer. And the stuff we were making- at least here in Michigan, where GM, Ford and Chrysler were making SUVs- became a lot less attractive as gas prices skyrocketed. In the food service business I was working at, the '96-'00 numbers we did were great, but everything started backsliding in early '01.
If Bush actually said what Kirchner claims he said, he wasn't necessarily wrong. The economy of the US- at least in the manufacturing sector- was really hopping. But it was hopping because we were fighting a massive-scale war against enemies who could blow the shit out of our airplanes, tanks, ships, artillery pieces, etc., necessitating replacement. The workers in the shipyards and factories were pulling in beaucoups $$$, but, since there was an effective moratorium on private sector goods like new cars and new houses, those workers invested in the government through war bonds. This hasn't been the case during subsequent US wars, as the economy hasn't shifted gears to something closer to a "total war" footing.
(Shorter last paragraph: Bush is an idiot.)
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
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