Well, we got what we deserved, There is no doubt more stupid people elected George W. Bush cause he 'tawked' tough and cause he was the guy they thought would be more fun to have a beer and barbeque with. They thought he was a good ole boy with great family connections, values and even though his past was shady, he was born-again, for the Christian Conservatives, that meant they could forgive him. Unfortunately, never once did they look at this guy as a CEO with a lousy business sense, well, it's biting us in the ass now.
After he graduated Bush had a series of lousy business dealings. He had the options though whenever his businesses were failing, his family name gave him the GOP clout to pull in investors who knew his father. That was how Bush made his money. Every time something was failing, some GOP family friend would give him a break. When he sold his failing Spectrum 7 company in the 80's to Harken, they took him and put him on the Board of Harken. Bush happened to sell his shares conveniently days before the company was posting a huge loss, he took the money and never had to be held accountable, heck, the head of the Texas securities commission was Richard Breedan, Bush's daddy's old pal who Poppy #41 put in charge so Dubya didn't have to even be accountable to filling out the paperwork that accompanied the sale.
Dubya, like many of todays greedy seedy CEO's seem to be one and the same, they raid their failing companies with millions and in cases billions in bonuses for themselves and get out of the company. Look at Lehmans today, the financials, the auto and insurance industry. The top brass get their money despite the company going belly up -- just like Dubya, they take their profit and don't look back.
On September 2, 2004, Bush challenged the mortgage companies to cut people slack and make everyone a homeowner. The mortgage industry scarfed up the business, giving people zero interest loans, and adjustable mortgages, heck, no verification of income needed, just a hand shake and a signature. Bush wanted to be the good-ole president who made it possible for anyone to own a home. Well, he got his goal and since then, everything fell apart. Wall Street got greedy too and hand in hand, we now have a society of more people in foreclosure and losing their homes than ever before. Thank you Mr. Dubya Bush for one more failure adding to the 9/11 Iraq mess and Katrina among many many other screw ups!
Mr. President only made money because his rich friends either bailed him out, or like the Texas Rangers, they let him in on THEIR deals. This economic crisis probably means you and I, common taxpayer will be paying for all the screwed up decisions Bush has made over 8 years. Eight years of two screw-balls running the country and our reputation into the ground, so much so that even McCain will not be seen with either Bush or Cheney and denounces the Bush policies.
One can only hope this election people will look at the issues and vote intelligently, not because of what they think is the popularity of the contestant! Look before you leap this time, back track on the profiles. take a look at how each candidate will solve our problems, make sure to elect someone this time who is not the most friendly boozehound or they are born again or even because they might be a 'hottie'. We have a lot at stake this time! Personally, at this point, I wish Michael Bloomberg were running, I wish it were someone who knew how to make money and turn these 8 years around. I guess I am looking for a miracle worker...
some good reading:
Influence and bailouts a business tradition in Bush family
trigaux
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By ROBERT TRIGAUX
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 29, 2000
Once upon a time, a rich and powerful father gathered his four young sons and urged them to become rich and powerful, too. Take risks. Push yourselves. Influence others, he ordered in a bold voice.Then he whispered, "And if you muck things up, a fairy godfather will always appear to make things better."
Those may not have been the precise words spoken, but this is no tall tale. It's the business model adopted long ago by George and Barbara Bush to propel sons George W., Jeb, Marvin and Neil into the high ranks of industry and, at least for two boys, politics. Sure, by now in the presidential campaign Dubya's dubious business transactions have been poked at repeatedly by the media. No question, Jeb's numerous and often questionable business dealings have been scoured more than once. Little has been written about Marvin, an investment adviser. Neil, the youngest, took some serious legal heat in the 1980s for his role in the demise of a Denver savings and loan. But he has since retreated to the Bush home turf of Houston and largely disappeared from the national spotlight. Altogether, the Bush boys' business deals have received scant attention. What's intriguing is that, time and again, all four brothers have chosen to use a remarkably similar two-step business model.
STEP 1: Leverage the Bush family name and a small personal investment into really big money, always provided by others. STEP 2: If any deal goes sour, exit early with personal fortune intact. Or rely on a bailout from one of Dad's fairy godfathers: some of the thousands of wealthy Republican fundraisers and longtime supporters of former President Bush. Of course, playing off the privileged and famous Bush name is inevitable. To a point. But to the Bush boys, dubbed the "Shrubs" by detractors, it's become a chronic dependency. A habit of striking consistency. The Bushes uniformly deny any wrongdoing and insist they haven't profited improperly on their family's political and financial connections. But let's just take a quick peek at some of the more interesting "Bush business model" deals pursued over the years by each of the boys.
George W. Alaska construction: At age 27 and halfway through two years at Harvard Business School, Dubya spent the summer of 1974 in Alaska working for a small airline-and-construction business. The company, Alaska International Industries, had received a letter from an executive at a Houston construction company asking about a job for Bush. The aviation arm of Alaska International had an unusual list of clients that just happened to include the shah of Iran and the Central Intelligence Agency. Dubya's father would be appointed CIA director the following year.
Oil deals: In Texas, Dubya took his $50,000 trust fund and in 1977 started his first company, Arbusto Energy Inc. He got friends to invest in various drilling ventures that mostly went nowhere (but did generate big tax deductions). Friendly investors arranged a 1984 deal in which struggling Arbusto was acquired by another drilling company called Spectrum 7. When Harken Energy bought Spectrum in 1986, George wound up on the board with a $120,000 consulting gig and $530,380 worth of stock. In the midst of his father's presidency in 1990, Bush unloaded his Harken shares for $848,560. Less than two months later, Iraqi troops marched into Kuwait, throwing the oil business into turmoil. Harken shares plummeted and the company reported a $20-million quarterly loss. The Securities and Exchange Commission investigated Dubya for improper insider trading but issued no reprimand. At the time, the SEC was headed by Richard Breeden, a former aide to President Bush.
Baseball: Dubya was appointed managing partner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, even though he put up only $600,000 of mostly borrowed money for a 1.8 percent stake in the team. Among the big backers buying the Rangers were William DeWitt (a fellow Yale alum of Dubya's) and Mercer Reynolds. Both were major contributors to President Bush's campaign. Earlier, the two also were in on the rescue of Dubya's oil company. Dubya later sold out of the Rangers' ownership group. His take: $15-million. That sum made Dubya rich and finally in a comfortable position to pursue a political career. In 1998, Dubya and his wife reported income of $18,405,524, on which they paid federal taxes of $3,772,252, or 20.5 percent. Most of their 1998 income came from long-term capital gains. And nearly all of that resulted from the original $600,000 investment in the Texas Rangers.
Almost 40 years ago, in the height of the Kennedy era, a competitive George Bush was heard to say: "Just wait 'til I turn these Bush boys out." So far, the former president and wife have done a pretty good job. If you don't look too closely. -- Robert Trigaux can be reached at (727) 893-8405 or trigaux@sptimes.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/bush073099.htm
From White House site: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/09/20040902-5.html
Increasing Affordable Housing and Expanding HomeownershipWe live in a time of change, and our dynamic economy can create great opportunities for America's families to realize their dreams. During this time of change, President Bush believes that government should help families to have the security, dignity, and independence that comes with owning their piece of the American dream. President Bush has a bold agenda for promoting an ownership society: giving young people the option of voluntary personal accounts under Social Security to give them more control over their retirement savings; Health Savings Accounts to give individuals expanded access and choice in health care; lower taxes and less burdensome regulations on entrepreneurs; and policies to eliminate barriers to homeownership. President Bush supports homeownership, which gives Americans a greater stake in their communities. The President has been leading a three-part strategy for increasing homeownership by: Supporting low-income families who are saving for a downpayment, and ensuring that good financing options are available;Ensuring that the homebuying process is fair to consumers and that consumers understand their options; and
*creating a larger supply of affordable housing units available for ownership.
The President's New Proposals for Affordable Housing and Increased Homeownership
To help more Americans achieve the American dream of owning their own home, President Bush set a new public-private goal of increasing the supply of affordable housing by seven million over the next 10 years. To meet this goal, the President is calling for passage of his Homeownership Tax Credit and encouraging communities to reduce regulatory barriers through the Department of Housing and Urban Development's America's Affordable Communities Initiative and the President's new Opportunity Zones initiative. The Homeownership Tax Credit. Under the President's plan, homebuilders that build affordable homes for middle-income purchases will receive a tax credit. Federal government estimates indicate that this Homeownership Tax Credit will result in an additional 40-50,000 affordable single-family homes annually. The Homeownership Tax Credit would allow state housing finance agencies to award tax credits to single-family developments located in a census tract with median income equal to 80 percent or less of area median income. The credits could not exceed 50 percent of the cost of constructing a new home or rehabilitating an existing property. The program would be limited to homebuyers who earn no more than 80 percent of area median income. Each state would have a homeownership credit ceiling adjusted for inflation each year and equal to the greater of 1.75 times the state population or $2 million.
* Regulatory Reform. Studies have shown that regulatory barriers can add to the costs of a home by 20 to 35 percent. Removing these barriers would reduce development costs and enable millions of American families to buy or rent suitable housing that they otherwise could not afford. Removing regulatory barriers that add to the costs of a home are integral to meeting housing needs for middle-income individuals such as teachers, firefighters, police officers, nurses, service sector employees, and others.
o The America's Affordable Communities Initiative was launched by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to focus more attention on the need for regulatory reform. The initiative is an aggressive effort to help communities across America identify and overcome regulatory barriers to affordable housing.
+ HUD has identified regulations contributing to higher housing costs and production delays, including: out-of-date building codes; duplicative or time-consuming design review or approval processes; burdensome rehabilitation codes; restrictive or exclusionary zoning ordinances; unnecessary or excessive fees or taxes; extreme environmental restrictions; and excessive or "gold-plated" land development standards.
+ While many of these regulations were well-intentioned and even useful in their early implementation, many have become outdated and cause unintended harm to local communities. By helping local communities remove these regulatory barriers, HUD seeks to open doors for millions of American families who want to buy or rent an affordable home in the community of their choice.
* Challenging the Private Sector. The President is calling upon the housing industry, including the, Federal Home Loan Banks, the homebuilders, and the mortgage and finance industry to join with Federal, State, and local governments to help America meet the goal of increasing the supply of affordable housing.
Increasing the Supply of Affordable Housing Units Available for Ownership
The lack of affordable housing can be an insurmountable barrier for low- and moderate-income homebuyers in many parts of the country, especially along the coasts. Traditionally, affordable housing efforts have focused on the short-term goal of increasing the affordability and number of available rental units, and have not focused on ownership. As part of the President's plan to build an ownership society, he has focused on encouraging homeownership, particularly among minorities and low-income families. In 2003, the number of homeowners increased by 1.7 million as the number of renters declined in the United States by over one million families.
The President's Homeownership Accomplishments
Congress and the President have worked together to accomplish important elements of his strategy - providing downpayment support for low-income families and good financing options for rural buyers. Under President Bush's leadership, overall U.S. homeownership in the second quarter of 2004 reached an all-time high of 69.2 percent. Single-family housing affordability is at its highest level in 30 years, and minority homeownership set a new record-high of 51 percent in the second quarter.
The President has called on Congress to work with him on additional steps to promote homeownership in America. He has set bold goals for homeownership, including his challenge to the Nation to create 5.5 million new minority homeowners by the end of the decade - and he has now set an additional goal of 7 million new affordable homes.
* Downpayment Assistance and Homebuying Education:
o American Dream Downpayment Initiative. To help low-income families overcome the hurdle of a downpayment, the President proposed the American Dream Downpayment Initiative in June 2002 and signed the American Dream Downpayment Act into law on December 16, 2003. In June 2004, HUD announced $160 million in funding for this initiative to 400 local and state governments across the country to assist low-income families with down payment funds. The President requested $200 million for the American Dream Downpayment Initiative in his FY 2005 budget, which will assist an estimated 40,000 families.
o Zero-Downpayment Initiative. In his FY 2005 budget, the President proposed the Zero-Downpayment Initiative. Preliminary projections indicate this Initiative would help about 150,000 homebuyers in the first year alone. This proposal would eliminate the statutory requirement of a minimum three percent down payment for FHA-insured single-family mortgages for first-time homebuyers.
o Housing Counseling and Homebuying Education. Since 2001, President Bush has doubled the funding for housing counseling for families. These HUD housing counseling grants help take the uncertainty out of home buying for thousands of Americans, empowering them to avoid predatory lending, make more informed home purchases, and understand the lending process more clearly. The President has also called for an increase in funding for comprehensive housing counseling and education, including pre-purchase and default services, and renter counseling to potential homeowners and tenants. The President's FY 2005 budget request for these important programs is $45 million, more than doubling the $20 million level in FY 2001.
o America's Homeownership Challenge. In June 2002, President Bush issued America's Homeownership Challenge to the real estate and mortgage finance industries - to encourage them to join the effort to close the gap that exists between the homeownership rates of minorities and non-minorities. Due to the President's leadership, more than 2 dozen companies have made commitments to increase minority homeownership, including pledges to finance more than $1.1 trillion in mortgage purchases for minority homebuyers this decade.
