Don't Blame Bush for Obama's Failures

I get a dizzying sense of déjà vu whenever I hear what's left of President Barack Obama's supporters blame the current state of the economy on former President George W. Bush. As the U.S. economy fell into recession early in Bush's presidency, many Republicans put the blame on former President Bill Clinton. While some of these Republicans believed what they were saying, many others were just trying to buy time, hoping that the economy would turn itself around during his watch. History is repeating itself with many Democrats now trying to blame America's current economic woes on George Bush, somehow forgetting that Obama has had nearly three years in office to put things right. If they try hard enough, they can even find

. Riding into Washington with a popular mandate for change and control of both houses of Congress, President Obama was in a strong position to push through reforms that would benefit Americans for generations to come. It's been nearly three years since Obama was given the chance to turn his pretty speeches into something more tangible but our national debt is still growing, the U.S. credit rating has been downgraded, unemployment levels are staggeringly high and there's a general sense that things are going to get much worse before they get any better. Not to mention that our soldiers are still dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Patriot Act is still being used to erode our freedoms and we're still giving billions of dollars a year in aid away to country's like Pakistan. At the same time, millions of Americans are seeing the value of their homes and dollars fall and searching in vain for work. President Obama inherited a difficult situation from President Bush, but to blame so many failures on his predecessor is no different than blaming Bush's problems on Bill Clinton. For once, Sarah Palin summed up the mood of many Democrats best when she said "How's that hopey changey thing working out for ya?" Things have gotten so bad that many of Hillary Rodham Clinton's supporters are now saying "I told you so" and there's even talk of her again challenging President Obama for the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination. The only major "accomplishment" of Obama's presidency was the passage of a healthcare reform law that handed millions of new customers over to the insurance companies, while putting Americans who still can't afford the rising costs of health insurance on the slippery slope of being criminals. Well, that's not Obama's only major achievement, he also somehow managed to snag a Nobel Peace Prize. The constitutionality of the provision of the healthcare reform law that said Americans must purchase health insurance from a private health insurance company has repeatedly been questioned by the courts and may be the single biggest reason that the Democrat party lost control of the House of Representatives. While some may blame the current level of spending on George Bush's presidency, Obama could have easily slashed spending if he chose to. How? Let's start with getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan and cutting off funding to countries like Pakistan. Unless Americans are happy with entry level jobs at companies like McDonald's

or would like to join the military and risk their lives fighting in a country full of people who hate us, there aren't many employment options for the millions of Americans desperate to find a job. The Obama administration has also decided to suspend the deportations of thousands of illegal immigrants, many of whom are taking up jobs that would otherwise be filled by out-of-work American citizens. This is the same President Obama that said that outsourcing jobs to India creates jobs in America and that today's unemployment levels may be the new normal. Sorry, but any President who thinks that we may just have to get used to today's unemployment levels and says that sending jobs to India is creating jobs in the United States should seriously consider another occupation.