The Greg Knapp Experience

Pelosi just could not resist blaming everything on Bush and the Republicans. This is just revisionist history. The Bush tax cuts had absolutely nothing to do with the housing and banking crisis. In fact, after the Bush tax cuts were fully phased in in 2003, we had an increase in tax receipts to the treasury. We also had growth in our economy from these tax cuts. They are certainly not to blame for the deficit. Bush and the Republicans SHOULD be blamed for spending too much. However, this also has nothing to do with the current housing and banking crisis we are in.

Most of the blame goes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Community Reinvestment Act. Those problems have the Democrats fingerprints all over them. That’s probably why Nancy Pelosi felt she had to give this speech. She was trying to blame the Republicans during this presidential cycle.

The facts are the CRA under Jimmy Carter forced banks to give loans to poor people, and especially poor minorities, who really couldn’t afford them. The law was strengthened under Clinton and the pressure on banks to give subprime loans to people who didn’t really qualify for them increased. The Democrats encouraged Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy up these loans. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made these loans looks safe since they were government-sponsored entitys. This led other investor banks to buy the loans from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Many people saw this crisis coming and tried to do something about it. Bush and McCain are two of those people. The Democrats fought any regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  If you don’t believe me see the videos posted lower on my blog. You can look it up. This is a simplified explanation of the problem, but much more accurate than Pelosi’s rant.

Check this out. You need to click on that link to see the great graphic.

Barack Obama’s pledge to limit tax hikes to the richest Americans may resonate with the vast majority who don’t fall into that category. But a new IBD/TIPP Poll finds that the public in general has little appreciation for how much of the federal tax burden is already carried by the top earners. While the top 1% — those making over $364,657 ­­— now pay nearly 40% of income taxes, only 17% of those surveyed realized they pay that much. More than two-thirds think the top 1% pay less than 40%, and more than a third think they pay less than 20.

The richest 1% earn about 19% of the income and pay 40% of the taxes. Aren’t the rich already paying more than their fair share of taxes? The problem is, most of America doesn’t know this. Obama is going to use class warfare to try to win this election. McCain will not win by trying to out class warfare him. McCain needs to explain our current tax system works and more importantly, make sure the middle class get a tax cut in their payroll taxes.