Bush deregulation led to Wall Street mess

Our economy's troubles didn't start on President Obama's watch. In fact, the problems we now face had their origins even before President George W. Bush.

It's just that the Bush administration did the opposite of fixing the problems that had developed. They further deregulated the financial institutions and let the Wall Street crowd do whatever they wanted to increase their personal fortunes. Wall Streeters repacked junk, got the rating agencies to label it AAA and sold it as gold. Then it all crashed. Taxpayers were left to pick up the bill, and Obama to clean up the mess.

People forget that Obama has not bailed out a single bank. That was the work of Bush's first stimulus package, and find me a Republican banker who thinks that was wrong. Now we're supposed to vote Republican to give the bankers a lesson? For Republicans this is a win/win situation.

President Obama's biggest mistake is that he actually believed in his heart that collaboration, compromise and cooperation for the common good would be possible between Democrats and Republicans. We don't live in that sort of America anymore.

Blair Kinman

Coralville