Should Bush, Bernanke Retire?

After today’s 778 point drop in the Dow Jones, I believe that it is time for someone to start pointing fingers. The two people I think we should look at are President Bush and head of the FED, Ben Bernanke.

Bush needs to go, because he simply does not have any support–either from democrats or republicans. Not only did he put us in this crisis in the first place, but he has also been unable to put together any reasonable plan to help get us out or slow it down. His latest failed attempt comes with the $700 billion dollar “bailout plan,” which was rejected this afternoon. Contrary to Fox News’s “reporting,” it was Bush and McCain–Not Obama– who were not able to receive their party’s backing. Only one-third of house republicans (65) voted for the bill, while 140 democrats voted “yes,” including Obama himself. This is despicable, seeing as it was Bush’s initial idea to write this bill. If our president, along with the republican nominee cannot get even half of all republicans to vote for a bill that they feel so strongly for, then there is something terribly wrong.

I turn my frustration now to Ben Bernanke, who took over as chairman of the Federal Reserve in 2006. While Bernanke has attempted some fairly radical things over the past year, he has not been cautious enough. Time after time, he has cut the borrowing rate, without any consideration of the inflation rate. If he had started these cuts when he first entered his position, then it may have helped, but instead he ignored the huge problem staring him directly in the face for an entire year.

While there are many others to be blamed for the curent situation that our economy is in, these are two extremely obvious people to hold accountable. I understand that they will not resign, but instead, I propose that we be more careful when we choose the people who run our country. Additionally, I am not trashing anything else that these two people have done–I am not endorsing them either. Rather, I am saying that we must understand that the people who we vote for really do have a great affect on our lives.