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Quotes - Dubya the Economist (2007) (Dubya's grasp of economics on full display)
I can remember the first home I bought in Midland, Texas. I remember going down to the savings and loan and sitting down with the savings and loan officer and negotiating with the savings and loan officer. Well, this day and age you're going to use — mortgages have been bundled, so the savings and loan doesn't own the mortgage anymore, or the bank doesn't loan the mortgage anymore, the local lending institute doesn't loan the mortgage anymore. It's owned by some international group, perhaps, or it's been bundled into an asset. And so there's hardly anybody to negotiate with. And so some lenders aren't sure where to turn. They have credit-worthiness, they may get pinched as their interest rates reset.
Ironically, Dubya's brother Neil Bush was the director of Silverado Savings and Loan when it collapsed in 1988, costing taxpayers $1.6 billion. Perhaps Dubya's apparent inability to master that industry's terminology is an attempt to distance himself from the association? North Fredericksburg, Virginia, Dec. 17, 2007 REPORTER: Do you think there's a risk of a recession? How do you rate that?
DUBYA: You know, you need to talk to economists. I think I got a B in Econ 101. I got an A, however, in keeping taxes low. How charming. He left out the A+ for deficit spending, though. And for the record, he actually got a C- in Econ 101. White House, Sep. 20, 2007 You'll hear people say in Washington, well, we need to raise taxes in order to either pay for new programs or balance the budget. I happen to believe we can balance the budget without raising taxes if we're wise about how we spend your money. And we're proving it possible.
At the time of this statement, the United States was consistently deficit spending, with Dubya's approval, for every year since 2001. Cleveland, Ohio, Jul. 10, 2007 Three months ago, we've added — over the last three months, we added a million jobs.
Actually, the correct number was half a million, but close enough right? Manassas, Virginia, Feb. 6, 2007  Our economy expanded — so there's a big debate. There's always somebody — do tax cuts work? They work. I understand the politics of cutting taxes. Some like it, some don't. I just asked the American people to look at the facts. Since we cut taxes a second time in 2003, we've added 7.4 million new jobs. Tax cuts equaled new jobs.
Is it just me, or is this economic analysis just a tad oversimplified? Manassas, Virginia, Feb. 6, 2007
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