Your Opinion: GOP policies roiled economy

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Dear Editor:

A message to Democrats:

The Republicans are skating free on the worst economic disaster since the 1930s and the Democrats need to do something about it.

I was Republican policies of cutting taxes, raising spending and de-regulating the financial industry that caused the great recession and the financial crisis from which we are all suffering. People are out of work, losing their homes and seeing their retirement accounts shrivel.

Republican policies caused this. All during the Bush administration budget deficits soared and investment banks and mortgage lenders created a financial house of cards based on subprime mortgage loans and exotic financial products like collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps. All of this activity was unregulated. The markets ran wild. In 2008 that house of cards collapsed. And now the Republicans are fighting tooth and nail against new regulations aimed a preventing it all from happening again.

Democrats need to tell people about this. And while they are at it they should stand up for what they have accomplished since Obama came into office. We have had four quarters of GDP growth, TARP monies are being recovered at a profit, the Fed has earned record profits on its bailout monies and turned those profits over to the Treasury, credit markets are coming back to life and there are signs the job market is starting to improve.

These successes have been due in large part to the Democrat-sponsored stimulus package that the Republicans opposed and to regulatory efforts also backed by the Democrats and opposed by the Republicans. Not only did Republicans cause the mess, they continue to obstruct and oppose efforts to fix it and they want to implement more of the policies that brought it about, tax-cutting and de-regulation.

Why do the Republicans do this? Because they have become the party of the wealthy class and have only the interests of the wealthy at heart. From Reagan through Bush real wages in manufacturing fell one percent while real income of the top one percent increased 135 percent. The Constitution says "We the People" established the Constitution for several purposes, one of which was to "promote the general welfare" The Constitution is there to promote the welfare of all, not just the welfare of the rich. The Republicans just don't get it.