Good Morning Sunbeam Lodge, Thanks for the input. You are spot on on that it is the house and senate that write laws. I was offering this high level list of events as "bush wasn't the only person responsible" for our current situation. I think the "bash bush" headline is a little over done. To your point of there is enough blame to pass along, the 2 laws I referenced were authored by both sides of the isle but the lead was republican senator Phil Graham from Texas. The Fannie May appointment was a presidential action.
We do have the responsibility to prioritize our personal spending like others in this link pointed out. A habit many fell into that we are paying the price for started with the tax reform act of 1987. one aspect was to eliminate all tax deductions from interest payments except your home mortgage. Since home values climbed so high we all thought the "bank" would always have more in it so many started the process of refinancing their property for car loans, then college for kids, and then toys. No problem as long as employment continued and house values kept rising. Unfortunately many were bit by the downturn. I do not know what percentage fall into this category but if it is only 10% we are talking about millions of families.
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