Declaring President George W. Bush's “economic legacy is selfishness” for daring to propose letting people invest a portion their Social Security payments in the stock market, on Sunday's Meet the Press the Washington Post's Michelle Singletary charged Bush “should be ashamed of what he's left us.” The Post-based nationally-syndicated “Color of Money” personal finance columnist contended that as a “regular mom and churchgoer” she's “just so disheartened by what Bush did to us” economically by “fighting a war that we couldn't win.” She got the last word, an overly dramatic one at that, during the panel's assessment of Bush's legacy:
He did all of this, I think, at the detriment of our country, our economy. And I think the regular American people are sitting here going, “We're in this war, and you said you couldn't afford health care, and yet all these billions of dollars are over there. And I have no job, no health care and probably no house.”
Singletary, who is also a contributor to NPR, appeared with Todd Purdum of Vanity Fair, Newsweek's Richard Wolffe and Rich Lowry of National Review. Two of her December 28 comments:
His economic legacy is selfishness. You know, you look at what they wanted to do to Social Security. Imagine if our money was in the markets right now, which is one of the things that he wanted to do. I think this, this administration failed on so many levels when it came to the economy, including not regulating the banks and letting things happen that shouldn't have happened with the mortgage industry. And, you know, he should be ashamed of what he, what he's left us.
....
You know, I listen to this conversation, and I'm sort of thinking, you know, as the, as the regular, you know, mom and, and churchgoer, and I'm thinking, you know, all this -- I'm just so disheartened by what Bush did to us, and, and all this focus on fighting a war that we couldn't win. I mean, all the generals sort of told you that going in. And you said sometimes stubborn. He wasn't sometimes stubborn, he was always stubborn. And, and he did all of this, I think, at the detriment of our country, our economy. And I think the regular American people are sitting here going, "We're in this war, and you said you couldn't afford health care, and yet all these billions of dollars are over there. And I have no job, no health care and probably no house."
