>>The Bush administration and GOP failed to provide needed government oversight of the mortgage-backed securities market - we all know how that turned out. Meanwhile the GOP still wants deregulation and still thinks trickle down economics will work. You'd THINK they would learn - but guess not.
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>>Actually, the housing meltdown started with legislation passed during the Bill Clinton years....
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>Not according to factcheck.org --- but this is something that I really don't know much about. I do know that the GOP is big on deregulation though - which of course can cause all kinds of problems (and does).

It's a bit misleading to say that the GOP is big on deregulation - it depends on the situation, but in a number of cases it's a matter of the targeting and direction.

Certainly Bush and the mortgage situation is an example of using the power of the federal govt