Bush on the economy and accountability: "A lot of the decisions were made before I arrived" [View All]

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Bush: 'I Did Not Compromise My Principles'
President George W. Bush Says He Will Leave Office With 'Head Held High'

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Politics/Story?id=6354012&page=2



President Bush said that his administration responded promptly to the economic crisis.

"When you have the secretary of the treasury and the chairman of the Fed say, 'If we don't act boldly, we could be in a depression greater than the Great Depression,' that's an 'uh-oh' moment," he said.

Through government action such as the Troubled Assets Relief Program, Bush insisted that the government has taken the necessary first steps towards economic recovery.

"Slowly but surely, the system is becoming unthawed, and it's going to take time for the system to become unthawed," he said. "What the American people have got to know is we've taken the steps to unthaw it, which is the first step to recovery.

"The American people got to know that we will safeguard the system," he said. "I mean, we're in. And if we need to be in more, we will."

While many have cast blame on the Bush administration for mishandling the economy, the president said he did not have feelings of guilt for the financial collapse.

"You know, I'm the president during this period of time, but I think when the history of this period is written, people will realize a lot of the decisions that were made on Wall Street took place over a decade or so, before I arrived in president," Bush said. "And when people review the history of this administration, people will say that this administration tried hard to get a regulator. And there will be a lot of analysis of why that didn't happen. I suspect people will find a lot of it didn't happen for pure political reasons."