The war in Iraq was going to be paid for by pumping Iraqi oil either directly or by lowering the price of oil though increased world wide production. Didn’t turn out that way
THANK YOU!
And selling a war by raising those type of reasonable expectations in the public (as I was sold on it myself) is a political disaster, when combined with WMDs. Bush never dug himself out of that one even after successful surge, but he was re-elected so the voters had to look to other republicans to hurt on election days.
I am not saying that the financial crisis bailout didnt hurt real bad, it did. But Iraq, high gas prices, the crash, the debt are all tied together in many voters minds.
And we were going to “grow” out of the deficits created by Medicare part D and other entitlement spending.