The economy was perfect before Bush got into office 8 years ago. It sucks now. I wont say hes to blame but he did his fair share of spending and he definately didnt do anything to solve the economic crisis were experiencing.
It's not only that. You also need to see where things went. Many other countries during that time tried to put their finances in order. For example Canda and Quebec used those good times to go from deficit to paying down the debt. On the other hand in the US it went into an unprecedented deficit. The economic reality is/was the same for everyone but in the US it was extremely mismanaged.
