September 18, 2008 Pelosi: Economic disaster 'comes from Bush failed policies' Play video

(NECN: Washington) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today blamed President Bush and Republican presidential nominee John McCain for the turmoil in the financial markets.

Verbatim (Pelosi):

"What we really need now is confidence, and confidence is hard to come by at a time when there's so much bad news emerging from our financial markets. The -- what we have now is a manmade disaster, a disaster that sprang -- comes from the Bush failed policies, the failure of the Bush administrations to steward our economy in a responsible way.

The impact on the middle class is tremendous. It has affected the way people plan for college, their retirement, their home ownership, the security of the American people of what is happening, because it has a direct impact on their lives. What would be hoped for would be an apology to the American people for the situation that we are in.

George Bush and -- as I say, they have no credibility. How else could John McCain, in the midst of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, tell the American people the fundamentals of our economy are strong?