"If you'll remember, according to Conservatives the economy can't afford any regulations, including environmental. "

We have regulations and we have had regulations since the founding of this nation.
Your idea that we don't have any regulations and Conservative are against having any is foolish.

Conservatives are for some regulations and are against other types of regulations. The Dems want some regulations and are against other types of regulations.
This is obvious.
It's also obvious that in terms of sheer volume of govt regulations there is a lot of it- and of course a large portion of this sheer volume govt regulation involves a multitude of rules governing how various agencies manage themselves. In other words much of the regulation applies internally to a government organization rather than merely rules it enforces upon the public.

It's also obvious that the dems favored laws requiring lending institutions to give more loans to people who were poorer and had a higher risk of not repaying the loan.

When home prices were rising [fairly quickly] it seemed "fairer" to many lawmakers to allow poorer people the opportunity to "make money" by buying houses which would later go up in value.

Such an idea is pretty stupid and it of course had consequences, but obviously in general there is no shortage of stupid.

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