when you say "Congress", you are referring to the now republican control right? How about this. The economy was great for 6 of the 8 years Bush served. In 2006 a Democratic congress was elected, Nancy and Harry took over and it went down from there and at the time had a 29% approval, and dipped to 14% in late 2008.. Bush actually wanted to fix Fannie and Freddie in 2003, Democrats ( Barny Frank specifically ) opposed it because they saw no threat. When Fannie and Freddy fell, that set off the economy collapse. Not calling that the cause of the Economic collapse, but it didn't help.