Bailing out the Bailout
Well, another fine mess you’ve got us in now Republicans! First, McCain “cancels” his campaign so that Bush can interrupt the bailout negotiations with a useless photo op. Now at least 2/3’s of the GOP members in the house had their feelings so hurt they voted against the compromise bailout bill.
Of course, that’s not counting the various anti-regulatory actions of the GOP in general and the Bush administration in specific that got us into this mess in the first place!
I’m no fan of Pelosi’s but her speech was mild. She stated in calm and non-inflammatory terms that which is generally known and recognized by Americans. If the GOP is thus offended, then it is up to them to fix it. They largely caused the problems!
If the GOP house members (and McCain) can’t figure out that the country is more important than their own little hurt feelings, then they shouldn’t have their jobs. McCain has been going around the country with “Country First!” signs. It would be nice if just once in his campaign, his words and actions were consistent.
It’s been said that we will know a person by their work. The evidence shows that the work of the GOP seems to be dedicated to stopping the useful work of others.
At this point I agree with those that suggest that the Dems should pass the correct bill - not a compromise bill - and present the GOP with a fait accompli.
September 30th, 2008 at 09:40
Wow, I can’t let this go without comment.
Ms. Pelosi said:
“Madam Speaker, when was the last time someone asked you for $700bn?
It is a number that is staggering, but tells us only the costs of the Bush administration’s failed economic policies: policies built on budgetary recklessness, on an anything-goes mentality, with no regulation, no supervision, and no discipline in the system.”
These are incendiary and demonstrably false and unnecessarily partisan statements.
The basis of the current economic problems is sub-prime mortgages enabled by the government sponsored Freddie Mac & Fannie Mac and the well-intentioned but problematic Community Reinvestment Act which encouraged the bad loans.
Let’s look at some history of attempts of regulation that Pelosi ignores:
Here is that same Bush administration trying in 2003 to add regulation to Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E3D6123BF932A2575AC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
In 2006, we see a well known senator attempting to add regulation to the same agencies. The bill went nowhere.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=109-s20060525-16&bill=s109-190#sMonofilemx003Ammx002Fmmx002Fmmx002Fmhomemx002Fmgovtrackmx002Fmdatamx002Fmusmx002Fm109mx002Fmcrmx002Fms20060525-16.xmlElementm0m0m0m
If Rep. Pelosi seriously wanted the bill to pass, she could have tried encouraging rather than political grandstanding. But no, for her, partisan politics was more important.
Granted, hurt feelings is a poor reason to vote for/against a bill. But let’s not forget that the bill could have passed without a single Republican vote, but a third of Democrats voted against it, too. Apparently, there were issues with the bill beyond just an offense.
September 30th, 2008 at 14:17
Rick,
Good to hear from you, but I believe we disagree. The sub-prime mortgages were always just a small portion of the total mortgages. In themselves, they would not be enough to bring down the credit markets.
The articles you ref are interesting, and Barney Frank made a rather unfortunately quote there in the first. But it’s also true that the leverage the banks were using, and the lack of SEC oversight in this play major roles.
The 30-1 leverage that the investment banks were using made a small number of failing mortgages able to collapse much much larger markets. In fact, it almost made it inevitable. This 30-1 leverage was made possible by exemptions that were allowed by the SEC chair. The SEC chair was appointed by Bush. The leverage that normal banks are allowed is 5-1.
The SEC oversight problem has been commented on extensively elsewhere. The US deficit issue I added here since the very large debt sets a tone in the markets as well.
And given some of the GOP attacks in the past I’m amazed at the GOP House members citing hurt feelings as a reason to vote this down. If they can dish it out, they should be able to take it.
Any way we look at this, it’s a bad situation. I’m not convinced this was the best bill. But I’ve come to just hope for “good enough” from Congress.