Posted on 09/21/2008 4:10:35 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Dems say they won’t get fooled again By: Glenn Thrush September 21, 2008 06:51 PM EST
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) says he’s seen this movie before: The Bush administration, citing an unprecedented national threat, puts the hammer on Congress to ram through gargantuan legislation with a minimum of review — and the murkiest of repercussions.
“We will do something this week — but if we learned anything from right after 9/11, it’s that the biggest mistake is to pass anything they ask for just because it’s an emergency,” Leahy says.
The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman knows of what he speaks. He sponsored the original Patriot Act, only to feel betrayed later when the Bush administration used it to justify domestic wiretapping.
Historically, breathtaking national crises have spurred Congress to act swiftly, sweepingly and in bipartisan lockstep, with ornery legislators casting aside years of bickering to produce consensus at breakneck speed.
But the current generation of Democratic congressional leaders feels burned — and not a little humiliated — by the Bush administration’s use of the 2001 attacks to justify both the speedy enactment of the controversial and complex USA Patriot Act and congressional authorization of the resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq.
“They can’t get away with what they did in 2001,” Leahy said. “This will be ‘trust but verify.’ The biggest mistake they can make is holding a press conference while we’re negotiating to say there’s going to be a worldwide depression if Congress doesn’t do exactly what we want them to.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
The Democrats first step to giving our country away to terrorists. Ironic thing though, they’ll be the first to fall.
You mean the Dems will make political points?? Who would have thought? /s
The same old jackass have begun their braying again!
Old Leaky Leahy (America’s own Socialist) at it again, eh?
This should be interesting.
Yes, we’ve seen this before. A program created by Democrats, lauded by Democrats, protected by Democrats, staffed by Democrats, and run into the ground by Democrats blows up and now the US taxpayer has to pick up the tab.
Fannie and Freddie were the root cause of this problem, Patty.
But the current generation of Democratic congressional leaders feels burnedYeah, since they've only been there since the early 70's they aren't all that experienced just yet.
HAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHA!!!!!
They will pass it, they can’t say no to socialism and the continued killing of America!!!
Will they help save the nation or pander for votes?
...........never mind.......
For once I think the old goat is on the right side of an issue - have you read the proposed bill (we’ve been calling it the “No Banker Left Behind Act”)?
It’s frightening in its vagueness and unlimitedness.
I think that this is one bill that needs not to be rushed through - the repercussions are too great.
LQ
I didn’t say it was good or bad - I said Leahy is about the last person in government to be complaining about anything...
I’ve written to my three reps and asked them to not vote for this bill. For whatever good that will do. I fear this is a fait accompli.
Good! Block it! Kill it! Drive a stake through its socialist heart so it never rises again! Then get the hell out of the way, you worthless old bag of wind.
If Republicans are smart, they'll agree with the dems and give me a boost of enthusiasm this election.
Stand back and let the dems throw spitballs at each other.
By "our side", I mean those of us who have concluded that, even at the risk of financial collapse, Paulson's "Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)" must be opposed, because it puts too much power and money, with no oversight but with complete legal immunity, in the hands of the very bankers who played such a substantial role in creating this crisis, for their clear benefit, at enormous expense to this nation.
I elaborated my opposition to TARP more in an earlier post, The Mother Of All Frauds(Digesting the Bailout Bill) - Post #23
If the 'Rats do manage to sink TARP, and if there is a major financial panic in the next month, then they would have a hard time (though I'm sure the media will come to their rescue) avoiding the blame for that panic.
I'm still long popcorn futures.
I know how you feel. All they care about is getting reelected so they can rape, pillage and plunder us all repeatedly.
This book exposes the precise modus operandi that's being used here, as well as when most social-engineering sort of legislation is proposed.
But I think their heads would explode if they were exposed to its pages.
None of these pygmies in either party cares about freedom. No one will stop anything. They won't even read it.
Pat Leahy is a lying sack of filth. Needs to go back to being an extra in Batman movies.
“Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) says he’s seen this movie before: The Bush administration, citing an unprecedented national threat, puts the hammer on Congress to ram through gargantuan legislation with a minimum of review.”
We know what is said about a broken clock...Leahy is correct this time.
Bush wants to ram this through so we the people do not have time to read it.
This little idiot is up to his old tricks again although he is in his 11th hour.
Republicans may be facing the bankruptcy of their free-market philosophy,
This ponzi scheme was anything but a free market operation. Two gigantic companies chartered by the Federal Government, not subject to taxes, license to operate without fear of loss or failure, a gang of congressmen willing to do whatever they wish to improve their market position, and a whole bunch of former government officials getting rich quick. A real free market operation, my a$$. This was a very carefully crafted and refined manifestation of a long standing policy of the Democrat Party: provide home loans to people who can't afford them and won't pay them back. The Democrats, and unfortunately, many Republicans, thought that this lunatic idea had no downside.
“It would be a grave mistake to say that we're going to buy up the bad debt that resulted from the bad decisions of these people and then allow them to get billions of dollars on the way out," House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday.
What hutzpah! Barney Frank is standing up to his neck in this pile of manure and he helped put it there. He is one of the masterminds of this entire scheme, and now he is going to claim that he had nothing to do with it.
Unfortunately, the Republicans will do nothing to counter these outrageous comments and the press will breathlessly report them as if they are the truth come down from the mountain and engraved in stone.
Stand by, folks, you are about to get the bozos who put this together running the entire economy. Start a vegatable garden now, you are going to need it.
It’s the easiest trillion dollars Wall Street ever stole
Bush did not want to ram this thru.
He wanted things to take their course.
But on Thursday when CD's were suddenly worth LESS than par and treasuries were worth 0% and the stock market began to dive quickly below support we were headed into very, very rough waters...not just for bankers...for everyone.
“It’s the easiest trillion dollars Wall Street ever stole”
You have no idea how angry I am.
Bless you. You’re the first on this thread to see it. It’s a sad day when I have to rely on a Democrat to save me, but there are too many people on the side of crony capitalism.
My Senators are Inhofe and Coburn. ‘Nuff said.
If I thought Leahy was seriously contemplating killing it, I would support him. But there’s no way, 6 weeks before an election, that either side is going to allow nothing to be done. Letting them pass it in its current state might be better than giving them extra time to lard it up with all manner of political mischief.
Hey, what’s up?
I respect your comments. But did you read this? It was posted on FR a few hours ago: (And yes, I do respect Newt’s comments here.)
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Before D.C. Gets Our Money, It Owes Us Some Answers [Newt Gingrich]
Watching Washington rush to throw taxpayer money at Wall Street has been sobering and a little frightening.
We are being told Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has a plan which will shift $700 billion in obligations from private companies to the taxpayer.
We are being warned that this $700 billion bailout is the only answer to a crisis.
We are being reassured that we can trust Secretary Paulson “because he knows what he is doing”.
Congress had better ask a lot of questions before it shifts this much burden to the taxpayer and shifts this much power to a Washington bureaucracy.
Imagine that the political balance of power in Washington were different.
If this were a Democratic administration the Republicans in the House and Senate would be demanding answers and would be organizing for a “no” vote.
If a Democratic administration were proposing this plan, Republicans would realize that having Connecticut Democratic senator Chris Dodd (the largest recipient of political funds from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) as chairman of the Banking Committee guarantees that the Obama-Reid-Pelosi-Paulson plan that will emerge will be much worse as legislation than it started out as the Paulson proposal.
If this were a Democratic proposal, Republicans would remember that the Democrats wrote a grotesque housing bailout bill this summer that paid off their left-wing allies with taxpayer money, which despite its price tag of $300 billion has apparently failed as of last week, and could expect even more damage in this bill.
But because this gigantic power shift to Washington and this avalanche of taxpayer money is being proposed by a Republican administration, the normal conservative voices have been silent or confused.
It’s time to end the silence and clear up the confusion.
Congress has an obligation to protect the taxpayer.
Congress has an obligation to limit the executive branch to the rule of law.
Congress has an obligation to perform oversight.
Congress was designed by the Founding Fathers to move slowly, precisely to avoid the sudden panic of a one-week solution that becomes a 20-year mess.
There are four major questions that have to be answered before Congress adopts a new $700 billion burden for the American taxpayer. On each of these questions, I believe Congress’s answer will be “no” if it slows down long enough to examine the facts.
Question One: Is the current financial crisis the only crisis affecting the economy?
Answer: There are actually multiple crises hurting the economy.
There is an immediate crisis of liquidity on Wall Street.
There is a longer time crisis of a bad energy policy transferring $700 billion a year to foreign countries (so foreign sovereign capital funds are now using our energy payments to buy our companies).
There is a longer term crisis of Sarbanes-Oxley (the last “crisis”-inspired congressional disaster) crippling entrepreneurial start ups, driving public companies private, driving smart business people off public boards, and driving offerings from New York to London.
There is a long term crisis of a high corporate tax rate driving business out of the United States.
No solution to the immediate liquidity crisis should further cripple the American economy for the long run. Instead, the liquidity solution should be designed to strengthen the economy for competition in the world market.
Question Two: Is a big bureaucracy solution the only answer?
Answer: There is a non-bureaucratic solution that would stop the liquidity crisis almost overnight and do it using private capital rather than taxpayer money.
Four reform steps will have capital flowing with no government bureaucracy and no taxpayer burden.
First, suspend the mark-to-market rule which is insanely driving companies to unnecessary bankruptcy. If short selling can be suspended on 799 stocks (an arbitrary number and a warning of the rule by bureaucrats which is coming under the Paulson plan), the mark-to-market rule can be suspended for six months and then replaced with a more accurate three year rolling average mark-to-market.
Second, repeal Sarbanes-Oxley. It failed with Freddy Mac. It failed with Fannie Mae. It failed with Bear Stearns. It failed with Lehman Brothers. It failed with AIG. It is crippling our entrepreneurial economy. I spent three days this week in Silicon Valley. Everyone agreed Sarbanes-Oxley was crippling the economy. One firm told me they would bring more than 20 companies public in the next year if the law was repealed. Its Sarbanes-Oxley’s $3 million per startup annual accounting fee that is keeping these companies private.
Third, match our competitors in China and Singapore by going to a zero capital gains tax. Private capital will flood into Wall Street with zero capital gains and it will come at no cost to the taxpayer. Even if you believe in a static analytical model in which lower capital gains taxes mean lower revenues for the Treasury, a zero capital gains tax costs much less than the Paulson plan. And if you believe in a historic model (as I do), a zero capital gains tax would lead to a dramatic increase in federal revenue through a larger, more competitive and more prosperous economy.
Fourth, immediately pass an “all of the above” energy plan designed to bring home $500 billion of the $700 billion a year we are sending overseas. With that much energy income the American economy would boom and government revenues would grow.
Question Three: Will the Paulson plan be implemented with transparency and oversight?
Answer: Implementation of the Paulson plan is going to be a mess. It is going to be a great opportunity for lobbyists and lawyers to make a lot of money. Who are the financial magicians Paulson is going to hire? Are they from Wall Street? If they’re from Wall Street, aren’t they the very people we are saving? And doesn’t that mean that we’re using the taxpayers’ money to hire people to save their friends with even more taxpayer money? Won’t this inevitably lead to crony capitalism? Who is going to do oversight? How much transparency is there going to be? We still haven’t seen the report which led to bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It is “secret”. Is our $700 billion going to be spent in “secret” too? In practical terms, will a bill be written in public so people can analyze it? Or will it be written in a closed room by the very people who have been collecting money from the institutions they are now going to use our money to bail out?
Question Four: In two months we will have an election and then there will be a new administration. Is this plan something we want to trust to a post-Paulson Treasury?
Answer: We don’t know who will inherit this plan.
The balance of power on election day will shift to either McCain or Obama. Who will they pick for Treasury Secretary? What will their allies want done? We are about to give the next administration a level of detailed control over big companies on a scale even FDR did not exercise during the Great Depression. Is this really wise?
For these reasons I hope Congress will slow down and have an open debate.
And in the course of that debate, I hope someone will introduce an economic recovery act that makes America a better place to grow jobs. I hope the details will be made public before the vote.
For more details on my action plan for getting the American economy back on track and building long-term economic prosperity, you can read this message recorded yesterday to American Solutions members.
This is a very important week for the integrity of the Congress.
This is a very important week for the future of America.
If Washington wants our money, then it owes us some answers.
09/21 03:08 PM
Newt's proposals are good but they are pie-in-the-sky right now. Capital gains to 0%. Comprehensive drilling? OK...these may very well get done under a McCain administration but there is 0 chance under this Congress and we need a plan NOW.
Look at this very dramatic story. This is no joke.:
1/8 of CD's were about to be sold out of fear Thursday. This would have sent the DOW down to the 8,000 range. The Short temporary short selling ban is a small help for now, but that debt on the bankrolls needs to get dealt with FAST.
But now that Leaky Leahy has come out against it, I am going to have to rethink my position.
I suppose this could fall under the principal that a broken watch is correct two times a day, but I would rather rely on a broken watch than agree Leahy.
THe law as written would allow Paulson to deposit $700 billion in his personal Swiss bank account. And explicitly says his actions are not subject to review by any agency or court.
By the way, I love your screen name. It gave me a good positive laugh.
With great diligence and care, I will read what you just sent me…tomorrow morning. I am a morning person and extremely awake in the a.m. as apposed to this hour, an hour which I am ready to turn off the lights.
Respectfully and thank you.
Leahy? I’m supposed to believe something said by Leahy? I’d believe something said by Castro before I’d believe something said by Leahy.
If Vermont had not been occupied by leftist clowns in the last few decades (see Howard Dean), Leahy would not be in the Senate.
LOL! Wonderful
The shear unmittigated gall is mangificent. Emperor Palpatine has nothing on this guy. It isn't by accident this guy got to the top of GS. Quick thinking, bold moves, keep everyone else off balance, oh, and did I say no moral scruples.
I think the bill is already on line. It’s so short that anyone who hasn’t read it needs to be drawn and quartered. No excuses.
How do we plan to fight this? This is our country, the country of we the people and not the country of “you” the crooks.
It use to be “to arms, to arms the British are coming.”
Fill in the blanks for today’s political robbery agaist we the people.
Actually, what I meant to say that anyone voting for this bill who hasn’t read it should be drawn and quartered. :)
There was nothing to fool them the first time. How can they be fooled ‘again’?
Ol’ “Leaky” Leigh! ‘Nuff said.
Oldplayer
“We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
-In the Continental Congress just before signing the Declaration of Independence, 1776.
Benjamin Franklin
You have to admire the stones of a Secretary of the Treasury who would run a protection racket on the taxpayers.
“You have to admire the stones of a Secretary of the Treasury who would run a protection racket on the taxpayers.”
And little idiot Bush who is pushing this and does not know the time of day.
I know that bringing up this war in Iraq thingee is going to make me unpopular, but I am going to do it anyway. Bush and his neocons so wanted their war in Iraq that they had to sell their souls to the democrats. In order to get funding for Iraq, Bush has pretty much had to give in to anything else that congress wants.
You have no argument from me. It makes sense.
LOL!
They’re still taking donations from Fannie and Freddie.
The Dems weren’t fooled, they’re just waiting for someone to put money in their pockets.
“Bless you. You’re the first on this thread to see it. It’s a sad day when I have to rely on a Democrat to save me, but there are too many people on the side of crony capitalism.”
Can you define for me the difference between crony capitalism and a healthier form of capitalism? I hear this term sometimes, but I am not as economically saavy as I am in other fields.
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