Free Republic

I'll keep this short and sweet. Someone needs to tell McCain that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the epitome of failed government regulation. They were created to regulate the way loans are doled out, n'est pas? So the next time His Highness, Obama, slams McCain for "bragging" about being a de-regulator, he needs to grow a pair and point this out! And while he's at it, he needs to create "ECORN" Expose the Community Activist Right Now. Okay, I feel better now. I can eat my sandwich.

This morning I received an email from the Obama campaign. In it they lay out their plan to attack John McCain for his role in the Lincoln Savings and Loan collapse. At first I thought this a move of foolishness, but then I read a report in the Washington Post that only reemphasized the connection. Nothing like a willing media to distort history and fill your minds with innuendo. And lies. Dems: Forget Ayers, Remember Keating "During the savings and loan crisis of the late 80s and early 90s, McCain's political favor and aggressive support for deregulation put him at...

It is essential to the future that we not let the Democrats get away with this "deregulation" canard they have pulled out post the Paulson-Pelosi bailout. The subprime mess was a direct result of an unsupervised and corrupt government program. Yes, private actors got involved, and yes regulators were not as effective cops on the beat as they could have been, but core of the problem was fannie and freddie, not "deregulation". We must win this argument for the American people.

Important information about the deregulation bill Democrats are blaming for causing the economic problems:The bills were introduced in the Senate by Phil Gramm (R-TX) and in the House of Representatives by James Leach (R-IA). The bills were passed by a 54-44 vote along party lines with Republican support in the Senate and by a 343-86 vote in the House of Representatives. Nov 4, 1999: After passing both the Senate and House the bill was moved to a conference committee to work out the differences between the Senate and House versions. The final bill resolving the differences was passed in the...

Anyone who tries to explain the Wall Street crisis in a single sound-bite is foolish…or worse. But House Democratic Leaders have found a culprit they can agree on: deregulation. “This is the fruit of decades of ‘leave the market alone, don’t regulate it. It will take care of itself,” Says House Banking Committee Chairman Barney Frank. His solution? “Clearly we’ve got to get some regulation here.” “The Bush Administration’s eight long years of failed deregulation policies” is the problem, declares House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “A stark failure of the economy and this administration’s laissez faire, take the referee off the...

My father-in law keeps telling me our state (PA) is deregulating electric by the end of 2011 and that we are going to see a 30% increase in rates. I can;t seem to find anything about this anywhere. I always thought deregulation was a good thing...

At this week’s G8 Summit, the cost of gasoline is one of the main topics of discussion. With the price of crude oil hovering around $136 a barrel, the industrialized world is looking for answers. But none seem to exist right now. Some blame the skyrocketing costs on increased demand. However, the International Energy Agency does not expect the demand for diesel and heating oil to grow by much — only 0.9 % in 2008. Others are blaming low oil reserves. OPEC says otherwise. In fact, it increased its production. Its secretary general, Abdullah al-Badri, told Reuters on Tuesday, “The...

  The Library of Congress > THOMAS Home > Bills, Resolutions > Search Results THIS SEARCH THIS DOCUMENT GO TO Next Hit Forward New Bills Search Prev Hit Back HomePage Hit List Best Sections Help Contents Display GPO's PDF Display Congressional Record References Bill Summary & Status Printer Friendly Display - 2,526 bytes.[Help] TRUCC Act (Introduced in Senate) S 2910 IS 110th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 2910To require brokers to disclose and pay independent truckers for any fuel surcharges received from shippers that relate to fuel costs paid for by the truckers. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES April 24, 2008 Ms. SNOWE (for herself...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- You know things are very very bad on Wall Street when a guy like Henry Paulson -- Treasury secretary, solid Republican, and former Goldman Sachs CEO -- joins the crowd calling for more regulation over the financial markets. Paulson spared no one in his criticism Thursday of the excesses of deregulation that has now created the worst global financial crisis in a generation, threatening the health of the U.S. economy, the savings of millions of Americans, and the survival of some of the biggest financial institutions in the world. Wall Street and Washington both failed big time,...

BALTIMORE (AP) — Constellation Energy frustrated Maryland regulators yesterday by skipping a hearing to discuss costs passed on to consumers because of deregulation, highlighting a standoff between the state and the utility over increasing energy costs. The state's Public Service Commission scheduled the hearing to address Constellation's complaints about recent commission reports on costs and decommissioning expenses for nuclear power plants at Calvert Cliffs, which were transferred to Constellation under a 1999 settlement. An order for the hearing specifically required the attendance of Constellation subsidiary Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. (BGE) and "invited" Constellation to attend to answer questions more...

ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O'Malley yesterday said he plans to do all he can to restore state regulatory power over utilities, a day after Constellation Energy announced a lawsuit to recoup $386 million it says Maryland shouldn't have forced them to give customers. "I also want to add that we will spare no expense when it comes to investing in whatever additional legal help that we need, or whatever professional experts and consultants we need, or expert witnesses in order to stand up for the best interests for the people of our state," Mr. O'Malley said. The governor, who reconfigured...

ANNAPOLIS -- Gov. Martin O'Malley said yesterday that the state will make available an additional $5 million to Marylanders struggling to pay their electric bills, after a 50 percent rate increase by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, said the money will enable 3,000 more families to receive assistance. The state's energy-assistance program has been increased to $57 million for people who meet the income-eligibility requirement of 175 percent of the federal poverty line. Mr. O'Malley said that equates to roughly $40,000 in annual income for a family of four. "There are very few issues that are...

BRUSSELS -- The European Union unveiled an ambitious blueprint for combating global warming and boosting energy efficiency, but key elements of the plan face strong opposition from business interests and could require major battles to get them implemented. The European Commission yesterday published a long-awaited proposal for the bloc's first common energy strategy, a version of which will be discussed at a summit of the EU's 27 national leaders in March. "Europe must lead the world into a new -- or maybe one should say post-industrial -- revolution: the development of a low-carbon economy," said commission President José Manuel Barroso....

TOKYO -- The decline in Japan's population could undermine the country's economic recovery unless workers perform more productively, and the new economy minister is taking aim at inefficient industries and workers. Hiroko Ota, who took office in September, faces an economy that is back on track after more than a decade in a slump. Japan's big structural problems have mostly been fixed: The banks have cleaned up their bad loans, and prices have stopped falling. Japan's economy grew at an average of more than 2% a year from 2003 through 2005, and it is expected to grow another 2% or...

Are streets without traffic signs conceivable? Seven cities and regions in Europe are giving it a try -- with good results. "We reject every form of legislation," the Russian aristocrat and "father of anarchism" Mikhail Bakunin once thundered. The czar banished him to Siberia. But now it seems his ideas are being rediscovered. European traffic planners are dreaming of streets free of rules and directives. They want drivers and pedestrians to interact in a free and humane way, as brethren -- by means of friendly gestures, nods of the head and eye contact, without the harassment of prohibitions, restrictions and...

PARIS A man who played a key role in the deregulation of the U.S. airline industry in 1980, Tom Allison, at the time chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, says that if senators had known then what they know now about airline deregulation, they would never have passed the measure. Allison says that by lifting restrictions on airline competition, and on where airlines could fly, Congress unintentionally created unending disruption and cost to both industry and consumers, with gross accompanying inefficiencies. In an interview given to the International Herald Tribune in February, intended to influence the current debate...

ANNAPOLIS -- Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. (BGE) executives say state lawmakers are "overplaying their hand" by trying to negotiate lower electric bills with threats to block the company's multibillion-dollar merger with a Florida utility. "They understate the value of our proposal and overstate the value of their leverage," said Robert L. Gould, communications director for Constellation Energy Group Inc., the parent company of BGE. "The legislature needs to be more realistic." Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican, and leaders of the Democrat-controlled General Assembly have rejected the power company's offer to phase in a 72 percent increase in...

Impending increases in electricity bills will bring Maryland in line with average energy costs in the region, but that hasn't stopped the political blame game over the hit to voters' wallets. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican seeking re-election, has borne the brunt of the attacks from the Democratic-controlled legislature, the state Democratic Party, his gubernatorial rivals and even longtime supporters. "The governor's focus hasn't been on finger pointing and it hasn't been on casting blame," Ehrlich spokeswoman Shareese N. DeLeaver said yesterday. "It has been on working with legislative leaders to mitigate the 72 percent rate increase. Period."

AUSTIN - Under electricity deregulation, Texans have paid some of the highest rates in the nation -- a reversal of at least a decade of relatively cheap electricity under the state's old regulated system. That's the conclusion of a national utility expert, who also reports that those in deregulated states typically have had larger rate increases than customers in states still under regulation. Separate academic reports likewise show, after making adjustments for inflation and other factors, that electricity prices in Texas have gone up since 1996, while those in regulated states have gone down; and that in general terms, electricity...

Maryland candidates for governor and the U.S. Senate are scrambling for ideas on how to prevent astronomic electricity-rate increases in the summer and say the issue will play a prominent role in both races. The Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. plans to increase rates by 72 percent in July, the expiration date for artificial caps imposed by state legislators in 1999 to ease Maryland's move into deregulation. Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and his opponent in the Democratic primary, Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, think the state should force the utility company to reduce rate increases by threatening to delay...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate has agreed to put an additional $1 billion this year into a program to help poor people with energy costs, but only after overcoming resistance from warm state senators who said those suffering from summer heat weren't getting their fair share.The additional spending would increase to $3.1 billion the amount the federal government will have this year for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, a decades-old program that subsidizes heating and cooling costs for poor families.The legislation, which still must be considered by the House, passed by a voice vote Tuesday, but only after a...

Under the delayed payment plan, BGE customers would pay less than the market rate for the first eight months. For the remaining months of the two-year plan, customers would have to pay extra charges to make up for the amount of their true bill. Customers would have to pay 5 percent in annual interest. Against its staff's recommendation, the Public Service Commission ordered that all BGE customers would be automatically enrolled in the deferred payment plan, though they can opt out and pay the full market price to avoid interest payments.

The Republican Congress can’t seem to touch health care without making America sick. While Health Savings Accounts are a recent plus, the long-feared Medicare drug benefit premiered January 1 to widespread panic. Seniors are confused and frustrated, while fiscal conservatives stand aghast as tax dollars fly from the Treasury like bats fleeing a cave. Congress can redeem itself with a simple and cost-free cure rather than an elaborate and expensive complication. The Health Care Choice Act, sponsored by Rep. John Shadegg (R., Ariz.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), would let American consumers purchase health insurance across state lines, just...

HOUSTON, Sept. 9 - Republican leaders in Congress and some White House officials see opportunities in Hurricane Katrina to advance longstanding conservative goals like giving students vouchers to pay for private schools, paying churches to help with temporary housing and scaling back business regulation.

The story of Hurricane Katrina is first and foremost a tale of the wrath of Mother Nature and the resulting human misery: thousands of deaths, destroyed homes and businesses, family break-ups, psychological demoralization, and other hardships too painful to recount. But Katrina is also an economic story in terms of its impact on U.S. commerce, trade, energy, shipping, and overall growth. Here the doomsayers and pessimists are once again going to be proven wrong. This is not the 1970s.After more than twenty years of deregulation the U.S. economy is flexible and resilient -- even in the face of short-run shocks.Consider...

NEW YORK - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced on Friday that phone companies no longer have to share their Internet lines with rivals. The decision is a big win for phone companies such as SBC (nyse: SBC - news - people ) and Verizon Communications (nyse: VZ - news - people ), which no longer have to provide deep discounts to competitors, but a major setback for independent ISPs like EarthLink (nasdaq: ELNK - news - people ). In the past, phone companies were required by law to provide competitors with access to their lines. That meant independent Internet...

State officials and Eastalco officials hope an energy consultant can help the Frederick aluminum plant trim its projected electricity costs and stay open. "The 640 jobs at Eastalco in Frederick are very important to us," said Chris Foster, deputy secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development. "If it were 64 jobs it would be important to us. Every job is important." DBED's plan to hire a consultant is a response to Eastalco's stalemate with its electricity supplier, Allegheny Power. Thursday was DBED's deadline for bids from consultants. DBED considers Eastalco just an example of how Maryland's manufacturers...

It's India Above China in New World OrderHBSWK Pub. Date: Jul 28, 2003 Can India overtake China? That's the title of an influential new article in Foreign Policy magazine. A Q&A with authors Yasheng Huang of MIT and Tarun Khanna of HBS. by Martha Lagace, Senior Editor, HBS Working KnowledgeComparing India and China is to embark on an old puzzle that has fascinated smart people for centuries. The newer question of economic leadership, however?Which country will overtake the other in the foreseeable future?" —is an urgent and important one, according to a provocative article in the July-August issue of...

/begin my translationWorld's Big Financial Players Flocking to India-- Market Liberalization Accelerates --On 14th of last March, American investment firm Warburg Pincus put on sale  its 6% holding of an Indian telecom company, Bharti, at Indian stock market.  Buy orders had instantly poured in and were all sold out in 26 minutes. The sale price was $560 million, the largest in Indian stock market history, and the whopping 477% earning ratio for the company.Major financial players of the world are converging to India. Global private equity fund, the Carlyle Group, and the Blackstone Group of U.S. recently opened their Indian...

Is the California Wholesale Energy Market Slowly Deregulating? Written by Wayne Lusvardi Wednesday, May 18, 2005 “Why is there only one monopolies commission? -- Anonymous The recent report that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has committed California to a 1,300-mile interstate power line project called the Frontier Line begs the question: “is California slowly deregulating electricity anyway after the so-called failed experience with energy deregulation in 2001?” (see “Importing power, fostering pollution – 4-state electric line encourages coal-fired plants”) If California has subtly deregulated wholesale electricity markets it is one of the quietist pieces of news in the press who continue to...

Federal regulation of business is often described naively, as if intended to rein in rather than bail out companies. But regulation actually has often coddled inefficient firms by keeping competition down and prices up. Protectionist regulation, like protectionist trade policy, is just a disguised subsidy by consumers of politically favored businesses. The New York Times provided a revealing example of who really lobbies for government regulation and why. The article "Coffee, tea or regulation?" was about political efforts to get the government back into regulating airline fares and routes. "Representatives of labor unions and some consumer groups," it explained, "long...

representatives of labor unions and some consumer groups, long for the stability of the time, before 1978, when the government decided fares and determined where airlines would fly. Labor unions in particular are looking for an alternative to the current situation, having been hit this decade by five airline bankruptcies, the elimination of more than 120,000 jobs and cuts of as much as 50 percent in pay and benefits. These groups say it is time to consider reregulating airlines, or at least to start a debate about how to stabilize an industry that may be so vital to the nation's...

One analyst says he thinks electricity is among the few things not open to free-market competition. With just 11 months left before a five-year move to electric deregulation in Ohio is complete, competition hasn't materialized and it seems unlikely that state regulators can ever make it happen. Deregulation was instituted in 2000 under a mandate by the Legislature. The initial promise was to lure outside suppliers to Ohio that would offer competing rates on electricity - and savings to northwest Ohio consumers who historically have paid some of the highest rates in the state. But so far, the only benefits...

Neoliberalism and the Demise of Democracy: Resurrecting Hope in Dark Times by Henry A. Giroux www.dissidentvoice.org August 7, 2004 Neoliberalism has become one of the most pervasive, if not, dangerous ideologies of the 21st century. Its pervasiveness is evident not only by its unparalleled influence on the global economy, but also by its power to redefine the very nature of politics itself. Free market fundamentalism rather than democratic idealism is now the driving force of economics and politics in most of the world, and it is a market ideology driven not just by profits but by an ability to reproduce...

...In an era of general acceptance of deregulation and privatization, Mr. Spitzer has introduced the world to yet a new form of regulation, the use of the criminal law as an in terrorem weapon to force acceptance of industry-wide regulations. These rules are not vetted through normal authoritative channels, are not reviewable by any administrative process, and are not subject to even the minimal due-process requirements our courts require for normal administrative rule making. The whole process bears no resemblance to a rule of law; it is a reign of force. And to make matters worse, the regulatory remedies are...

Senator John Kerry could find his presidential hopes damaged this week when the 62 television stations owned or managed by the Sinclair Broadcasting Group carry a documentary about his antiwar activities 30 years ago. But the Democratic nominee for the White House may not be the only one adversely affected. Sinclair - the nation's largest owner of television stations, many of them in electoral swing states - is itself running a significant financial and political risk by telling its stations to pre-empt regular programming and carry the film. Already, Sinclair's decision has alienated some advertisers; enraged consumer and media watchdog...

...Basic problems remain the same, however. And so do many of the proposed solutions. In Washington, Democrats continue to push statist prescriptions to America's health care ills; at the state level, legislatures experiment with them. It would be easy, thus, to assume that while Hillary Clinton lost the battle, she is winning the war.... Tomorrow, President Bush shouldn't just emphasize HSAs (which Sen. Kerry, incidentally, opposes). He can map out further reforms that will make health insurance more affordable: • Tax fairness. While employer contributions to health insurance are non-taxable, individuals must pay in after-tax dollars. Leveling the tax field...

New Zealand is the easiest place in the world to do business, according to a new report from the World Bank. "Doing Business 2005" says New Zealand tops the 145 nations surveyed by the World Bank on seven measures of administrative and regulatory impediments, most of which deal with barriers to entrepreneurial undertakings rather than the actual operation of business. The other nine of the top ten nations are, in order, the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Norway, the UK, Canada, Sweden and Japan. The top score is an average of New Zealand's performance on the seven indicators and...

How many more Americans could afford health insurance if they weren't forced to buy coverage they don't want? Rep. John Shadegg (R., Ariz.) aims to find out. Today, he and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R., Ill.) introduce legislation — whose title forms the acronym, the "CHOICE" Act — to allow individuals to avoid unnecessary regulatory costs by purchasing health insurance from whatever state they wish. The result would be more affordable health insurance for everyone and fewer uninsured. You've heard of Doctors Without Borders. Get ready for Health Insurance Without Borders. Five different states require consumers to buy coverage...

Healthy CHOICE Deregulating health insurance. By Michael F. Cannon How many more Americans could afford health insurance if they weren't forced to buy coverage they don't want? Rep. John Shadegg (R., Ariz.) aims to find out. Today, he and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R., Ill.) introduce legislation — whose title forms the acronym, the "CHOICE" Act — to allow individuals to avoid unnecessary regulatory costs by purchasing health insurance from whatever state they wish. The result would be more affordable health insurance for everyone and fewer uninsured. You've heard of Doctors Without Borders. Get ready for Health Insurance Without Borders....

A transmission line failed in Arizona, then a substation relay malfunctioned, a major nuclear generating facility went off line and three other power plants went down like dominoes this past Monday morning. "This incident certainly had the potential to cascade out of control," said Gregg Fishman, a spokesperson for the California Independent System Operator. However, "the automatic systems that detect and react to under-frequency events worked as planned, reducing loads immediately," he said. What could have been the Western version of last August’s blackout in the Northeast was averted last Monday when automatic systems performed as planned in response to...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) With dry weather predicted for a third summer in a row, British Columbia may experience its worst drought since the Great Depression, water experts warned. ``We're in such a drought situation that even if we did get torrential downpours for the next few weeks, it wouldn't matter,'' provincial fire information officer Nancy Argyle said Wednesday, ``and the forecast is for the opposite of that.'' Amid a warm, dry spring and facing predictions of more of the same throughout the summer, Argyle said British Columbia could face even more forest fires than last year's record season. --snip--...

On Monday May 3, 2004 at 1117 PDT the CAISO issued a system warning due to lack of available capacity and higher than anticipated temperatures and loads in Southern California. At 1420 the CAISO declared a Transmission Emergency. They dropped 122 MW of pump load and requested SCE to drop all available interruptible load. SDG&E had already initiated interruptible load shedding. Approximately 700-750 MW of load relief was experienced. CAISO Pump load was restored at 1741. At 2200 the CAISO terminated the Restricted Maintenance Operation. At 2359 the CAISO terminated the Transmission Emergency

MEMPHIS — The scanners are the least impressive things at the FedEx global distribution hub here in Memphis. The first thing you notice during the overnight sort is the endless parade of planes stacked up in the night sky. Then there are the swarms of workers who descend upon the planes once they land and strip them of their cargo. Then begins the scramble of the caterpillars — little motorized tugs towing strings of cargo containers pell-mell around the complex and honking out warnings at every intersection. They're bringing about 1.3 million envelopes and packages a night to vast sorting...

WASHINGTON — If one huge corporation controlled both the production and the dissemination of most of our news and entertainment, couldn't it rule the world? Can't happen here, you say; America is the land of competition that generates new technology to ensure a diversity of voices. But consider how a supine Congress and a feckless majority of the Federal Communications Commission have been failing to protect our access to a variety of news, views and entertainment. The media giant known as Viacom-CBS-MTV just showed us how it controls both content and communication of the sexiest Super Bowl. The five other...

<p>SACRAMENTO - Assembly Speaker-elect Fabian Nunez will push a Southern California Edison-backed bill that would again allow "direct access," a cornerstone of the 1996 deregulation law that let consumers choose their own electricity provider.</p> <p>The bill, which hasn't been introduced yet, would also ensure that utilities could recover the cost of building power plants and contracting for electricity from independent generators, Edison officials and an aide to Nunez said Friday.</p>

CRAWFORD, Tex., Dec. 30 — The Bush administration's twin moves on Tuesday to ban the dietary supplement ephedra and the sale of meat from cows that appear to be sick on the way to the slaughterhouse underscores a simple White House maxim these days: with an election approaching, even a president who came to office assailing government regulation cannot do too much to protect consumers. By all accounts, there was no grand political plan to embrace government activism suddenly — events forced the administration's hand. Ephedra's fate has seemed clear since a 23-year-old pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles died after...

Whatever Happened to Deregulation? "The Bush administration's twin moves on Tuesday to ban the dietary supplement ephedra and the sale of meat from cows that appear to be sick on the way to the slaughterhouse underscores a simple White House maxim these days: with an election approaching, even a president who came to office assailing government regulation cannot do too much to protect consumers," The New York Times reports. "The man who drew cheers in 2000 by promising to roll back government interference with the private markets has, in recent months, gladly signed legislation to restrict telemarketing and e-mail spam,...

<p>Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger is preparing a push to deregulate the state's electricity markets -- a move embraced by business leaders and some energy analysts but criticized by many Democrats and consumer advocates as a return to the failed policies that sparked California's energy crisis.</p>

HERE we go again. In August, the power went out in much of the Northeastern United States. As electric customers lit candles at home and work, the critics hit the airwaves claiming the big blackout was caused by deregulation. We've heard this all before, especially after the California energy crisis three years ago and, more recently, when the first former Enron officer went to prison. Though the final verdict is still out, it now appears the great Northeastern blackout was mainly a result of human error. That's not to say the power grid doesn't need upgrading; it clearly does. But,...