Posted on 04/22/2010 7:44:07 PM PDT by Bigtigermike
In the wake of the recent financial meltdown, Americans know that we need reform. Not only have many individuals learned lessons about personal responsibility through this, but we’ve been able to engage in a discussion about government’s appropriate role.
The current debate over financial reform demonstrates what happens when political leaders react to a crisis with a raft of new regulations. First off, the people involved in writing government regulations are often lobbyists from the very industry that the new laws are supposed to regulate, and that’s been the case here. It should surprise no one that financial lobbyists are flocking to DC this week. Of course, the big players who can afford lobbyists work the regulations in their favor, while their smaller competitors are left out in the cold. The result here are regulations that institutionalize the “too big to fail” mentality.
Moreover, the financial reform bill gives regulators the power to pick winners and losers, institutionalizing their ability to decide “which firms to rescue or close, and which creditors to reward and how.” Does anyone doubt that firms with the most lobbyists and the biggest campaign donations will be the ones who get seats in the lifeboat? The president is trying to convince us that he’s taking on the Wall Street “fat cats,” but firms like Goldman Sachs are happy with federal regulation because, as one of their lobbyists recently stated, “We partner with regulators.”
They seem to have a nice relationship with the White House too. Goldman showered nearly a million dollars in campaign contributions on candidate Obama. In fact, J.P. Freire notes that President Obama received about seven times more money from Goldman than President Bush received from Enron. Of course, it’s not just the donations; it’s the revolving door. You’ll find the name Goldman Sachs on many an Obama administration résumé, including Rahm Emanuel’s and Tim Geithner’s chief of staff’s.
We need to be on our guard against such crony capitalism. We fought against distortion of the market in Alaska when we confronted “Big Oil,” or more specifically some of the players in the industry and in political office, who were taking the 49th state for a ride. My administration challenged lax rules that seemed to allow corruption, and we even challenged the largest corporation in the world at the time for not abiding by provisions in contracts it held with the state. When it came time to craft a plan for a natural gas pipeline, we insisted on transparency and a level playing field to insure fair competition. Our reforms helped reduce politicians’ ability to play favorites and helped clean up corruption. We set up stricter oversight offices and ushered through a bi-partisan ethics reform bill. Far from being against necessary reform, I embrace it.
Commonsense conservatives acknowledge the need for financial reform and believe that government can play an appropriate role in leveling the playing field and protecting “the dynamism of American capitalism without neglecting the government’s responsibility to protect the American public.” We’re listening closely to the reform discussion in Washington, and we know that government should not burden the market with unnecessary bureaucracy and distorted incentives, nor make a dangerous “too-big-to-fail” mentality the law of the land.
- Sarah Palin
clyde5445 can tell ya what the Senate Republicans did.
:-)
McConnell objected to bringing the bill to the floor of the Senate to start debate. In other words, He kick Reid in nads at least for awhile.
Good to hear it, they’d better hang tough with this one. They need to be standing up in front of cameras every hour and lighting into the dems sweet and corrupt relationship with Goldman Sachs.
Argh! You can blame it on Wall Street greed, but the precipitator was “Community Reinvestment Acts” that FORCED Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to issue loans to UNQUALIFIED recipients. Mae and Mac were actually getting sued by Civil Rights groups for refusing loans to minorities even though their denials were justified based on the numbers. Soooo... Fear of being victimized by the almighty race card led to thousands upon thousands of loans granted that could KNOWINGLY not be repaid.
If you’re a greedy little child (Wall Street) and you want some candy, you can be as greedy as you want but you’re not going to get anywhere if your parents (the Gov’t) refuse to give it to you (silly analogy I know, but you get my point) What happened here is that the parents gave the full candy jar to the child and LEFT THE ROOM.
The GOV’T, under pressure from the “hand-out” liberals like Barney Fwank and Dodd, is single-handedly responsible for triggering the domino effect of the economic downturn.
Crony Capitalism ping. Go Sarah!
Sarah is a threat to both party Establishments. Romney, on the other hand, is the epitome of the politician who works hand and glove with big business. Bush made a dreadful mistake in his last choice of a treasury secretary.
I know that a lot of people shy away from comparisons to Reagan, but I don't. In fact, in an important way, Sarah excels Reagan, in her willingness to take on the media.
Reagan's way of dealing with the media was to smile at them and ignore them. Perhaps that was the best he could do at the time, since there was little in the way of an alternative media.
Sarah has withstood a merciless media attack campaign, and not only is she not shying away from controversy, but she continues to attack the media itself.
God love her, and godspeed, Sarah.
The men who spurred us on/
will sit in judgement of our wrongs.
That song has been going through my head for the last 20 years.
Nice backhanded, sexist, condescending compliment. No one would say that about a man.
That is no small thing. It seems obvious now that this is why she was so successful, and popular, in Alaska.
She will announce shortly after the November elections. I can't wait.
She wrote letters to the editors in Alaska for years and also to the WSJ and no one questioned her then.....
What? That she writes these posts herself?
I think she does, because she won a speechwriting award early in her career (in college?).
But like I said, at the very least, she's approving these postings, so they reflect her thought. Reagan had speechwriters. But he rode herd on them, as when he insisted on the "tear down this wall!" line, over their objections.
His post has nothing to do with her gender, he’s approving everything she said.......
Anything can happen between now and 2012 but i feel the wind is at Sarah’s back and for other conservatives, the passage of Obamacare changed everything, it totally weaken Romney, it rallied the tea party even more, it got some Americans sitting the sidelines to finally wake up and get it.....etc. the MSM, saved FOX, is losing audiences left and right, people overwhelmingly want smaller fiscal government.......its our time to fight back and win
The SEC lawsuit against GS is phony, and just take a look at all the principle players tied to Goldman-Sachs including the Regime Leader himself.
The CEO of Goldman was at the WH four separate times, and I am thinking he went up there so that he and the White House could devise a strategy to come up with some sort of scandal that was convincing enough to get people behind the White House and the "Wall Street Reform" bill crafted by Dodd, because too many people have been conditioned to believe Wall Street is evil and corrupt.
Here we have are a bunch of criminals in the White House with ties to Goldman-Sach's chasing after a bunch of "criminals" on Wall Street. It's political kabuki.
All of this "Wall Street Reform" is nothing but an attempt at this White House nationalizing the investment industry.
Dodd is on his way out, and if this bill passes, this will be his lasting legacy that will survive long after he's left the Senate.
They give this Regime Leader too much respect he ain't deserved.
This would be a great article IF Palin had someone write it for her (most presidential aspirants have speech writers). Now what if she wrote it herself? Yikes, she will clean clock.
I sure hope its actually Palin who wrote that because that is sooo spot on and illustrate someone who gets it!
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