Posted on 09/25/2008 4:11:28 AM PDT by Kaslin
It isn't often that public outrage peaks so close to an election, but this is a rare moment in history when "we the people" can exact a price from the political leadership that has duped, scammed and lied to them, contributing mightily to the current financial mess.
At the Senate Banking Committee hearings Tuesday, Democrats, led by Chairman Chris Dodd of Connecticut, seemed to think the mortgage crisis, aided and abetted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and other disasters, occurred on someone else's watch. Dodd, joined by ranking Republican Richard Shelby of Alabama, criticized what he said was the ad hoc nature of the government's response to the financial crisis and complained that the Bush administration's proposals lack detail.
Some history is important. It was pressure from the Carter and Clinton administrations that forced Fannie and Freddie to grant more high-risk loans to people who otherwise would never qualify. They mostly wanted to promote not only new home ownership numbers, but also more home ownership in the minority community. That was a noble goal, but the cost turned out to be too high.
Democrats would love to blame the Bush administration for a disaster they mostly helped to create. But, according to the White House, as early as April 2001, the administration warned that the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was "a potential problem," because "financial trouble of a large (government-sponsored enterprise) could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting federally insured entities and economic activity." As recently as June of this year, President Bush asked Congress to take the necessary measures to address growing foreclosures. "We need to pass legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," he said. In July, Congress passed reform legislation, but it was too late.
It is an affront to the nation that some of the people who brought on the crisis (and financially and politically benefited from the status quo) were asking the questions at the Banking Committee hearing. They should have been in the witness chair. Dodd said the crisis was "entirely foreseeable and preventable." Then why didn't he try to prevent it? He should have been answering questions about the PAC contributions he received from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, (according to opensecrets.org, he's the Senate's no. 1 recipient of campaign contributions, $133,900, Barack Obama is no. 3, $105,849), his sweetheart Countrywide Financial mortgage rate and whether they influenced his inattentiveness to the growing mortgage crisis.
If the public wants real reform, it will penalize the people and the party that failed to provide it. Voters can do more than "throw the bums out." They can throw these bums out and replace them with freshmen Republicans who will take office with a reformer's zeal and rebuild the government's financial house before the Potomac fever virus infects them. With John McCain and Sarah Palin already committed to reform (as opposed to Barack Obama's nonspecific "change"), the combination of a new Republican administration and a Republican Congress that has been chastened by its defeat in the 2006 election and imbued with a new zeal to change the way Washington works, could produce a revolution that would have made our Founders proud.
Polls show many congressional races are tightening. But while Democrats are bragging about increasing their numbers and producing a "veto-proof" majority, can the public trust that those who gave us the problem can provide the solution?
McCain and Palin ought to do more than ask voters to elect them. They should call for a complete house cleaning in Washington and ask voters to give them the mop. Real reform won't come with a Republican White House and a Democratic Congress. And it surely won't come with an all-Democratic government. While Republicans could have done much more when they held a congressional majority under a Republican president, they now swear they have learned their lesson. With the public engaged as never before, even Republicans wouldn't be able to get away with business as usual this time.
Let the revolution begin! Judgment Day should come on Nov. 4.
Two terms for Senators 4 terms for Representatives.
We want a Constitutional Convention.
This is akin to having the likes of Jamie Gorelick on the 911 commission. Where is our outrage??
I was ready to throw a rock through the TV set seeing Dodd up there like he was a bystander. ENOUGH ALREADY
They will compare this with the congressional campaign of 1994 and point out the unfocused, inarticulate, and uncoordinated flailings of the Republicans which occurred in 2008.
There are about 40 days left, but I have absolutely no confidence that either the congressional Republicans or, especially, the McCain campaign will find a way to bring home either the reality of systemic democrat failure which led to this crisis or the frightening radical biography of Barak Obama.
Good luck? Most of the “People” get their information fromtv and newspapers. I really get P O’d when they call us “Taxpayers”. What an insult. I say tar and feather the “taxtakers”
I share your concerns. Of bigger concern is the absolute gullibility of the majority of the voting public that is swayed so easily by the ‘crisis du jour’.
What’s to decide for those ‘undecideds’? If they can’t see it clearly by now that candidate Obama is unfit to lead, then we will have lost to the ‘instant gratitification generation’. And ignorance, not age, is the determining facotr. People are not thinking for themselves and doing their own research.
If they did, there would be even more of us here on FR. ;-)
Constitutional Convention? Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea what kind of PC leftist commie crap our Constitution would become?
No thanks. All you need is an amendment to set term limits. I don't trust our generations to construct a constitution for the US that would come anywhere near what our Founding Fathers penned.
Perhaps this is why McCain got the nomination-because he was not Bush. But McCain has permitted his maverick persona to handcuff him when it becomes necessary to get down and dirty and indict the Democrats for the rascals they are. Perhaps John McCain really and truly believes that the country must be governed on a bipartisan basis. If so, he is in for a very very rude awakening if he should chance into the oval office.
Because McCain persists in running at an anti-Republican, there is no coordination up and down the ticket. Republicans who might be in trouble owe McCain no more loyalty than they owe Bush.
bttt
---Ludwig Von Mises
Paulson and Bernanke are choosing option #2.
When in doubt, twist and turn then thrash about
Then blame Bush
- Goldman Sachs CEO, oops, I mean now US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, July 2007
"We must do so in order to avoid a continuing series of financial institution failures and frozen credit markets that threaten American families' financial well-being, the viability of businesses both small and large, and the very health of our economy"
- Goldman Sachs CEO, oops, I mean now US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, September 2008
In 2000 I marched around the Texas Governor’s Mansion in support of W. Now all I can say is, “Too little, too late.” He might have “mentioned” this problem in 2001 but he didn’t scream it. I’m sure he thought he might not get any minority vote if he screamed too loud.
And as I said on another post, he wanted his friends from Mexico to have homes in which to have their anchor babies.
I blame Bush when he knew what was going on and did nothing about it as the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the land.
My sincere desire is that McCain will go to Washington and then announce that he’s studied the problem extensively and figured out that the current problem can be laid at the feet of specific Democrat congressmen and Senators. Then name their names and how they contributed. He should then announce that he does not support the bailout because it will lead to more of the same and instead urge republicans to use Newt Gingrich’s alternative plan.
Great quotes! Was he lying then, or was he just that stupid then?
Exactly. The message that Dems are going to pound home in a unified fashion is that George Bush and the Republicans screwed things up and Democrats fixed it.
The Republicans better get a clue and figure out they're getting rolled.
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