Sep 29 2008
Congress Tops Blame For Bailout Mess, 10 Times The Blame On Bush
Addendum: Turns out it was a Bill O’Reilly internet poll. Oh, well … – end update
We caught a glimpse of a stunning poll on The O’Reilly Factor. Â O’Reilly briefly showed a poll of who Americans blamed for the Financial Crisis. Â The Democrat led Congress took top spot for the blame with something like 56% pointing the finger there (it was a glimpse!). Â Bush was at the bottom with only 5% of the blame. Â If true, we may see a major political shake up crossing the nation. Pelosi’s premature partisan blame game, along with the fact she let 40% of her caucus bail on the bailout, has come back to hurt the Dems who now own the financial mess.
It doesn’t matter one bit who gets blamed.
People are afraid for their jobs, their houses and their life savings.
The party of economic security is going to destroy the party of economic freedom this election.
Be careful.
I’ve long suspected that a majority of Americans still believe that Republicans have a majority in Congress.
A generic “Congress is to blame” could just as easily be “those lousy House Republican wackos!!!” as a comment on Pelosi… Certainly it combines Republicans who blame Pelosi, Democrats who blame Cantor or McCain, and everyone who says “a pox on both their houses.”
McCain offered his party a golden opportunity for a miraculous come-from-behind victory this fall, but free-marked purists like John Boehner (egged on by buffoons like Dick Morris and Newt Gingrich) spit in his face. Amazing.
Rasmussen now shows that Obama is headed for a landslide win, and maybe a filibuster proof senate. Thanks a lot, “conservatives”. I’ve never before been ashamed to have called myself one. I am now.
“Polling this week in Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia shows that Barack Obama has gained a net 3 to 5 percentage points in each state compared to the previous Fox News/ Rasmussen Reports poll.
In Pennsylvania, Obama now leads by eight percentage points, 50% to 42%.
In Virginia, it’s Obama 50% and McCain 47%.
The candidates are within a single point of each other in Colorado (Obama 49%, McCain 48%), Florida (Obama 47%, McCain 47%), and Ohio (McCain 48% Obama 47%). ”
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/fox_rasmussen_polling/fox_rasmussen_swing_state_polling_september_28_2008
I saw that poll. Not sure how much I trust it, but it is encouraging.
That being said, everyone needs to remember that the election is five weeks away. A lot can happen – and probably will.
Either she’s really pushing for communism, or she felt that if she could have gotten it on the record of the vote it was all Bush’s fault the MSM would have covered the Dem’s ass….. again.
In the vernacular of today’s youth, Pelosi first pwned (owned, dominated) the Republicans by getting agreement on her bill and then punked (humiliated) them with her accusatory “unpatriotic” comments.
She is running roughshod over them and they can’t do a thing about it since she holds her caucus together.
The Repub’s are weak and dispirited. They are her bitches.
They had a little tantrum today, will apologize tomorrow, will go back to being her doormats and approve the bill like good little momma’s boys.
Discusting.
The bill will pass this week, not because of Repubs, it will be the Dems that change their votes.
I have to disagree. Pelosi has a majority. If she holds her caucus together, they can pass anything they please. And the Republicans delivered 65 votes for the bailout.
But when 40% of the Dems voted against it, it failed. Pelosi has NO leadership skills. Watch for Steny Hoyer to challenge her for leadership in the next Congress.
AJ – I am afraid it is close to being over. Unless there are a whole lot of people who aren’t talking, Obama is pulling away. I love your blog because of your optimism and spirit. But, I think the Couric interview was a game changer. I don’t believe it was fair. Yet, she wasn’t up to it. Yes, there is a higher bar and the MSM is in full “get Obama elected mode.” Let’s start to consider what that will mean when they have the whole kit-n-caboodle – who will they blame in two years? If I sound hopeless it is because I am really bummed. I work for a brokerage firm and today, for the first time in my 26 year career, when I was looking at CDs – the CDs that went out more than 1 year had a red disclaimer saying they posed a risk – that there was a possibility of principal loss. WOW, things are scary and because the media refuses to ever cast blame on the Dems – they have let the foxes into the hen house – the proverbial wolves in sheep’s clothing have taken over. It is a fricking disaster and the nation wants to vote for the prom king…
VA Voter
I hope, for the sake of the country, that you’re right.
Pelosi had no intension of having this bill pass. It was a set up from the beginning. Now they will craft another to suit the dems and will pass it. A give away to all their friends like Acorn. Then it will be her bill, Obama’s bill and not the President’s. She will save the country.
Coming out of the first debate 4 years ago Kerry was riding a wave like Obama is today. 2 things I am certain of: 1. Polls (pollsters) cannot be trusted. Recent oversampling of Democrats and black voters have intentionally polluted the averages of late, and these are just the poor methodologies they’ve admitted to using. 2. Obama still has some tricks up his sleave. He has 10s of millions of dollars still in the bank to blister McCain, and his claims won’t even have to be factual. The MSM has not challenged him thus far on his background or any of his outlandish, nasty, and distasteful attacks (even Biden had to repudiate one). Why would they start down the homestretch?
Palin needs to be herself and allow Biden to say the ridiculous and outright moronic things for which he is known. If she can frustrate Biden, paint Obama as the far-leftist that he is, and demonstrate a comfortable grasp of the issues in front of a more than likely hostile moderator we will find McCain leading again this time next week. This is not a stretch at all.
To maintain any sort of edge McCain needs to get on the front page. He must show the stark contrast between the two camps and expose Obama for the radical he is. Repeat Obama’s voting record until people are tired of hearing it. Talk about taxes, the surge, his left of Planned Parenthood abortion votes, and hang this finance debacle not on the failure of free markets, but on the failed policies pushed by mostly Democrats in the Congress. Then McCain will not only be ahead, he will be the next President of the United States.
Blame Fannie Mae and Congress for the Credit Mess
By Peter J. Wallison, Charles W. Calomiris
Posted: Tuesday, September 23, 2008
ARTICLES
Wall Street Journal
Publication Date: September 23, 2008
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac curried favor with Congress by championing affordable housing–a mission that filled their balance sheets with risky subprime and Alt-A loans and allowed them to enjoy years of lax congressional supervision. A 2005 bill would have subjected the GSEs to stricter regulation, but it never passed the Senate Banking Committee. The same politicians who today decry the lack of intervention to stop excess risk taking were the ones who blocked the only legislative effort that could have stopped it.
The strategy of presenting themselves to Congress as the champions of affordable housing appears to have worked. Fannie and Freddie retained the support of many in Congress, particularly Democrats, and they were allowed to continue unrestrained. Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass), for example, now the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, openly described the “arrangement” with the GSEs at a committee hearing on GSE reform in 2003: “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have played a very useful role in helping to make housing more affordable . . . a mission that this Congress has given them in return for some of the arrangements which are of some benefit to them to focus on affordable housing.” The hint to Fannie and Freddie was obvious: Concentrate on affordable housing and, despite your problems, your congressional support is secure.
In light of the collapse of Fannie and Freddie, both John McCain and Barack Obama now criticize the risk-tolerant regulatory regime that produced the current crisis. But Sen. McCain’s criticisms are at least credible, since he has been pointing to systemic risks in the mortgage market and trying to do something about them for years. In contrast, Sen. Obama’s conversion as a financial reformer marks a reversal from his actions in previous years, when he did nothing to disturb the status quo. The first head of Mr. Obama’s vice-presidential search committee, Jim Johnson, a former chairman of Fannie Mae, was the one who announced Fannie’s original affordable-housing program in 1991–just as Congress was taking up the first GSE regulatory legislation.
In 2005, the Senate Banking Committee, then under Republican control, adopted a strong reform bill, introduced by Republican Sens. Elizabeth Dole, John Sununu and Chuck Hagel, and supported by then chairman Richard Shelby. The bill prohibited the GSEs from holding portfolios, and gave their regulator prudential authority (such as setting capital requirements) roughly equivalent to a bank regulator. In light of the current financial crisis, this bill was probably the most important piece of financial regulation before Congress in 2005 and 2006. All the Republicans on the Committee supported the bill, and all the Democrats voted against it. Mr. McCain endorsed the legislation in a speech on the Senate floor. Mr. Obama, like all other Democrats, remained silent.
If the Democrats had let the 2005 legislation come to a vote, the huge growth in the subprime and Alt-A loan portfolios of Fannie and Freddie could not have occurred, and the scale of the financial meltdown would have been substantially less. The same politicians who today decry the lack of intervention to stop excess risk taking in 2005-2006 were the ones who blocked the only legislative effort that could have stopped it.
You can read the whole article here.
SBD
September 28, 2008 on the House Floor.
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor, realizing that we are in a severe financial situation in this country on Wall Street that will have a negative effect on Main Street as well. It must be addressed, and it must be addressed quickly.
Those who support and those who used to work for Goldman Sachs will support this deal. Those who have gotten contributions from Countrywide will support this deal. Those who have gotten substantial contributions will support this deal. Most importantly, those who have blocked reform in the past will support this deal.
I will not support this deal as it has been laid out so far. If you want to know how to find out more about how we got here, just simply go to YouTube, and put in “burning down the house,” and you will get a better understanding of exactly how we got here and why we should not be going back to the very same parties who brought us here with this solution.
Watch “Burning Down the House!!
SBD
Burning down the house was awesome. Very well put together. Leaves no confusion……as Joe Friday would say, “The facts M’am, just the facts”. All facts presented here can be verified on Google.
It is a little long (11min) and goes pretty fast. But well worth the time to see. If it goes to fast, use the pause button to stop on each frame you want see it more fully.
Now go look at section 106 of the ‘‘Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008’’ http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/rescuebill_First_Draft.pdf
It still wants to skim off 20% of the profits of each sale to fund this housing fiasco and ACORN. If you object to this, then write, email or call your Representative. Slice the pork out. You can make a difference. According to the vote today, many have.
how did your rep vote? http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll674.xml
Find your rep here: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
Find your Reps website here: http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.shtml
Forward this on to all you know. Let the truth out.
This one is pretty good too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis
I am disgusted with the whole damn lot of them.
I know that Pelosi is worthless as Speaker. She can not lead. Hoyer should have gotten that job.
And I know that the Democrats have a majority too. I think she might be able to get them to pass it, but she will have to put all that stuff back in there that Republicans did not want. They will vote in even larger numbers against it, and she will take credit for saving the planet.
Republicans should have gone for this bill, Democrats too. I hope I am wrong, but when I hear people like Steve Forbes say we are in big trouble, I just don’t think we can ignore that. I think way too many people are being way too cavalier about all this.
And yes, I know the Democrats and their support of Fannie and Freddie had a lot to do with this. I know the Bush administration as far back as 2003 wanted to do something about this.
But you know what? The Republicans had a majority from 2002 to 2006 and if they had spent more time worrying about the financial sector than they did Dubai the Mexican invasion and lining their own pockets while in Congress…maybe we would not be here.
But hey, they will just blame Bush and the Republicans and Obama will win.