Category — Democratic

The market was down big today with the Dow down over 777 points.  However, people are missing the real point in the financial meltdown.  It’s not about where we’ve been, but where we are going.  There is plenty of blame to go around.  Sprinkle some of it on the greedy Wall Street execs who got involved in this mess to pump up their profits, options, and pay.  Put some of it on Congressmen…paging Barney Frank…who turned the issuance of mortgages into a social engineering experiment.  He and others erased traditional mortgage practices, like requiring a down payment, by having Fannie and Freddie create a market for toxic mortgages.  And then last, but certainly not least, are the buyers who thought house values never fell and that interest rates never went up.  Caveat emptor, my friends.

But all that pales in comparison to where we might be heading.  How much more capital will be wiped out before someone provides us with some leadership on this issue?  Will Barack “I can’t postpone the debate” Obama step forward to save us from a depression?  Remember, Barack said he was monitoring it very closely by phone.  I guess that wasn’t enough to get the 95 Democrats support who voted against the bill.

And don’t even get me started with Pelosi.  She lost the support of 40% of her party.  That’s staggering.  Then she has the temerity to blame the minority party because she couldn’t craft a bill that Democrats could support.  By way of comparison, 133 Republicans went against the bill, but our lying liberal media covers that up the actual closeness by saying “the majority of Democrats” voted for it.  Supposedly, Nancy, you are in-charge for a reason.  You have the levers of Congress and enough votes to pass anything you want.  Enough whining about why the minority party couldn’t bail you out.

Unfortunately, House Republicans don’t get a pass here.  If you have an alternate plan, speak up.  This isn’t the time to be sitting on your hands poking holes in everyone else’s plan.  Those are real jobs, 401Ks, and homes people are losing.  If we get double digit unemployment and Dow 5000, your principled stand against market intervention and concern over protecting the taxpayers will play just about as well Smoot-Hawley Act did in 1929.

Sadly, the two people taking a drubbing in the media also have the least blame.  Bush and McCain knew this was serious.  Both tried to bring the parties together, and were ridiculed.  Democrats blamed a lack of regulation, which was clearly an attempt to deflect their responsibility in fomenting the crisis.  The media and Democrats piled on McCain by saying he was running from the debate when he suggested that something needed to be done.  Now they’re saying he blew up the deal although he was clearly the only candidate who understood the serious nature of what we are facing.  Talk about damned if you do, damned if you don’t.  And of course, through it all, the media steadfastly refuses to examine the role that’s continuing to be played by the Freddie and Fannie CEOs in Obama’s campaign.  You just can’t make this stuff up.

Overall, Paulson’s plan wasn’t bad.  Bill Gross offered to value the toxic mortgage debt for the Treasury free of charge.  There aren’t too many people more qualified to do so.  But lower we head and where we stop nobody knows.

Update:  Here’s Pelosi right before the “bi-partisan” vote on the bill today.  Sounds like she was really trying to reach across the aisle, eh?

Archived in: Barack Obama, Congress, Democratic, Democrats, financial melthdown, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi, Presidential Politics, Republican, Republicans, United States House of Representatives, Wall Street