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The obvious question: What is it about the experience of being repeatedly beaten up for your lunch money as a child that turns a standard-issue mama's boy into a whiny Republican apologist for big government?Yesterday, it was Brooks in the NY Times denouncing bailout opponents as "nihilists." Today, it's Gerson's turn in the WaPo:
The consensus included everyone who matters -- except 133 mainly conservative House Republicans, along with 95 Democrats, who combined to destroy it. . . . .Look, I'll be 49 years old next week. I've seen too many Washington "crises" to be frightened by this latest freakout. I'm having a hard time thinking of the last time the Beltway establishment consensus was right about anything. Hell, people in D.C. can't even drive, and we're supposed to trust them to run the economy?
House Republicans once again revealed the souls of backbenchers -- spouting their ideological purity from atop the ruins of the financial system. . . .
House Republicans with ideological objections had nothing better to propose and no intention to try. They chose allegiance to abstract principles over practical reality.
As I mentioned yesterday, the last time I saw such broad-based bipartisan panic in Washington, it was over the "crisis" of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. How's that working out for you?
Unlike Brooks and Gerson, I am confident that at some point prior to a nationwide re-enactment of "The Grapes of Wrath," our 17% approval-rating Congress and our 26% approval-rating President will cook up another transparent scheme to swindle the taxpayers out of enough cash to allow the usury lobby to go back to their corporate welfare business as usual.
Everything will turn out fine, whatever the damage to the mutual funds and real-estate values of Brooks and Gerson, so let them go back to practicing how to park their bicycles straight and stop trying to frighten the rest of us.
Thank you for saying this.
ReplyDeleteIf they really wanted to do their job as government, they would make sure that the bankruptcy process is executed fast and efficiently. Actually, they could use their printed money to bail out not the failiures that are going bankrupt, but their victims-creditors. If Washington Mutual owes me three million dollars and goes legitimately bankrupt, the FED could give me an interest free temporary loan while I am waiting for the bankruptcy court to auction the bank off. That would save a lot of money they will waste if they instead deal with the crooks that made and traded these loans in the first place. Of course this way the Congress would just be strenghtening the legal process as it is supposed to which would deny them opportunity to major bribes.
King Henry and his Socialist lackey GWB are selling us all a bill of goods:
ReplyDeleteThe REAL REASON For The Bailout
"Hundreds of billions of dollars are going to bail out FOREIGN INVESTORS. They know it, they demanded it, and the bill has been carefully written to make sure that can happen." - Brad Sherman , D-California.
The Bill says:
(9) TROUBLED ASSETS.—The term ‘‘troubled assets’’ means—
(A) residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages, that in each case was originated or issued on or before March 14, 2008, the purchase of which the Secretary determines promotes financial market stability;
and (B) any other financial instrument that the Secretary, after consultation with the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, determines the purchase of which is necessary to promote financial market stability, but only upon transmittal of such determination, in writing, to the appropriate committees of Congress.
Note carefully - there is no "Made in the USA" requirement, and nothing prohibits a non-US institution from "selling" a security to a US bank, which then immediately resells it to the TARP. Nor is there any provision to prevent Secretary Paulson from defining any other financial asset as "promoting financial market stability", and while he must notify Congress, they cannot block his purchase.
Right. Also we would like to know what percentage of the bad loans are actually residential mortgages. How many local churches serving one ethnicity only, how many affirmative action businisses, how many ACORN officials took out loans they aren't repaying and send the money to Charlie Wrangel instead.
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