Dems Trying To Have It Both Ways

I decided to write this not to point the finger of blame at any particular person or party, but rather to prevent the current financial crisis from being used as a club in the upcoming presidential election.

With the failures of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the gyrations now under way to fix the problem, Barack Obama is out on the stump trying to blame the Bush administration and congressional Republicans for the mess. His running mate, Joe Biden, is cheering him on and saying that deregulation at the hands of Phil Graham is the root cause of the collapse. Phill Graham did sponsor S.900, which effectively repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, true. Democrats at the time, however, showered praise on the accomplishment. Now they want to blame Republican deregulation.

It's bad enough that Obama, Biden, Schumer and others are more concerned with winning back the White House than they are about rescuing the economy, but it's worse that they seem to think none of us have memories. When the Senate passed S.900, also known as Gramm-Leach-Bliley and was a bold deregulatory move, here's what Chuck Schumer had to say then:

"I first want to thank Chairman Gramm and Senator Sarbanes, Chairman Leach, Representative LaFalce, and all of my colleagues who worked so long and hard on this legislation," Mr. Schumer began, "Mr. President, this is a historic moment. We've been working towards it for 18 years ... the future of America's dominance as the financial center of the world is at stake. This bill is vital for the future of our country."

What is he saying nine years later?

"Eight years of deregulatory zeal by the Bush administration, an attitude of 'the market can do no wrong,' have led us down a short path to economic recession."

Yet just five years ago, the President sought to impose more regulation on the institutions, something that never came to fruition.

President Clinton, at the time he signed Gramm-Leach-Bliley into law in November of 1999, had this to say:

"The [Gramm-Leach-Bliley] Act repeals provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act that, since the Great Depression, have restricted affiliations between banks and securities firms. It also amends the Bank Holding Company Act to remove restrictions on affiliations between banks and insurance companies. It grants banks significant new authority to conduct most newly authorized activities through financial subsidiaries."

Just in case he wants to jump into the fray at somepoint and explore a bit of revisionist history as well.

Whether the bailout will prove to be wise is debatable and a cause of spirited disagreement among conservatives, to be sure, but I will continue to write on this subject right up until November 4th. I simply will not allow the democrats to rewrite history unfettered.

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Champions Of The Poor

Democrats hold themselves up to be the champions of the poor. It always struck me as odd that a bunch of rich guys and gals, most of whom have never held a real job outside of Congress, can claim to be "one of us", the working people. They do, though, and quite successfully based on the electoral polls.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were tools used by Congress ostensibly to help poor folks own a home. While home ownership is a big part of "The American Dream", it was never intended to be a guarantee. It was historically the culmination of hard work and personal sacrifice. It may be again once more, but not in the foreseeable future.

Helping people who are not financially capable of buying a home buy one anyway is not only a bad idea, it is cruel, as we are now seeing people who had a small sip of the Dream having it wrenched from their grasp. It's almost like stealing a sandwich and handing it to a starving homeless person with the police in pursuit, who then rip it from his hands just as he's about to take a bite. The sandwich-snatcher then blames the police for taking food from the hungry.

The Bush Administration is now the target, bearing the blame for the woes of Freddie and Fannie, when he tried to fix the problem five years ago.


From the above link, Barney Frank had this to say about Bush's proposed plan:

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''

Note the title for Mr. Frank; ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. Maybe it's time for some new leadership in that area. Oh yes, and another financial expert, in the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Charles Rangel, is in trouble because he had trouble navigating the tax codes! He then had the unmitigated audacity to blame Republicans for his misdeeds. He paid the back taxes, but "penalties and interest were not included in those payments". Yeah, he's just like you and me, alright.

This brings us to Barack Obama, who is leading the charge against the Administration in an attempt to lay blame, and ultimately win the Presidency. But while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were about to crumble, Obama saw fit to accept over $126,000 from them. That's in just three years as a senator, folks. By contrast, John McCain accepted $21,550, over twenty years.

The bottom line here is this; the democrats were opposed to Bush's oversight plan for these two institutions because they claimed it would make it harder for poor people to get homes. So they staved off the inevitable for a little while and in the meantime some poor folks bought houses, which they are now losing again.

While it may appear to be compassionate, it is certainly not helpful at all to give a homeless person a new refrigerator box.

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