Political Punch

I heard Nancy on the NPR news last evening and she was using it as an advertisement for Obama.....stating that he was the one that corrected the wrong and got this thing through congress. It's amazing how unfortunate things become some peoples praise. So- how much of this procurement is really a push to democratic presidency. Obama needs to win this on his own.

Pelosi is a hardcore leftist and misses the whole point. It was a landslide of e-mails and phone calls to representatives that made the difference. Her screeching and bitter voice had nothing to do with it.

Sorry- last post got cut off. Those are from an economist posted on CNN.

There ARE other options. Contact your congressperson.

DO NOT LET THE FOXES INTO THE HEN HOUSE AGAIN!!!

Among the steps that the government could undertake are:

* Suspend so-called mark-to-market accounting rules, which during the past year have required financial firms to write down more than $500 billion in losses.
* Change federal requirements that force banks to keep a certain level of cash on hand for every dollar they lend out.
* Give banks the chance to exchange loan notes for notes from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. As a government agency, the FDIC's notes would be more valuable than the banks' notes, allowing the banks more flexibility to make loans.
* Purchase on a massive scale mortgage-backed securities issued by finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Bush plan calls for the Treasury to buy a broader range of mortgage-backed securities.
* Extend limits on short sales of financial sector stocks.
* Cut the fed funds rate - the Federal Reserve's target for short-term lending - perhaps all the way to zero, or in coordination with rate cuts by other central banks around the globe.

RE: "Blount steps away from claim" is proof he has learned what many on the ranch down here in Texas learn. When you step in it, step away. Otherwise it smells something fierce.

Let them go bankrupt, restructure and revitalize their balance sheet. Giving them more money to throw away, does nothing except ROB wealth from the mid to lower class. In one month's time what say we vote these bums OUT!!!

Some clarification: the CRA has been around since the 70's and did not create this crisis and with responsible lending, the repayment rate for CRA loans is actually historically higher than others. Most of these subprime loans were not done under the CRA nor were they done under Freddie / Fannie or they would have been better regulated. The very reason they are called subprime is that they are not within the standard lending conditions set by F/F regulations (ie: Prime). With so much money flooding into the system, competition drove interest down which hurt bank profits. So banks came up with all these exotic structures which a flow chart of funds flows that look like an exploded can of silly string! They got into all this to make lots of money and the more crazy the lending scheme the higher the fees and interest. These option ARM's are a nightmare and why anyone would give them or take them is beyond me but this is not just poor people, subprime is also lots of middle and high class people who wanted bigger and better houses and these crazy mortgages let them have it. I mean the averagea square foot of new homes has ramped up significantly over recent years and all this is why. F/F got caught up in this and have accounting problems that should have been more closely tracked but to complain that the Dems held all this back when the GOP had clear majorities is just nonsense. There is plenty of blame to go around for all (exept me of course).

Frank & Dodd should be investigated and indicted if found implicated in the RICO scheme that FanFred devolved into, thanks to Carter & Clinton's little CRA social engineering experiment.

Also, as usual, The Golden One is being non-investigated even though he was the second largest recipient of FanFred political donations in only three years in politics.

Anybody smell something, and it's larger than a rat?

Democrats also voted against this deal. Somehow, in pundit discussions, Pelosi drove some willing Republicans away. I doubt that but that's the way it is, one sided discussions as if the voters have no brains.

Why should the taxpaper pay for recklessness by Wall Street and other players in the financial game? They have pocketed profits already but the government will take up even more debt.
Many voters are against this bailout. What's next?

Since when do Congresspeople listen to the speeches of their colleagues?

Posted by: Anonny |
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They can't hear if they are not present. Not many are present when there is a speaker. When I had a job it was a requirement that I be present. A house cleaning is needed. Pelosi, Reed and Franks should be first to go.

Since when do Congresspeople listen to the speeches of their colleagues?

"But, during the last 8 yrs Republicans did nothing to change or ameliorate or deal with any problems, unless you count the whole Terry Schiavo, gay marriage and other such idiotic wedge issues."

A holiday is more important than our survival? If you have lots of money..who cares. As the days go by we the $ amount will probably increase, how much will they ask for next time and how many secrets will be included....like maybe try ACORN again. A house cleaning is needed.

The argument is idiotic. First, the main problem affecting credit is the fact that after making these loans, companies bundled and sold them as a package, with a good credit rating to others, who understood little of the risk they were buying. Once the loans fell through, ppl lost money. That at least, is a very simplistic run down of this crisis. However, it points to one thing in particular. The problem is systemic, and does not relate solely to housing loans.

Ahem, to those that continue to argue that this is all the democrats fault, um, who was in power, in the executive branch for the last 8 years? Oh, a republican...and who was in power in the House and Senate for 6 of the last 8 yrs? republicans. Oh. And who fought with the administration for the right to go after predatory lenders? Governors in NY and other states. So, if we want to be objective, did the dems screw up by pushing for low income housing loans? Yes. But, during the last 8 yrs Republicans did nothing to change or ameliorate or deal with any problems, unless you count the whole Terry Schiavo, gay marriage and other such idiotic wedge issues.

another recent article regarding Fannie/Freddie for people that HONESTLY WANT THE REAL ANSWERS NOT THE MSM ANSWERS. What I find amusing is they seem to complain "the market has hurt their ability to give low income people home loans but they should be able to give more when the market recovers"

Do these idiots not realize GIVING LOANS TO PEOPLE THAT COULDNT AFFORD THEM GOT US HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE. I love how "social justice" is apparently more important than a successful economy even in the face of a collapse.

The Democrats and Republicans are both equally responsible.
The poor and rich (and middle class) are are equally responsible.
This bailout will only lead to the next bailout.
The economy crashing is going to hurt us all- there is no way around it. We are in a deep pit, three decades in the making. We are ALL guilty of greed- cars bigger then we need, houses bigger then we need, more in credit then we can afford.
But we have GOT to stop digging this pit. Let things fall as they will- then strengthen the companies that WERE doing the right thing. And start the rebuild process.

I agree this might look petty, but there's a fundamental problem with what Pelosi said: it proves Democrats have not learned anything from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Some Republicans may have been persuaded that the bill was in the best interest of the country, but when Pelosi went so bitterly partisan, it should have been clear to them that the bailout bill was going to create an even greater moral hazard than Fannie & Freddie.

Both parties are to blame for what is happening in the markets. Only one party knows it.

Yep len. The american people sure can be stupid sometimes. People like barney are right in the middle of this situation and yet accuse republicans. I don't understand why the republicans arent calling out Barney, Dodd, Obama Kerry and Clinton regarding contributions and killing regulation of Fannie/Freddie and the REAL role of Fannie/Freddie in this problem.

Don't we all wish we could say exactly what is on our minds. But thankfully wisdom, experience and common sense help us restrain. Nany Pelosi is a very powerful women who needs to take a persuasive speaking 101 class. When you want people to take up your cause --don't criticize, belittle or disrespect the very people whose support you need. I didn't say I disagreed with Nancy's comments but her timing was very off.

Having had some time to look at what Pelosi said, I suspect she knew she was defeating the bill. She had allowed several of her own associates to vote against it to protect their seats. She then flies in the face of the idea that bipartisan tone would win the day. Frank, an official with more fingers in the fund pies than his party admits, played the catcher.

She knew what she was doing. She was buying Obama the election with our 401ks. Barney is being Barney.

And it’s working.

Let me get this right, The banks loan money to people who can't pay it back. After it all shakes out. The banks are holding up credit to people who can pay it back. If the people who can pay it back don't bail out the ones can't pay it back the banks will hold us hostage until we do bail them out? I'll eat dirt for the next ten years before I would bail out the stupid people who did this. I have the solution, close Wall Street and take the money away from those dumb#####.

I for one am not for the bailout until the TRUTH comes out that in 1999 Fannie/Freddie were deregulated to increase minority home ownership. Beginning in 2003 republicans made 17 requests with 2 bills to regulate Fannie/Freddie but democrats shot it down. Meanwhile the heads of the banking and financial committees Dodd and Barney along with ALL viable presidential nominees Kerry, Obama and Clinton took huge money and lobbied against the bill killing it.

Then Fannie/Freddie make a ton of bad loans in 2005-2007 and now democrats try blaming republicans when everything crashes. The crash is due to "social justice" which the democrats refused to regulate because it would "defeat their goal of increased poor and minority home ownership."

Here's a quote from Dodd who obviously has 0 foresight and has no business being on the banking committee. I know some of you will empty your heads pretend you didn't see that THE HOUSING CRISIS IS PRIMARILY DEMOCRATS FAULT FOR REFUSING TO REGULATE FANNIE/FREDDIE IN RETURN FOR CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS and keep commenting on Bush but this post is for the independants and moderates anyways who matter.

2003 statements from the article -

''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.''

Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

''I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,'' Mr. Watt said.

For those of you buying yesterday's party line (which Blunt is trying to back away from today given how absurd it makes the Republicans look) that Nancy's speech hurt the GOP's feelings and made them vote against it, why was it that not a single GOP member of the House who spoke after her (nine did) made a single comment about her supposedly outrageous speech?? Because this is all hogwash they came up with afterwards.

regulate* these agencies; i swear I didn't typo that sometimes these forums seem odd

'Fannie and Freddie have done just fine over many, many years, providing the resources for many first time home owners. They crashed because of precisely what Speaker Pelosi and everyone else has said: a corporate culture in this Administration wherein every institution was operating on greed, corruption, deregulation, and incompetence. Name the entity, from FEMA to Freddie and Fannie, to the Dept of Justice, and it has all been going wild and wooly, i.e., America burning while Bush and his Republicans fiddled."

LOL. No Fannie and Freddie for several tyears have been loaning to people with bad credit or low incomes to increase minority ownership and selling the bundled mortgages to the banks. In 2003 and 2005 republicans attempted to regular these agencies but paid off democrats like Dodd and Barney killed the legislation.

I suppose its easier to go off on some misguided Bush diatribe though as it doesn't require actually thinking about hte situation.

If 95 democrats voted no, why is this the republicans fault alone?

Posted by: Judy NY | Sep 30, 2008 9:47:27 AM

Because this bill is political suicide and the repubs promised bipartisan support for the good of the country. The Dems put up a 60% majority yes vote, the repubs put up a 67% no vote and killed this bill.

Talk about party over country...those repubs are sick in the head.

If 95 democrats voted no, why is this the republicans fault alone?

Hmmmm...just brainstorming here..but..maybe we should not let these other big companies buy up the huge conglomerates... equalling more big huge comglomerates that if...they fail..will also have such a detrimental effect on our economy....maybe we should keep these finance companies contained..maybe creating more of them..and sharing the risks...and..if it is loans that are keeping the economy handcuffed...why not loan the money directly...so the taxpayers make the money....instead of giving it to the problem childs we don't trust...

Fannie and Freddie have done just fine over many, many years, providing the resources for many first time home owners. They crashed because of precisely what Speaker Pelosi and everyone else has said: a corporate culture in this Administration wherein every institution was operating on greed, corruption, deregulation, and incompetence. Name the entity, from FEMA to Freddie and Fannie, to the Dept of Justice, and it has all been going wild and wooly, i.e., America burning while Bush and his Republicans fiddled.

One has only to look at McCain's campaign to see how inept and devoid of leadership and sound judgements in the interest of the country this "regime" has been.

All financial experts are telling us that the bail out plan is NOT about Wall Street but about Main Street. Without this plan, we have no credit, no interest on savings, no payroll; everything affects us because, there is no Wall Street without the tax payor working and supporting the economy.

Seven days ago, "the fundamentals of the economy were sound". Suddenly, McCain is the savior and parachuted into Washington to save his dying campaign. At the expense of each of us. He took the offer by Obama to issue a joint statement of support of the efforts in Congress to reach an agreement on the plan, with the 6 points stipulating transparency, tax payor investment, mortgage owners' relief, CEO compensation limits, etc, and, within 2 hours, co-opted them as strictly his own, "suspending his campaign", asking for a photo op meeting in Washington, and slamming Obama for "non-involvement". He is not trustworthy and he is not an honest broker. Obama never should have reached out to him.

The Speaker was right. The response by the House Republicans confirms that their motivation is political and ego driven. This economic crisis did not happen overnight. At the last minute, the Republicans are looking at developing another proposal. And Trump, this morning, says this morning's crisis, precipitated by yesterday's failure to pass the bill, is GOOD for the economy because it caused a drop in oil prices by OPEC. I guess it depends on one's perspective. If now we can afford to buy gasoline to go to work but there is no job to go to and no cash/credit with which to buy the gasoline, then we should be celebrating?

I am sorry. You all can write all the hate comments you want that are not relative to the current issue in an attempt to score points, but this is not a sporting event or an American Idol show. It is not a contest of candidates. It is a serious choice of government for the next 4 years. I have no confidence in the Republicans and certainly not in McCain/Palin. In my opinion, Bush/Chaney paved a road to nowhere and McCain/Palin will be the bridge to nowhere that finally gets us there.

The Speaker wants both parties to pass this critical bill that was proposed by the Republican president and the Treasury Secretary. The Republicans cannot weasle out of taking the shared responsibility and need to be accountable. And to correct the comment made earlier, the vote was NOT with the majority of Democrats voting against it. It was in fact, exactly the opposite. Almost the same majority number of Democrats who voted to pass the bill was switched with the same number of Republicans voting against it.

Bush and Paulsen is what we are left with to solve this mess, both Republicans. Both, sitting around for years, months, weeks, doing nothing about this, the MBA president and the Goldman-Sachs CEO. Like Brownie, they have done "a heck of a job".

An unjust war in one country; a neglected war in another; the Dept of Justice in disarray; a CIA agent outed; the abuse of our privacy rights; the drowning of a beloved city; the use of torture to stain our "moral authority"; the complete loss of respect in the world; nuclear proliferation run rampant in countries that should not have them; more enemies than ever before and fewer friends; an economic crisis of gigantic proportions, and the Republicans in Congress "got their feelings hurt" so, took their toys and went home to campaign for their re-election.

If you are happy with this being the new norm, then, go ahead and use all the background noise of made up reasons why you cannot support real Change in the presidential election. But, be prepared for the final destination once you put that bridge in place.

The GOP sound like 2-year-olds. "That big ol meanie Pelosi pointed out that deregulation caused this so I'm going to screw the American people!"

Boo hoo. The 90-odd Dems told the truth about their "no" votes--the uprising of their contituents gave them little choice.

No such honesty from the GOP. (Well, look at who they want to be President--I guess honesty is a character defect in the GOP.)

Hokie Freak

The fact that he is half white has zero to do with his racial preference, and or mindset. According to his own writings he chose to seperate himself from his mothers race, and image. Hello? Anybody home in Hokie ville???? He joined a black lib church, called his grandmother "a typical white person" Get a clue.

OBAMA: "I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I
began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites"

"THAT HATE HADN'T GONE AWAY," he wrote, BLAMING WHITE PEOPLE,- SOME CRUEL, SOME IGNORANT, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives"

"To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more
politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist
professors and structural feminists."

"I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an
ugly direction."

IF just one speech make their decision sway, what kind of congressmen are they?

Come on, Republicans, you are just afraid of losing your election, so you choose the country's downfall.

No, more than half of the Democrats did NOT vote no. Two-thirds of the Democrats voted YES. Two-Thirds of the Republicans voted NO. Please get your facts straight.

So the Republicans got mad about what Pelosi said, but was anything she said false?
Like Truman, she doesn't give them hell, she just tells the truth and they think it's hell.

Americans You are destroying the world's economy. Grow up, please!!!!

Funny that republicans are being blamed because I think there were enough dems that could have voted yes to pass the bailout also, more then half of the dems voted no also. I saw a t-shirt with this saying that hits the nail on the head "Nobama, keep the change".

Bev - Funny you should mention racism, because it is your candidate who chose to join and remain in a racilaly paoarizing church for 20 years, while aligning himself with radical left sometimes racist ideologues including his wife.. So what were you asking Bev?

It's obvious that the Republicans made a political miscalculation. The sad thing is that it's going to have a direct effect on the average Americans job security right before the holiday season. The Republicans run the risk of making this election a landslide. They had better carefully weigh whether it's worth it to the country and to them to push for partisan changes to deregulate financial accounting rules or completely privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Gee Badger1..tell us how you really feel...is there some racism between the lines you are typing?

Is McCain squeaky clean with involvements in Keating 5, and stating that he learned his lesson from that and if so, why didn't he see this coming down the road and do something.
He nor John Glen did not go to jail out of those 5 because he was a POW Hero and John Glen for being an Astronaut.

Ask the vets if they are happy about him voting against them 23 times.

Ask ordinary people if they are happy about losing their homes, when he has 7 and if they are happy walking the streets while he drives 13 cars.

I don't begrudge anyone being rich, what I do begrudge is someone calling someone else an elitist, when you are sitting higher on the mountain then I am.

The Dems better be careful. Most Americans are not in favor of the bailout. Crediting Republicans for not passing it could have dangerous results at the polls. I know that Bush will now offer them ANYTHING to get this passed. If ACORN is in it, we will be screaming and taking Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Dodd, and 0bama DOWN. And I am free to say this since I don't live in Missouri.

Blount has begun to recognize that the repubs will be blamed for the failure to pass this bill. And he also recognizes that if the economy crashes and burns as a result, republicans won't be elected to office again for another two generations.

McCain and Palin on Katie Couric last night looked like Regis & Kathie Lee.

Nancy Pelosi made a highly partisan speech on a day the country was looking for bipartisanship on this bill. It was ignorant, arrogant and reckless. If she was that hell bent on tearing Bush and the republicans a new one, she could have at least waited until AFTER they voted.

Badger,

False accusations about Obama's "criminal" activities have been getting posted for over a year now. And everytime it's some rediculously weak connection to something that is more like seven moves to Kevin Bacon.

That's all you guys have. No policy, no answers, no defense of your incredibly weak candidates - just more lame accusations.

"Why counld't McCain deliver Republican votes when he even "suspended his campaign to do so? Why was taking credit for getting people to the table and getting the bill passed on Sunday?"

Answer: "Well Obama has secret ties to .....blah, blah, blah"

Hahahahaha

REPUBLICAN DESPERATION SETS IN!

1. Pelosi, Frank and any other bonehead in Congress that wants to posture this Bill with election rhetoric needs to recuse themselves of any leadership role because they are not doing just that...lead!

2. If We The People do our job and relentlessly call, email or get in the face of our DC reps to get them off the notion that their Wall Street friends deserve any help other than to fail on their own poor judgements, then interject capital into the market by loaning to those who did NOT make poor choices, then we will see the proper correction needed without delaying the inevetible for another day where we find ourselves back where we are right now!

So the Republicans voted against the bill because Nancy Pelosi was mean to them?

They must ALL be senile if they can't remember the way they treated everyone that disagreed with them when they had power. I'm pretty sure they called me unpatriotic.

What a bunch of pathetic losers.

The smarmey comments certainly didn't help. The scene just before she spoke was of a cheering Barney Frank, the same Barney who delcared a few years ago that "fannie and freddie were ok-nothing to see here, move along., I am in charge here and anyone questioning this great institution has it in for the poor and oppressed"...this after Mr. Raines had been busted for cooking the books.

Well, I guess the longer they all wait to get something done, it will take more then $700 Billion since we lost a Trillion already.

How much more money will it take out of main street's pocket?