Whoa. What happened? I think I blacked out for a few days. The last thing I remember is trying to wrap my head around the thought of our government bailing out failed businesses to the amount of $700 billion when it was our government that gave those businesses a friendly shove in that direction. Hang on to your seats, folks. This conservative woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
I am just sick and tired of Washington bureaucrats, career politicians, and the willingly ignorant liberals who refuse to admit that conservatism works and always has. As I’ve said before, these idiots are causing us all kinds of problems and then they turn around and promise to fix them with more of the same garbage that caused the problems in the first place. Even a child will be able to follow my logic on this one (unless, of course, that child is a liberal).
First on my hit list this morning: Jimmy Carter. In 1977, the Community Investment Act was passed by a Democrat Congress and signed by President Carter. This was a nice little advancement for the liberalist movement (the policies formally known as socialism). The purpose of this Act was to insure that everyone could get a loan. Like much of socialism, I mean, liberalism, it sounds like a noble cause except not everyone can afford to go out and buy a house. For example, anyone with two fingers can swipe a credit card when checking out at Wal-Mart, but that doesn’t mean they should. You see, the way credit works is it has to be paid back.
Next up: Bill Clinton. Slick Willy was praised for his economic accomplishments, but what exactly did he accomplish? Pay attention now. Clinton signed the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Before you call me an evil racist, understand that this treaty assured all people they had a “right” to housing. Again, it sounds very noble, but remember, this is all leading up to the great crisis of today.
Of course, what’s a Democrat without compassion for the “little man”? Our first black President had to appeal to low income earners by enforcing the treaty. He had the Treasury Secretary rewrite the lending rules which allowed and even encouraged mortgage lenders like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to lend out money to people who did not even qualify for the loans. Are you still with me?
With the new flood of mortgages, those lenders were sitting pretty good. They turned around and began investing in other markets. In other words, the money from these high-risk loans was being used all over the place. This made Clinton look like some sort of economic genius, but nothing is farther from the truth. When a big part of the economy is resting on a bunch of loans people couldn’t afford to take out in the first place…uh oh.
Even with many concerns being raised along the way, nobody did anything about it. By the way, I have just as much of a problem with the strictest conservative-thinker who does nothing as I do a staunch liberal who does everything.
In 2003, John Snow, Treasury Secretary, said, “We need a strong, world-class regulatory agency to oversee the prudential operations of the GSEs and the safety and the soundness of their financial activities.” Of course, there always has to be some lame-brain Democrat standing in the way. Congressman Barney Frank responded, “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not in crisis. I think we see entitlements that are fundamentally sound financially…”
Hang on a minute. Fundamentally sound?! John McCain has been ripped on all over the place for his comment about the fundamentals of our economy being sound, so I have got to mention what McCain said back in 2005:
”For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.”
In fact, McCain sponsored the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Act which Democrats rejected, claiming Freddie and Fannie were doing a wonderful job on their own. McCain came back in 2006 to warn of this obvious problem, but again was dismissed. Barack Obama can criticize John McCain’s understanding of the economy all he wants. Last time I checked, Obama was one of those Democrats who ignored the threat these institutions posed to our economy, supports the $700 billion bailout, and still thinks he can outrageously spend federal money if he becomes President.
Why are people still listening to this nonsense?! It is a disgusting cycle. Liberal Democrats promise good for the economy. A lot of people are deceived by their speeches of hope and change and vote for these candidates. The candidates gain power and inject more liberalism into our government. That liberalism creates big problems. Those liberal Democrats get back on their campaign platforms and promise more hope and change through more liberalism. Then, people fall for it again!
Conservatism versus liberalism is a not a mere battle of philosophical ideas. This debate is about a system which has proven itself successful over and over again versus a system which fails over and over again. You cannot fix a problem with a problem. Two wrongs do not make a right. The cure for foolish spending is not more spending.
President Ronald Reagan said, “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” I am especially tired of hearing people saying that our free-market failed us. No, it did not. This problem was created by government interfering with our free-market.
The very core of my being is sickened at the thought of this government bailout, yet I am not completely opposed to it. The fact is we have got to do something. I only hope we can learn from our mistakes. Are you liberals out there listening? I’ll give you some pointers in a minute.
It seems we have got to do this bailout. Something is only worth what people believe it is worth. Right now, people do not have much confidence in the market. When people lose confidence or become frightened at the thought of our economic future, money gets hoarded. People stop spending and investing. I would though like to see this bailout be a lot less than what has been proposed thus far. Let’s be realistic, too. There is no real assurance this will work.
Let’s assume for a minute that this bailout will accomplish what it is supposed to accomplish. What then? I’ll tell you what we do (or stop doing). We stop pushing more regulations and demanding more taxes on our businesses. We stop electing morons who think higher taxes are an answer. We stop believing our government when it says, “We can save you.” Who do you trust more: Your friends, family, and neighbors or a group of people who have made a career out of getting elected?
We have absolutely got to stop allowing our government to get in our way. We have got to stop the socialistic movement in this country. We cannot afford liberalism because it is killing our economy and destroying our individual liberties. We have got to stop the shredding of our Constitution and the Federal Government which is spending us into oblivion!
I cannot keep anyone from ignorantly voting for a candidate like Barack Obama. But I encourage you to seriously consider his policies. While liberal ideas generally seem most appealing in the moment, conservatism always reigns in the grand scheme. If you don’t believe me, then prove me wrong.
My biggest problem with this bail out is that it doesn’t remotely begin to fix the problem, it’s like slapping a pretty bandaid on someone that is about to die. It looks like you did something, when you didn’t. If this thing goes through, the American people will be reassure feeling that Congress has done something and once again, the real problem will not be addressed.
On the of chance that it is addressed the Democrats just want to renogicate contracts which will in the end make banks less willing to lend, because why give money to someone when in 5 or 10 years, someone’s just going to come along and take away what you profit you might be making by rewriting the contracts. The solution is no more high-risk loans period, or to at least highly restrict them. Gary and I fall into the catagory of a high-risk loan right now, because our debt ratio is too high. We understand that and intend to save and budget and plan to own a house in around 5 years. Why won’t others do the same and work to that point, instead of expecting handouts from the federal government?
If you really insist that rapidly expanding home loans to the poor contributed so much to this disaster (it was only a small part of the cause, the Real Estate Bubble was mainly created by middle class people flipping houses and buying second homes and homes too big for them as, they thought, good investments, and banks taking in the suspect loans at high leverage), then Bush and the Bush Administration share greatly in this activity. Here is Bush in 2003 in his speech when signing the “American Dream Downpayment Act of 2003”:
“The rate of homeownership in America now stands a record high of 68.4 percent. Yet there is room for improvement. The rate of homeownership amongst minorities is below 50 percent. And that’s not right, and this country needs to do something about it. We need to — (applause.) We need to close the minority homeownership gap in America so more citizens have the satisfaction and mobility that comes from owning your own home, from owning a piece of the future of America.
Last year I set a goal to add 5.5 million new minority homeowners in America by the end of the decade. That is an attainable goal; that is an essential goal. And we’re making progress toward that goal. In the past 18 months, more than 1 million minority families have become homeowners. (Applause.) And there’s more that we can do to achieve the goal. The law I sign today will help us build on this progress in a very practical way.
Many people are able to afford a monthly mortgage payment, but are unable to make the down payment. So this legislation will authorize $200 million per year in down payment assistance to at least 40,000 low-income families. These funds will help American families achieve their goals, and at the same time, strengthen our communities.”
So you could say that Bush contributed to the bubble and to making risky loans.
But this is only part of the cause of this crash. While you stress that Freddie and Fannie were not well regulated, neither was Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, AIG, etc. Let us remember that some of these firms took in securitized mortgage packages and hid them away in off-balance sheet companies! And sometimes they used leverage of 33 debt to 1 equity. Why didn’t the SEC or Fed find out about that? Gee, you are blaming the pimple for the disease.
I agree that the Republicans could have done more. Too many say lets put absolutely no restrictions on the market. They could have used time in power in Congress to get rid of some of these outrageous practices. However, you can’t deny that the Democrats put them there to start with and that they are by far the ones over encouraging them.
Banks wouldn’t have willingly given out so many loans doomed to failure without serious encouragement and monetary support from the federal government, once again proving that government is a large part of the problems. Some regulation is obviously needed as people will try to cheat the system, but this plan is anything but fixing the problems.
I think there is plenty of blame to go around, and I dislike the idea of a bailout (or Rescue, if you want to sugar coat it). I agree with Jeremy and Dani in saying that this bill doesn’t come close to fixing anything, I don’t think any current candidate (Obama, McCain, Biden or Palin) has suggested anything worthwhile.
but we are in such a panic that no one has any time to think of any real, long-term solutions. Quick fixes will look nice for a few weeks or months, but where is the accountability? Where is the forward thinking?
smrstrauss-
I blame them all. I blame everyone who took out a loan they couldn’t afford. I blame the SEC and government. I blame past and present administrations. I blame Republicans and Democrats. I blame the mortgage lenders. But I am most fed up with Washington which is why I wrote what I wrote. As Glenn Beck said yesterday, “This whole place needs to be fumigated. I’m so disgusted.” My post would have been even more critical if I had read the current $800 billion plus bailout plan.
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