economic/political football

[brianvh]

I saw this on a completely unrelated board, and thought it was very astute. Do you think it's right?

"To start with, I am sorry for injecting politics into this board. As
any regular reader knows, I hate when frothy, venomous and irrelevant
political opinions are spouted on a discussion board that is not
intended for political conversation. However, over the last 24 hours,
the bailout plan, which is of obvious relevance not only to us but to
the entire stock market, has been seized as an opportunity to alter
the course of the upcoming presidential election. In doing so, passage
of the bailout, which had been assured yesterday, has been
intentionally delayed, resulting in the market drop we see this
morning. Discussion is therefore absolutely relevant.

Most of us have been following the progress on the bailout plan
closely, but for those who haven't, this is what happened: Paulson and
Bernake did all that testimony to both houses of Congress (at which
neither of the presidential candidates were present... they were out
campaigning; Obama was in the midwest somewhere giving speeches,
McCain, after saying he was suspending his campaign in crisis to
immediately fly back to Washington, was in NYC taping an interview
with Katie Couric).

Chris Dodd, who leads the Senate Banking Committee, rounded up a bunch
of the important Dems and Republicans and apparently hammered out a
deal. The people at the meeting all came out saying a deal had been
reached (and the markets jumped up today as a result), and they were
sent back to convince the rest of their party members to vote for it.
Then, Bush announced he was going to convene a meeting, with McCain
and Obama present, as well as Dem and Republican Congressional
leaders, to work on an agreement... but this was bullshit, because an
agreement had already been reached. In addition, neither of the
presidential candidates up until this point had had anything to do
with the bailout; they hadn't been at the hearings, they hadn't been
part of the negotiations, they hadn't been part of the writing of the
bill. This meeting was pure theater; it was conjured up to create the
image that the presidential candidates were involved when in reality
they haven't been involved in the slightest.

That meeting, at which there were lots and lots of photo ops but no
actual work (because the deal had already been done, by others)
happened today, and afterwards, mysteriously, Senator Richard Shelby,
a Republican from Alabama, came out an announced that there has been
no agreement. No deal. The agreement everybody had made before was
"dead." All of a sudden he and a bunch of other Republicans were not
agreeing to the deal that had been agreed on a few hours earlier.
I promise you, mark my words, between now and Sunday night the
Republicans are going to prop up McCain in front of the cameras and
portray him as working out a deal between the two sides. Then they're
going to give him credit for getting this important piece of
legislation done... when in fact, neither he nor Obama had anything to
do with the bailout being crafted or the deal being reached. For the
rest of the campaign they're going to portray this as him "working
across party lines to get important things done."
That is what is going to happen. Just watch.

This is political theater at its best. This has ceased being about
fixing the economy, its now about fixing the election.
Just watch."

-Chris Conti

[Marco Zee]

I would recommend no bailout for Freddie or Fannie....close both of them down and sell off their assets while jailing the thieves who perpetrated this attempted heist of taxpayer money...namely Raines, Gorelick, Dodd, Frank, Maxine Waters, etc..
As for the mortgage companies who made $350,000 loans to ppl with miniscule or no incomes....let them eat their losses.
Don't lay the bill on the taxpayers for horrible government policies (freddie and fannie) and poor business practices by the private sector.
If Obama or McCain want to try to "take credit" for bailing out these institutions, they do so at their own peril.
This is another wonderful example of how government interference with the private sector, ie mortgage companies, leads to total disaster. Can't wait to see how well the government runs your healthcare next !!!
Marco

[Joe Schad]

Can't wait to see how well the government runs your healthcare next !!! Marco

Actually the government does a very good job running healthcare. Just ask any Senator, Congressman, federal employee, military member and their family, and the retired folks of the same. They keep costs in check get major reductions in the price of meds with large bulk buys and allow you to choose the doctors of choice for your individual needs. The system provides real security to people and is good for the nation. It should be the standard for every American and would help businesses large and small throughout the county.

Joe