You are browsing the archives of economy.

While McCain was trying to fix the problem, Obama took over $126,000 from Fannie & Freddie and turned a blind eye, putting his own political contributions and self interest above our country.  Yeah I know, he supposedly sent a letter to the Treasury Secretary… great.  John McCain actually co-sponsored a bill, went on record trying to get it fixed, was in the papers and on tv.  Where was Obama?  Oh, yeah… counting his money.

Obama could have tried to lead, but he didn’t.  He does what he always does… nothing.  And he was paid for his silence.  As were Chris Dodd and others.

Want to blame someone for this financial mess.  There is a lot of blame to go around… and much of it falls on the shoulders of Barack Obama, his advisers, and other congressional Democrats.

Ken Blackwell has a great column at NRO exploring ACORN, Fannie & Freddie, Barack Obama, and the root causes of this economic meltdown.

Congressional Democrats, and specifically Mr. Obama, are now saying that the problem underlying all this is “deregulation,” pushed by the Republicans. There are two fundamental flaws with this allegation.

First, this is not deregulation. This is not the private sector. Fannie and Freddie are government creations, that pay their executives millions of dollars but are shielded with your tax money from suffering the downside risk of the market. Engage in racetrack-style financing, they must be strictly controlled. Deregulation is about keeping government from hobbling the private sector and hamstringing its ingenuity and productivity. Deregulation does not apply.

Second,  Republicans have tried to rein in Fannie and Freddie. Republican attempts to reform them in 1999 failed. In 2003, when Alan Greenspan testified about how Fannie and Freddie’s loose practices could endanger our financial system, it was Democrat Barney Frank who said these institutions were fundamentally sound, and should be more aggressive in getting loans to low-income people. In 2005, a Republican reform passed the Senate Banking Committee on a party-line vote, only to be blocked by Democrats from passing the full Senate. And in 2006 when John McCain spoke on the Senate floor of the need to reform Fannie and Freddie immediately, Democrats (including Barack Obama) would not respond.

You can also see where Fannie and Freddie look for protection by where they direct their money. Public records show that the top two recipients of Fannie/Freddie campaign contributions are Sens. Chris Dodd and Barack Obama, taking $165,000 and $126,000, respectively. Dodd, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, and Mr. Obama, who says he’s going to remedy the whole situation.

The American people need to know how we got here.  These are serious times and we are at a potential turning point in this country.  Whatever happens, it is going to hurt, but its time for real leadership and real reform.

But in order to understand how to get out of this mess, we have to understand how we got here.  The Democrats are still trying to funnel money into bogus partisan programs (ACORN) instead of trying to fix the problem and protect the American taxpayer.  This is not George Bush’s fault. This is not John McCain fault.  Both of them tried to fix this mess before it blew up.  But the Democrats were too busy being paid off by Fannie and Freddie, supporting their liberal friends, and refusing to be accountable for their disastrous approach.  They were warned.  But they wanted to keep playing for pay, and all of us got burned.

I’ve been saying it. So are many others. The actions of John McCain over this bailout issue are the actions of a leader. The actions of Barack Obama over this bailout are of a follower.

Via Powerline:

Most recently, McCain figured out that he needed to get back to Washington to engage, and if possible provide leadership in, the momentous issue of the financial sector bailout. While McCain opted to help make something happen, Obama said he could be reached by phone if anything did happen.

Obama’s position was untenable, so he eventually followed McCain back to Washington.

Hoping to cover for their “follower” of a presidential candidate, Democrats are claiming that McCain has done more harm than good in the legislative debate. Although this is always a possibility with McCain (and, indeed, just about anyone who is willing to lead), the Democrats’ case is absurd.

Their argument is that Congress was on the verge of a deal until McCain entered the picture and caused Republican House members to block it. The problems with this script are several. First, there is no evidence that House Republicans were ever on board with any deal. Second, the support of House Republicans is not needed to pass bailout legislation. The Democrats control the House.

The Democrats counter the second point by saying that a majority of House Dems won’t support a deal unless House Republicans provide “cover.” But this argument raises more problems than it addresses. First, it is a serious condemnation of House Dems (too gutless to do what they think is right, even in the face of a potential economic meltdown). Second it is a serious condemnation of Nancy Pelosi (too ineffective to whip her troops into line even in the face of a potential economic meltdown). Third, it casts serious doubt on the wisdom of the deal that McCain is falsely accused of scuttling. If the deal made sense, House Dems wouldn’t believe they need “cover” from House Republicans.

Fourth, the “cover” argument shows what a non-factor Obama is in all of this. The Dems complain (preposterously) that McCain has riled up House Republicans or failed to bring them around. Meanwhile, no one seems to be asking why Obama hasn’t helped the House leadership obtain sufficient support from House Dems.

There’s a reason why this question isn’t being asked. Obama is lightweight from whom leadership is not, and should not, be expected.

This is the BEST video I have seen about the crisis. The most accurate, the most detailed, and backed up by facts. Its a little shy of 10 minutes, but is worth watching in its entirety. Watch it, pass it on to your friends. Link to it. Embed it. Do whatever you want. The media won’t tell you the whole truth. But here it is.

Last night, Barack Obama, Harry Reid and others complained that John McCain was playing politics with this crisis as negotiations broke down last night.  That’s apparently not true according to four independent sources.

Though Sen. Chris Dodd implied that Sen. McCain sandbagged the rest of the negotiators by bringing up alternative proposals, McCain himself did not bring up those proposals, according to four independent sources briefed by four different principals inside the meeting, including two Republicans and two Democrats.

“McCain has not attacked the Paulson deal,” said a third Republican who was briefed by McCain direclty. “Unlike the [Democrats] in the [White House] meeting, he didn’t raise his voice or cause a ruckus. He is urging all sides to come together.“

Sounds once again like John McCain is being a leader and trying to form a consensus while the Democrats and Barack Obama are just worried about themselves.

I’ve made this reference before, but it bares repeating.  Ask anyone who has ever played or been involved with team sports.  Winners and Leaders want the ball when the game is on the line.  Losers and Followers want to pass.

During the current economic crisis, with the economy on the brink and the bailout on the line, John McCain wanted the ball.  He has proven he is a leader… Barack Obama, not so much.  Barack Obama whined about meeting tonight, I guess acting as a Senator and not just running for office is above his pay grade.

Barack Obama told Fox News tonight:

“It’s not clear to me that having presidential candidates in a high-profile way in the negotiating process is useful.”

Does that surprise anyone?  Barack Obama is whining because he is expected to do his job as a U.S. Senator.  If he is too busy to do that, and is whining about having some responsibility to fix the current economic mess, what will he do as President?  The President doesn’t get to pass the ball, and he doesn’t get to vote present when the country is on the line.  Barack Obama is proving without a shadow of a doubt that he is not a leader and not capable of being President.  You would think someone running for the highest office in the land would take a stand and lead at this tumultuous time… clearly Obama can’t be bothered with that.

And it is incredibly phony when they complain that John McCain is there, doing his job, even with the stakes of his Presidential campaign are on the line.  John McCain was asked to be there.  We know Harry Reid asked John McCain to take a leadership role in this mess:

“We need, now, the Republicans to start producing some votes for us. We need the Republican nominee for president to let us know where he stands and what we should do.”

And we know from Bob Scheiffer, no friend to the right, that Secretary Paulson asked John McCain to get involved:

Paulson then called, according to my sources, Senator Lindsey Graham, who is very close to John McCain, and told him: you’ve got to get the people in the McCain campaign, you’ve got to convince John McCain to give these Republicans some political cover. If you don’t do that, this whole bailout plan is going to fail. So that’s how, McCain, apparently, became involved.

So John McCain is not only doing his duty as a United States Senator, but he is doing what both the Majority Leader and the Secretary of the Treasury asked him to do.  Now that John McCain is doing his job, acting Presidential and trying to lead in a moment of crisis, Barack Obama and the Left are whining and moaning because it might be beneficial to the McCain Campaign.

Clearly some people are playing politics with this mess, and they all have a (D) beside their names.

Complaints from the Democrats ring incredibly untrue, especially when McCain is doing the right thing.  What kind of hypocrite thinks he can be President, but can’t be bothered to help lead at a time of crisis.  A crisis that Barack Obama himself called the most serious since the Great Depression.  If Obama truly believed that, but wasn’t willing to take a leadership role in getting it fixed, you have to question why.

By the way, the ridiculous assertions on the left that John McCain is some kind of chicken and doesn’t want to debate Barack Obama is absolutely absurd.  McCain proposed many more debates, but Obama ran scared.  After saying he would participate in joint Town Hall meetings, Obama broke his promise (just like he broke his promise on public campaign finance rules).  John McCain spanked Obama at Saddleback.  John McCain stood tall at many of the Republican debates.  Meanwhile Obama got his butt handed to him time and time again by Hillary Clinton in the Democrat debates and refused to debate her in the end because he was getting beat so badly.  So to assume that John McCain is scared to debate Obama is preposterous.

John McCain has once again put his country first, something Barack Obama will never understand.

Aided by the New York Times with a spectacular piece of pathetic journalism, the Obama campaign has been trying to link McCain to the Fannie Mae problem, because one of his advisers, Rick Davis, had once done lobbying work for Fannie Mae.  The Times and the Obama campaign even assert that Davis made some money from Fannie over the past year, which the McCain campaign sharply rebuts.

The Times and Obama fail miserably at this pathetic hit job. Davis has not been a lobbyist since 2005 and has not received profit from his company since 2006.  Furthermore, Davis’ lobbying efforts didn’t cause Fannie Mae to fail.  Jim Johnson is another story all together.

Jim Johnson, to this day, is an adviser to Barack Obama. Jim Johnson was once the CEO of Fannie Mae, and made over $20 million for his work there and a sweetheart mortgage deal from CountryWide while leading Fannie Mae into disaster (at the expense of the American taxpayer).  Johnon pathetic management and potentially fradulent activites at Fannie Mae are partially responsible for the mess we are in now.  Yet Obama continues to call on Johnson for advise on how to deal with this crisis.

Furthermore, Barack Obama received over $120,000 in campaign contributions from Fannie/Freddie, averaging more than $30,000 a year.  John McCain received contributions from them too… at less than $1,000 per year.  As they say… follow the money.

Captain Ed has a great post at Hot Air comparing the relationships of both these men to Fannie Mae and the current presidential campaigns.  Rick Davis is not even remotely equivalent to Jim Johnson nor is there any evidence that Rick Davis is offering advice on the housing and economic crisis to John McCain.  Can Johnson and the Obama campaign make a similar claim?  Not hardly.

Brit Hume’s program had a good summary of how we got into this mess and the voices who tried to avoid it.  President Bush, John McCain, Secretary Snow, Greenspan all tried to get Fannie and Freddie under control and warmed that failing to do so could lead to a broad economic crisis.  Sound familiar?

But the democrats, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Chuck Schumer didn’t want to hear any of it.  They were too busy playing politics and turning a blind eye to real concerns.

And what has Barack Obama ever done to fix this mess before it broke?  Nothing.

Big Lizzards has a great post on Mortgage Backed Securities, why we are in this mess, and even makes the case for the so-called bailout.  It’s long and its good.  Read it for yourself.  If we are going to pass something, that is going to cost the taxpayers billions, then buying the securities and scrubbing them WITH NO OTHER EARMARKS might be the best of the bad solutions.

Read this and decide for yourself.

CHRIS CUOMO, ABC NEWS: A little surprising for you to hear the Democrats saying, “This came out of nowhere, this is all about the Republicans. We had nothing to do with this.” Nancy Pelosi saying it. She signed the ‘99 Gramm Bill. She knew what was going on with the SEC. They’re all sophisticated people. Is that playing politics in this situation?

BILL CLINTON: Well, maybe everybody does that a little bit. I think the responsibility the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was President to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Republicans did try to fix this. Several Republicans tried.  But the Democrats blocked every attempt, and encouraged riskier and riskier loans.  Now that house of cards has collapsed.

Want change?  Want to throw the bums out?  Make sure you know who the bums are.  Chris Dodd.  Chuck Schumer.  And all of the Democrats who towed the line for Fannie and Freddie, accepting thousands in campaign contributions and turning a blind eye to the mess.