Just 12 Votes

If you listened to Barney Frank after the "Bailout" bill failed to pass in the House of Representatives, you would have heard that it failed, solely, because of 12 votes. According to Frank, it was all because of 12 Republican votes.

The real truth is that 40 percent of the Democrats didn't vote for this bill. 12 Democratic members of Barnie Frank's own House Banking Committee didn't vote for the bill. 15 supposed friends of Pelosi (Democrats from California) didn't vote for it either. Five Democratic Committee Chairman didn't vote for the bill. These are people who are as close to Pelosi as possible. In theory, the Democrats could pass this bill by themselves since they have the voting majority. However, they don't want to be out there on their own on this one. They want political cover.

Frank's blaming of the Republicans is symptomatic of why this bill failed. All last week and right up to today's vote, the Democrats were busy blaming Republicans, the Bush Administration, and greedy Wall Street firms and CEO pay. So it is no wonder why calls into the Congress switchboard were running 10 to 1 against the passage of this bill.

This was not working together. People like Pelosi, Frank, Reid, Schumer, and Obama used this whole crisis as a way of driving a wedge between Corporations in this country (Wall Street) and the average American (Main Street). It was a massive political advertisement being used to get Barack Obama and Democrats elected in a little over a month. There was no real concern about you and I.

A lot was made about CEO pay. But, the reality is that the CEO's could have been paid as little as a buck and it wouldn't have stopped this crisis from happening. The core problem of this crisis was the push by certain socialistic politicians (mostly Democrats) and community agency (like ACORN and ACORN Housing, Inc.) to give home loans to people who should have never had them in the first place. Seeded with Democrats from the Clinton Administration, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, facilitate this until it all began to unravel. The genesis of this crises goes all the way back to the Carter Administration and a Democratic Congress that passed the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (See Overview). The potential of this crisis was heightened even further by the actions taken by Clinton Administration in 1995 and 1999 to create the subprime loan vehicle and further home loans to unqualified buyers. So, for the Democrats to blame McCain/Bush and the Republicans, it is purely being done to deflect blame and to protect anticipated gains in the Congress and the chance to own the White House in next month's election.

Politically, the Democrats did nothing to support the bill. They constantly kept referring to it as a bailout for greedy Wall Street. In doing so, angry phone calls into the Congressional switchboard were running 10 to 1 against the passage of the bill. With that lack of public support, it is no wonder why Democrats and Republicans, alike, headed for the hills and voted no.

Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, and Barnie Frank would have best served their own interest if they had sold this bill as "rescue" of the credit markets and, ultimately, the rescue of the banking activities that would affect all Americans. But, they didn't. Instead they threw leadership and bipartisanship, aside, to take political shots and doom it to failure. Now, the bill is effectively dead until something entirely different is done.

Please take note: As of this morning, Barack Obama has stopped using the word "bailout" and has begun referring to it as a "rescue package". At that same press conference, I never once heard him mention "greedy" Wall Street as had been the case all week. I guess Mr. Obama is "just" starting to figure out how to work on a bipartisan basis. After all, reaching across the aisle is one of his campaign promises. A promise that was totally absent during this last week's push to get this bill passed!

If The Fundamentals Weren't Strong....

Yesterday, Barack Obama hit John McCain hard for saying that the fundamentals of this economy are strong (See Full Story). Conversely, that means that Barack Obama must believe that the fundamentals of this economy are weak. After all, doom and gloom is the hallmark of any Democrat's campaign.

If what Barack Obama implied was actually true, I guarantee you that we wouldn't have had any growth in the last quarter or the historically low unemployment rate of 6.1 percent that was just reported. There is liquidity our the banking system which can still provide funding to qualified borrowers. Inflation, other than energy, is not runaway. Given the collapse of the housing and the credit markets and the extremely high prices for automobile and home heating fuels, this country should be in a complete recession or even in a depression. But, it isn't. It isn't because the fundamentals of this economy like unemployment, interest rates, consumer activity, and liquidity are very strong. John McCain is right.

John McCain is also right by not causing fear or panic in the midst of a troubling economic situation that is affecting our banks and our credit firms. Instead, we have Barack Obama who wants to scare the pants off you for a few votes. He would have you completely frightened so you run out and pull all your money out of our banks and banking system. Which, in turn, and if widespread enough, could cause our entire banking system to collapse. Just look at the failed IndyMac bank in California and how that may have been caused by comments made by another Democrat, Senator Chuck Schumer (See Full Story). In an election year, Schumer did what he did for purely political reasons in order to attack Bush and McCain and bolster Obama.

Obama would also frighten you into not spending any money so that our entire economy seizes and so that our nation's businesses start losing sales and profits. Is this the "hope" that Barack Obama is trying to sell?

Barack Obama is being irresponsible in trying to completely downplay our economy so he can win the Fall election. He has a responsibility to this country to try and maintain calm in this economy by showing some semblance of confidence. Instead, he's the guy screaming fire in movie theater. If he were the President, right now, do you really think he should be telling the people of this country to cower in the corner because our economy is fundamentally unsound? I don't think so! Anyway, I would hope not! That would be totally irresponsible and could have serious consequences by creating a psychologically developed panic and a complete economic disaster.

This man, Barack Obama, is not ready to lead!

Accentuating the Negative (For Poltitical Gain)

All too often, our politicians are complete morons.

I think back to the stupidity of Democratic U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, when she was the mayor of San Francisco in 1985, and she decided to publicly release police-only-known information about Richard Ramirez, the famous serial killer know as the Night Stalker. In doing so, she forced Ramirez to flee San Francisco and go to Los Angeles where these facts were little known and where he could (And did!), with some anonymity, kill again.

All too often our politicians, for purely political gains, release information that can be detrimental to our society. Recently, Senator Schumer, of New York, did just that. In a June 26 letter, he decided to warn that IndyMac Bank in California was at risk of bailout or collapse because of it's high sub-prime mortgage loans. Instead of being a benefactor to those who banked at IndyMac, he caused depositors to "run" on the bank and, subsequently, on Friday, the Bank went under and had to be taken over by the Federal government (See Full Story). Those with FDIC insured accounts with less than $100,000 will be saved by the Feds (Actually, by you and I as taxpayers!). However, those with amounts over $100,000 may only get 50 cents on the dollar for any savings above $100,000. This could be a lot of seniors and people close to retirement who had their life savings in that bank.

(Please Note: I think it would be more appropriate that a Senator from California release any problematic information about a California-based bank like IndyMac. It should not come from some Senator, like Schumer, from another State like New York. However, if you are the Chairman of Democratic Senatorial (re-election) Campaign Committee and an Obmaa supporter, like Schumer, you must think it's OK to trash a bank that is not in your own State. After all, all's fair in love and politics!)

With the political mindset of a left-wing politician like Schumer, it was important to highlight another risk in our mortgage morass so that the Bush Administration (and, I am sure, John McCain) would look "bad". Of course, this helps the Democrats and (let's never forget) it helps Barack Obama. But, a lot of people will be hurt in that process. Schumer's defense in what he did is that people are trying to, once again, shoot the messenger. But, what a leading Senator says in this country has a lot to do with what people will do. And, their reaction to his comments was to yank their money and leave that bank as quickly as possible.

I firmly believe that all the negative talk that came from the Democrats over the last 4 years about the Iraq War (pre-Surge) may have actually cost American lives by emboldening our enemy; in just the same way that the IndyMac Bank was affected by Schumer's ill-timed letter. But, only God knows how many soldiers died at the hands or our own American politicians! Sadly, they continue to make these life-altering blunders and they keep their jobs and their fat salaries and their fat retirement pay.

How stupid are we as Americans?!

As an aside. The FDIC insurance coverage level of $100,000 has been stuck at that rate for as long as I can remember. At least 40 years. During that same time frame, salaries have nearly tripled. This is another case where our elected officials, who manage to vote in their own raises every year, let important "ceilings" just rot until it is too late to do something about it. This like the previous estate tax ceiling, which had be left unchanged for over 50 years, is a typical example of our government's inaction. No level of tax deduction, tax exemption, or Federally mandated pay schedule, like the minimum wage, should be left without a cost of living adjustment associated with it. That just makes common sense.

Update: The original photo of Chuck Schumer was taken off this site because I erroneously thought is was a "public domain" image of the Senator. I am usually careful in this regard but, in my haste, I was wrong. The current image is in the public domain.

image in the public domain and royalty free