McCain staying in Washington, as he should:
To address our current financial crisis, John McCain suspended his campaign and returned to Washington, D.C., today to help build a bipartisan consensus for a proposal that would protect the American taxpayer.
Despite today’s news reports, there never existed a “deal,” but merely a proposal offered by a small, select group of Members of Congress. As of right now, there exists only a series of principles, including greater oversight and measures to address CEO pay. However, these principles do not enjoy a consensus in Congress.
At today’s cabinet meeting, John McCain did not attack any proposal or endorse any plan. John McCain simply urged that for any proposal to enjoy the confidence of the American people, stressing that all sides would have to cooperate and build a bipartisan consensus for a solution that protects taxpayers.
However, the Democrats allowed Senator Obama to run their side of the meeting. That did not work as the meeting quickly devolved into a contentious shouting match that did not seek to craft a bipartisan solution.
At this moment, the plan that has been put forth by the Administration does not enjoy the confidence of the American people as it will not protect that taxpayers and will sacrifice Main Street in favor of Wall Street.
The bottom line is that as of tonight, there are not enough Republican or Democrat votes for the current plan. However, we are still optimistic that a bipartisan solution will be found. Republicans and Democrats want a deal that will protect the taxpayers.
Tomorrow, John McCain will return to Capitol Hill where he will work with all sides to build a bipartisan solution that protects taxpayers and keeps Americans in their homes.
Some are trying to blame McCain for the deal not going through which is hogwash. Pelosi has already stated she would not try to pass this thing unless a majority of Republicans are behind it:
Pelosi (D-Calif.) has effectively sent the message that if she is going to jump off a cliff to rescue Wall Street, she wants House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and George W. Bush holding her hands when she leaps.
Pelosi made this scenario clear at a lengthy closed-door meeting of House Democrats on Tuesday. Many of those present said they took Pelosi’s message to mean that a “majority of the minority” needs to support the bill before she will bring it to the floor.
Which they clearly are not.
Then the Democrats excluded House Republicans from the discussions and gave Obama, of all people, a lead role at the meeting.
Doomed to fail from the beginning.
Btw, a good discussion on Hannity & Colmes tonight with Ann Coulter and Pat Caddell:
Ann Coulter & Pat Caddell on H&C – A funny movie is a click away
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Begging that witch? That makes me less a fan of Paulson than before.
Still no word on whether the debate will take place Friday.
…are you kidding, Mike. Paulson needs to ‘rise from the dead’ to get what he needs. …and even then, it ain’t gonna happen.
I’m a fan of Ann Coulter since she said: “If Democrats had any brains, they’d be Republicans.
LOL!
Now we shall see the stuff McCain is made of. He needs to deliver the renegade GOP (which includes me, BTW…. thank heavens I have *some* voice in the beltway…), so we shall see if he can get the compromise, and what they compromise on.
Pelosi? Pelosi who? Like what has she and Reid got to do with this? They’ve passed all negotiating power to Schumer and Frank. They are “also rans” in the negotiation power arena… just media mouthpieces since their credibility for the DNC is as deplorable as Bush’s is for the GOP.
Obama? He’s a sheeple in lockstep with his bosses to suck up all the cash in order to throw it in the hands of a Secy of the Treasury (feeling confident they’ll be appointing the next one, of course). *If* it reaps any returns, the DNC WH/Congress plans to take it for Congressional welfare/energy spending. All he needs to do is sit back and see if McCain can upset his and Pelosi/Reid’s apple cart.
However it appears this isn’t such a popular suggestion amongst the American taxpayer. The “not with my tax dollar” protest is growing steadily…. thus the “not such a done deal” status.
If McCain orchestrates something that the GOP and DNC can agree upon, and it passes the muster of the American electorate? Game over for Obama. Test given. Test passed, and Obama called in “disinterested”.
That’s okay, Doug… we’ll still luv ya here anyway… :0) With the exception of your usual dusty crystal ball, and an occasional stubborn macaw-squawking attack, you’re a credit to the liberal/progressive movement for presentation.
Oh, BTW.. did I mention this really pisses me off coming from a Bush WH? I like a lot of things about that man… but this is definitely NOT one of them.
thanks, MH.
May the road rise to meet you. May the wind always be at your back.
–But don’t expect me to let up ’til the 5th.
I like Newt Gingrich’s idea that instead of a $700 billion buyout of bad loans we loan the banks $700 billion and let them take care of their of their own assets rather than dump them on the federal government.
And since Sec. Paulson also dumped in student loans and car loans just how does he propose we are going to collect on those?
@MataHarley: Now we shall see the stuff McCain is made of. He needs to deliver the renegade GOP (which includes me, BTW…. thank heavens I have *some* voice in the beltway…), so we shall see if he can get the compromise, and what they compromise on.
Or, maybe McCain need to reinforce the lines and hold against the bailout if the Dem’s insist on porking it up.
Like most Americans, this really is above my paygrade. I’m not too keen on either of the two options I’ve been presented with thus far. I would really like to see a third way open up. My uneducated shoot from the hip reaction is that:
*The government temporarily go into the mortgage banking business and start offering refinance options to anyone who wants to take advantage. Only offer refinancing for adjustable rate and sub prime loans. Standard conforming loans not eligible (the free market will probably be willing to help them as the market heals.
*Offer a really good rate, like prime or prime +.5.
*Make the loans such that if you take a new gov offered loan, and then default, you will suffer tax liability for the any loss. In other words, the debt is inescapable. That ought to make people sober up before signing the notes.
*Then those refinanced notes could be resold as fully Gov insured notes, because they would be.
*Give everyone 1 year to take advantage, and zero any back tax liabilities one time for owner occupied homes only.
The people would self bailout the majority of bad or at risk loans. Shoot my loan is pretty solid and I would take a look at it. The benefit to the market is that the remaining loans in their portfolios would be the loans where people feel rock solid that they don’t need or don’t want help. Those instruments would be worth more as they would have the higher rates, and so they would recover their values.
It would not be a wall street bailout as wall street would loose the opportunity to make money on the high risk loans like they intended.
I know, I’m no economist, but this just seems more fair and more targeted to the problem.
Why am I wrong?
I, personally, would be disappointed if you did. What *would* I do for entertainment??? LOL
~~~
Don’t feel bad, BillC. Frankly this is above everyone in the beltway’s pay grade too. None of us have a full grip, as we’re treading in unchartered waters here.
But try not to make it too complex and take the basics. Then you’re as good as any of us. But the first thing you need to get out of your head is that the feds are not to be a banking institution, dealing in individual mortgages. Think “wholesale” not “retail”.
Right now, because of the losses, the credit/banking (mortgage and credit cards) industry has slammed the door shut on money. Without the money flowing, the economy grinds to a halt. So far good?
What the feds propose is to give a shot in the arm of cash to the banking industry by buyout out the bad debt for a better than average price, so they can start the money flowing again. And they want to do this by buying off the debt at above a “fire sale” price… perhaps 65% of the supposed valued price, and holding it (in the name of us, the taxpayers) before selling.
They are trying to accomplish two things here. Give the money infusion into the economy to get credit started again, and also maintain the property values.
The money infusion part I have no problem with… save the fact that money is coming from the government in a buyout. I could see a loan with interest, but it’s not the governments role to be our real estate investor.
Holding to maintain the property values I have a big problem with. They came up too fast, too high between 1997 and 2000 after Clinton revamped the compliance for the CRA. Then, after 911 when the loan rates went low to accommodate, the housing prices went thru the roof.
Trouble is, the household income didn’t. If the prices stay this high, no one can afford a house unless the rates are rock bottom. If you can’t fluctuate loan rates, you can’t control inflation.
See if the below graph works to show you how the home prices rose out of control…. and ask yourself… did your income move in that same curve? Pay attention to the red line which is the housing prices, adjusted for inflation.
NOTE: The graph’s too big for the column here. Go see the whole thing in my “perfect storm” post. There’s more there about the housing price inflation.
Now, since the basics are:
1: get money into the system to free up credit money
2: get the housing values lower, but not “tanked”
the burning question is… why does the taxpayer have to buy these notes out? If they are such a money making deal, why can’t the majority of it be sold to massive amounts of private investors… both individual corporation and pools of buyers? And since the govt doesn’t want a “fire sale” to protect property values, but the property is genuinely over valued, that “fire sale” objection… IMHO… becomes a moot point. We need a recession and decline in values to bring everything back into reasonable line. It’d be a tough 3-9 months. But we’ve done it before.
Remember, the notes are for real estate, which will be resold to home owners. So it doesn’t need to be only American enterprise purchasing these notes. All of it will end up back in American residents hands after a profit is turned. But of course, this doesn’t include groups that are profiting to support terrorists… :0)
The economists don’t think this is a cure at all… And for now, we should all be content that Congress is acting hastily, and without considering all the repercussions of what they do. As the economists point out, a recession is generally short term. What these bozos do? It will be with us for long term. And, if it works as they want it to, it is even more expensive to the taxpayer.
My dream ticket. Palin/Coulter 08