RSSA President Who Cares… about his agenda
Tom Bowler | April 16, 2009
Will the Democrats under the leadership of Barack Obama be able to restore America to economic health? Not if they don’t know what’s wrong to begin with, and it’s not at all clear from the speech Obama gave at Georgetown yesterday that they do. Here is Power Line:
‘The speech begins with a potted history of the financial crisis originating in the housing market. Obama omits any mention of the Community Reinverstment Act, the Federal Reserve or Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac in creating the housing bubble. Rather, Obama points his finger at Wall Street. Obama finds Wall Street culpable for the growth of subprime loans. According to Obama, “the reason these loans were so readily available was that Wall Street saw big profits to be made.”
The housing bubble led to the recession in which we are mired. Obama gives a standard Keynesian account of the need for government spending to pull the economy out of the recession and then defends the “broader rationale” of the TARP program. As is his wont, he holds himself out as choosing the middle between those (unidentified) who advocate doing nothing and those who urge government takeover of the financial system. He expresses absolute agreement that our long-term deficit is a major problem that we have to fix.’
I’m not sure which is the more depressing prospect. Can Obama and his party really not know what created the toxic assets that are said to be clogging credit markets? Or are they just unwilling to be honest about it? I suspect honesty on Obama’s part at this moment would waste his golden opportunity to make big changes in the political landscape. In other words, a little honesty might undermine justification for his $3.5 trillion budget which is clearly aimed at purchasing future elections for the Democrats with U.S. tax dollars. He’s not about to let this crisis pass.
Update: Does this come as any surprise?
‘Unwarranted secrecy regarding the largest disbursement of public funds in U.S. history continues in the executive branch. So Congress should finally exercise its oversight authority and find out where every last bailout dollar has been spent. Three major news organizations – Bloomberg News, Fox Business News, and The New York Times – had to file lawsuits against the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Board after they were refused bailout documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). All three were stiffed by an administration that failed to deliver on a promise of more government transparency and accountability. In response to its lawsuit seeking compensation agreements between the government and two of the largest bailout recipients, Fox finally received 10,096 pages of heavily redacted documents from Treasury showing that “virtually all the details of the bailout were worked out among a handful of lawyers.”’
I can’t say I’ll be surprised if bailout funds turn into campaign contributions.
Contributor's website: http://www.libertarianleanings.com
Content posted by users from other sites is posted for commentary and news purposes under fair use and each author is responsible for their own postings and a particular posting should not be construed as being endorsed by this site or its owner.
Leave a Reply
Loading ...Recommended Reading:
