Economy
This is what I understand the reasoning behind the bailout to be. It’s based mostly on what I’ve learned from speaking with Rhode Island Congressional candidates Mark Zaccaria and Jon Scott. 1. The bailout is not a plan to rescue anyone, banker or borrower, from bad mortgages. It’s about getting the credit market moving again.…
From WorldNetDaily September 25: At least 165 economists have signed a letter to Congress members warning of three pitfalls in the Bush administration’s $700 billion proposal to deal with the Wall Street crisis. Their objections are not partisan but seem to apply to any large-scale government bail-out/buy-in. [Emphasis added.] The economists contend the plan is…
Well, now: Pelosi and her aides have made it clear they were not going to “whip” or twist the arms of members who did not want to vote, but they also made no effort to rally any support for a bill they attempted to hijack over the weekend. Further, according to House Oversight Committee staff,…
It just went down (ROLL CALL here. Both RI Reps voted YEA). The House has defeated the $700 billion bail-out legislation for the financial industry. More than enough members of the House had cast votes to defeat the Bush administration-pushed bill, but the vote was held open for a while, apparently as efforts were under…
Here’s the big bailout bill, uncensored (h/t National Review Online).
First, they bail out the financial institutions. Now, the automakers. More here. Next, the homebuilders are clammering for their time at the taxpayers’ trough. Surely the airlines and other industries can’t be far behind. Isn’t corporate welfare grand? All funded out of the hard-earned monies of ordinary citizens whose only “crime” was to pay their…
House Republican Whip Roy Blunt’s office provides this side-by-side comparison of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s original Wall Street bailout proposal with the final compromise agreed to over the weekend by congressional and Treasury negotiators here. Much better. Thanks are due from the American taxpayers to the House Republicans. After the debacles of recent years, I…
Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) appeared on the John DePetro Show this morning [no podcast yet available] [edit: podcast available here courtesy WPRO] to discuss the status of the bailout. At one point, he pointed to Congressional Republicans as the reason that bailout legislation has so far failed. Question for all Democrats in Congress. You control…
Irwin Stelzer writes New Capitalism: Market capitalism in the United States will never be the same: No matter what deal is finally cut between Hank Paulson, the Democrats, and unhappy conservative Republicans, or even if no deal at all is finally worked out, market capitalism as practiced in the United States will never be the…
Something from a recent David Brooks column ought to sound familiar: The government will be much more active in economic management (pleasing a certain sort of establishment Democrat). Government activism will provide support to corporations, banks and business and will be used to shore up the stable conditions they need to thrive (pleasing a certain…
