Read What I See

 

     What happened during the failed House vote on the 700$ billion economy bailout was bad leadership and partisanship at its best.  Why would Pelosi at a time of crisis decide to make a political pitch one month before a Presidential election?   Failing to accept any blame for the crisis and trying to pin it solely on President Bush at a time when unity from people in his party was needed to pass legislation was  no bipartisanship.  In addition we had Democrat Barney Franks Chair of the House Financial Services Committee also criticizing Republicans and pretending that he shared no responsibility for the crisis. 

Follow up:

Twelve people in his committee voted against the bill but that didn't keep him from accusing some Republicans of not placing the country first by voting against the bill because they were upset at Pelosi’s remarks.  Upset?   Those Republicans were not upset, they did not like the bill and decided not to support it after Pelosi’s partisan remarks.  With 95 Democrats voting against the bill unity on their side was far from present.

     There is a lot of blame put on Wall Street but what we have seen is a chain reaction caused by bad lending policies that our Socialist Liberal Democratic Party shoved down the throat of lending institutions.  The Democrats not only interfered with the normal process of our Capitalistic economic system but also fought against regulating flaws in their policies.   

     Is the Community Reinvestment Act dead?  What will the Liberals come up with?  Will they want to pass legislature that would make tax payers dish out a 10% or 20% down payment for the purchase of housing for minorities?  We need to keep a close watch on the Leftist Democrats, activists and agitators to see what their next move will be.  Will legislators at the expense of tax payers reduce the principle to troubled existing mortgages to encourage owners to keep them?   Such policy could run into billions of dollars (1,000.000 homes x $30,000 principle reduction = $30 billions). 

     Financial ignorance and irresponsibility is abundant amongst the poorest of every nation and that is why many are poor.  Helping to acquire housing for those that cannot afford one is as a noble cause but the way  the Democrats handled it hurt many of those who they intended to benefit.  Many in our society that suffer from financial ignorance and irresponsibility quit good jobs and cash in their 401ks to spend the thousands of dollars that they have put aside for retirement long before retirement age.  There is no guarantee that the same people who are helped with the purchase of a home will not do the same and sale the house they have build equity into to spend the gains.  The same irresponsible behavior applies to the National Health Care program that our Socialist Democrats want the tax payers to finance:  It ignores the fact that many of the uninsured opt not to make the sacrifice of buying group insurance from their employers.

     If Congress was serious about passing the $700 billion bill it was inappropriate of Pelosi to inject politics at a time of crisis by accusing the Bush Administration.  This was not the proper setting to discuss what President Bush should have done or not done in the past.  This was an opportunity to show non-partisan leadership and she blew it.  If we were to use “what if” analogies as she suggested  by blaming George W. Bush for the economic crises; we could go on forever debating “what if” previous policies or events.

     What if we don’t keep Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons?  Will they use their nuclear capacity to influence the nations of the Middle East, attack Israel, blackmail the world with petroleum or just use it for its lone nuclear plant?

     What if we would not have gone in Iraq?  Saddam did have 500 metric tons of yellow cake that could have been used to produce nuclear weapons.  Would he have used oil to blackmail the West?

     What if all of the Al Qaeda Saudi extremists that die in Iraq would have fought in their home land instead and overthrown the Saudi Kingdom?  Would they have used oil to blackmail the world?

     What if Al Gore would have been president and decided to negotiate with Al Qaeda after 9/11 and let Islamic Fundamentalists take over the Middle East?  What if instead of sending the CIA after the 9/11 perpetrators he would have used their resources to study global warming as he did while VP?

     What if Bill Clinton would have approved the killing of Osama Bin Laden?  Would have 9/11 happened?

     What if Ronald Reagan would not have build our military might and sunk the Soviet Union economy while trying to maintain their empire?

     What if Richard Nixon would have been elected President in 1960?   John F. Kennedy would have lived and Fidel Castro would have possibly died.

     So as we can see - what if - does not solve any problems it is the course of action on the part of decisive leaders that will make the difference.

     The current mortgage crisis is by many believed to be linked to Jimmy Carter’s Community Reinvestment Act; a noble cause that evolved into the monsters of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  There is too much disagreement and there are too many different opinions on how to proceed or what the consequences will be on what is to be done or not done.  What we know for sure is that trust in our government to warn and protect its citizens has faded.  Let’s hope that out of this financial mess the politicians can understand that they let down the American people.  Let’s hope that the people remember these inept politicians and elect replacements.  We need a new breed of politicians that are more interested in servicing the country than just caving in to bad policies to win elections.  We need leaders who understand that the foundation of our Democratic system although imperfect is Capitalism.

      For all of those that reside in the middle of our political spectrum and are torn between Socialism and Capitalism or Democrats and Republicans the big lesson to be learned is that Socialism does not make money it only spends what Capitalism makes.

     Without money from Capitalism, Socialism is dead.

     Vote wisely in 2008

                   Listen to Bill Clinton on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

                                        John McCain ad