Re: Do The Stimulous Killing Republicans Have Anything New To Offer?

On Jan 14, 10:32 am, Harry Hope <riv...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From The New York Observer, 1/13/09:http://www.observer.com/2009/politics/stimulus-killers

The Stimulus Killers

by Joe Conason

....

Leaving aside the boilerplate rhetoric about wasteful federal
spending—which never troubled the Republicans on either side of
Capitol Hill when they were legislating record deficits—these
recommendations seem harmless enough.



Both Republicans and Democrats buy votes. This is the reason the
country is bankrupt.
Dollars in the common treasury are like fish in the common sea -
anyone who can will harvest to extinction. That is why socialism is
fundamentally corrupting and can not work. ----
http://www.capitaldistrict-lp.org/how.shtml





....

Abolishing earmarks was the dominant economic theme of the Republican
campaign last fall, which was soundly rejected by voters.



Politics as usual. Governing has become a way to get privileges for
some at the expense 
of others. 
http://www.capitaldistrict-lp.org/what.shtml
This is why the country is bankrupt.



Awful as certain porky earmarks may be, they represent a miniscule
portion of the federal budget—and they remain just as irrelevant to
the global economic crisis as they were three months ago.



Hardly? Politics as usual is the reason the country is bankrupt.

"In 1992, Congress mandated that Fannie and Freddie increase their
purchases 
of mortgages for low-income and medium-income borrowers.
Operating under 
that requirement, Fannie Mae, in particular, has been
aggressive and 
creative in stimulating minority gains."
"The two companies are now required to devote 42% of their portfolios
to 
loans for low- and moderate-income borrowers"
http://articles.latimes.com/1999/may/31/news/mn-42807
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYz1rbB5V1s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivmL-lXNy64&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usvG-s_Ssb0 
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjYDzyQNqX8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CcFdjXvjvE&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6ZHOxJLUGI&NR=1
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E3D6123BF932A2575AC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
http://americanfuturefund.com/2008/09/25/barney-frank-blocks-reform-attempts/

• 1) Securitization for residential mortgages was invented in 1970 by
Ginnie Mae. It was expanded by government sponsored enterprises (e.g.,
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and private institutions through the 1980s
and '90s to include a wide range of financial assets. 2) Congress has
consistently eliminated regulatory obstacles to securitization with
the Secondary Mortgage Market Enhancement Act (SMMEA), Real Estate
Mortgage Investment Conduits (REMICs), Financial Asset Securitization
Investment Trusts (FASITs), and Riegle Community Development and
Regulatory Improvement Act. 
3) The Riegle Act also instructed federal
regulators to reduce risk-based capital requirements for bank holdings
of small business loan securities.
http://www.nado.org/loansales/securitization1.html



....



In short, conservatives are clamoring for more of the same and nothing
but the same.

When read carefully, their real message is that the best thing to do
for America is to do nothing at all, except to maintain or worsen the
inequities of our tax system.



There are inequalities. The rich pay more taxes.


Then at some point in the future, perhaps at the end of this year or
next, the marketplace will work its magic and growth will resume.



As it will do.




According to the right’s leading economic analysts, such passive
policies will result in the best outcome someday.

After all, they say, every other recession in American history ended
eventually, a truism that offers very little comfort to someone losing
a home today.



Politics as usual has bankrupted the country. Debt has to be paid by
someone. The attempt now is to pass the bills and pain on to others -
future generations, people who extend credit, the 'rich' - anybody
else.

.....

They are determined to prevent or reduce any constructive action by
the new administration.



Fixing the debt problem with more debt is not a fix. It is cheating
those who have the pay back the higher debt.


They cannot let go of their ideology, regardless of the pain that will
be inflicted as the recession deepens.



Debt is not an ideology. Neither is bankruptcy. The national debt is a
consequence of overspending which is itself an ideology and politics
as usual.
.

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