Some C.S. on the Emergency Bill
By SusanUnPC on September 28, 2008 at 6:35 AM in ACORN, Christopher Dodd, Economy, Housing & Housing Crisis, Nancy Pelosi
My neighbor, with some input from me, penned this letter to our senators and representative today:
Please participate in rescuing our economy. I realize you are being deluged by angry people who object to the “bailout” but the results of NOT acting are so dire that we need you to act courageously on this. The only thing I object to is the inclusion of any measures to give monies to disreputable groups like Acorn. Low-income and minorities do need help (I’m retired on a fixed income so I know). But surely such measures can be addressed in additional legislation later, if need be. Right now, we need to make sure that our nation’s businesses STAY in business!
And here’s some common sense clearly laid out by Ed Morrissey, late afternoon and evening, September 27th. Morrissey asks the same question I have: WHY, for god’s sake, are Democratic senate and house members demanding Acorn hand-outs when the national house is on fire? Don’t miss Ed’s remarks below the fold.
House GOP rejects latest bailout proposal; Update: Pelosi wants deal in principle by tonight
Too many ornaments on the left’s Christmas tree, with the star on top being Chris Dodd’s preposterous proposal to make sure ACORN gets a cut of the income from each distressed asset sold at a profit even if distressed assets in the aggregate are sold at a loss. They’ve got a little more than 24 hours to pass a bill before the markets in Asia open Monday; Roy Blunt thinks if they don’t have it done by then, there won’t be a deal until late next week. Any problem with that? Read Bill Kristol’s latest at the Standard and have a paper bag handy, as you’ll need it to breathe. Publicly, at least, Fortis denies it’s at risk of going under and claims it has liquidity to spare. Kristol claims two sources who say otherwise and foresees bank runs in the U.S. from the shockwave if it happens — bailout or no bailout. (Roughly half of all Belgian households have accounts with Fortis, according to Reuters.)
We’ve reached the point where even the Journal is sufficiently worried to beg for relief:
Susan’s Note at 12:25 p.m. ET: Sorry about the confusing indentations below. I had trouble getting our blog editor to indent the paragraphs properly, but have fixed it so you should be able, now, to tell who’s saying what:
Then Morrissey quotes from the WSJ editorial:
No one tried harder than we did to avoid arriving at this pass, but now that we’re here our vote is that this government intervention is justified to defend the system…
The libertarian blogs are full of tut-tutting that the economy has held up surprisingly well, and for a year we’ve been arguing the same thing. But there’s no guarantee this will continue, especially as unemployment climbs and as evidence grows that banking distress is squeezing credit to small and big business alike. Credit spreads over Treasurys are back at agonizing levels, as investors and lenders flee from even plain vanilla risks.
Nobel economics laureate Gary Becker is no alarmist, but this week he wrote on his blog, “I have reluctantly concluded that substantial intervention was justified to avoid a major short-term collapse of the financial system that could push the world economy in a major depression.” Anyone who thinks that capitalism will fare better after a crash should recall that the 1930s didn’t end politically until 1980…
The Paulson idea also seems better than the “insurance” plan for bank assets that House Republicans are now proposing. That idea would still put taxpayers at risk if the assets fall in value, but with little potential upside. Meanwhile, the assets would remain on bank books, making it that much harder for banks to raise private capital and resume normal lending.
The House GOP intervention may still be fortuitous if it focuses on killing the many Democratic ideas that are making the Paulson plan worse.
Morrissey continues:
Indeed, which raises the question of why Dodd et al. are demanding handouts to ACORN when there’s a developing national emergency to deal with. … (Read all.)
Why indeed.
In updates, Morrissey includes some disturbing news:
Update: Pelosi wants something to look at by tonight. I honestly wonder what the public reaction’s going to be if they stay deadlocked, the market drops 2,000 points on Monday, and people start running on banks. Confidence in government will be even lower than confidence in the markets, which means political destabilization. But what will that look like?
Update: Don’t look now but there’s panic brewing in Britain as well, with a major bank in danger of being nationalized on Monday.
And knuckleheads like Chris Dodd are creating a roadblock with demands to reward Acorn? Dodd who, as chair of the Senate Banking committee, should have been minding the store last fall and winter instead of embarking on his quixotic presidential campaign in Iowa’s primary that ended in an embarrassingly miniscule percentage of the vote?
Why? Why? Why? I’d really like to know why Chris Dodd thinks that the pay-out to a corrupt organization like Acorn is worth risking worldwide financial panic.
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
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