Nancy Pelosi's Financial Crisis Bailout Partisan Train Wreck
So the $700 billion bailout is off the table for now, as 95 Democrats and 135 Republicans in the House surprised everyone and defied what looked like a fait accompli. The bill wasn't a perfect beast, and plenty of lawmakers on the right and left had signaled their substantive opposition before the vote. Still, its passage seemed manageable. So what happened? A lot of fingers are pointing at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose prevote speech was a galling display of partisan taunts rather than serious urgency.
Particularly inappropriate was her characterization of the Bush administration's "anything goes" economic policy, which supposedly resulted in the financial crisis. Here's how Pelosi summed it up: "No regulation, no supervision, no discipline. If you fail, you will have a golden parachute and the taxpayer will bail you out."
I'm hardly a defender of Team Bush's economic policy. It's been a schizophrenic hodgepodge of gross spending and highly specialized, inadequate tax cuts. But most reasonable people seem to agree that a big cause for our current predicament—certainly immediately, and many would argue structurally—was the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Back in 2003, Treasury Secretary John Snow tried to do something to reform these government-sponsored mortgage gamblers and was quickly rebuffed by Republicans and (mostly) Democrats in Congress. I've written a fair amount about this, but for a fine display of how Congress acted then, check out this short YouTube clip of a congressional hearing. (Yes, it's overly rah-rah Republican, but not by much.) And when you're done, think again about Pelosi's comments about "no regulation, no supervision, no discipline."
Pelosi's catastrophic handling of the House so far has been one of the few bright points for conservatives in Washington—with her in charge, neither the Republicans nor the Democrats in Congress have managed to muck up things too much. Today, she proved again why she's her opponents' most dependable friend.
Tags: economics | House of Representatives | Nancy Pelosi
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Reader Comments
Nancy Pelosi
The biggest roadblock to bipartisanship in Washington and President Obama's success is Nancy Pelosi and her side kick, Harry Reid. They are smug, arrogant, mean-spirited, and have only their own interest at heart. They are the best example of what is wrong in Washington and why government just doesn't work.
Give us a break and get Nancy and Harry on the first train OUT OF TOWN and let President Obama lead.
Bailing Out Failed Businesses
It’s a quite difficult decision for any politician choosing between more bailout packages or letting the free market economic principles take care of the failed businesses, whether it is the financial institutions or automakers. The main focus should be defending the interests of middle-class Americans and creating a stable economic system that will guarantee long-term stability and sustainability. But here we also can face more challenges, since right now the Washington politicians are talking about the second large bailout package. If we bailout financial institutions and other industries again, when are they going to ask for the third bailout package? Or fourth? Maybe this is a time to let free market economy work rather than keep bailing out large, failed corporations? After all, it is the small and medium size businesses that create vast majority of middle-class jobs in America, not the large corporations. Maybe the government is better off to replace banks in lending practices and directly give loan packages with low interest rates to small and medium size businesses? That might work better and have a direct, immediate impact on economy and the middle-class America…
What about accountability from Congress on their recommendation
I've been thinking about this a lot (as we all have) and it just occurred to me tonight... I'm be more than happy to agree with the "rescue" plan if Congress will do two things...
1. Hold themselves accountable (by name... not House or Senate but by individual names) if this thing doesn't work. I want to know who screwed up!
2. Agree to some punishment if their plan doesn't do what they are promising it will do. Punishment and an agreement that they will resign their post... Immediately!
I want to see some accountability before I will agree to this approach.
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