Friends and Colleagues:
Here’s the problem with the nation’s troubled financial system in a nutshell: Americans don’t have enough money to pay their mortgages. In my piece in today’s Huffington Post, I explain why the President’s $700 billion bail-out proposal doesn’t really address this problem.
I also point out why an important Democratic-sponsored provision in the original bill — one that would directly help homeowners rather than bankers and investors — was eliminated in the bill that was defeated on Monday, and that will probably not be put back into the bill that will be voted on later this week.
In my piece, I raise the question that a number of people have posed. Not surprisingly, the Bush administration and Congressional Republicans, including John McCain, took the banking industry’s side. But why did the Democrats — who have a majority of votes in both the House and Senate — let them get away with it? Why not pass a pro-consumer bill, put it on President Bush’s desk, and dare him to veto it?
I use the latest Center for Responsive Politics data to analyze the huge amounts of money that the finance/real estate/insurance sector has given to Congress – Republicans and Democrats alike. I point out: “Handing out $180 million [in campaign contributions] to Congress this year is a pretty sweet deal if they wind up giving the industry a $700 billion bail-out. That’s almost $4,000 in bail-out bucks for every dollar contributed to Congress. Even John McCain, whom the New York Times has documented is an inveterate casino gambler, can’t do that well at the black-jack table.” (I did the $4,000 calculation by dividing $180 million into $700 billion).
On a completely different topic: At Friday’s debate at the University of Mississippi, John McCain said: “As far as our other issues that he brought up are concerned, I know the veterans. I know them well. And I know that they know that I’ll take care of them. And I’ve been proud of their support and their recognition of my service to the veterans. And I love them. And I’ll take care of them. And they know that I’ll take care of them. And that’s going to be my job.” Later than night, I looked up McCain’s voting record on veterans’ issues. In fact, McCain has been no friend to veterans, according to his ratings from different veterans groups, which are based on his votes in Congress. Obama has a much better voting record. I wrote this up in a piece for the Huffington Post on Saturday.
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Tags: Bailout, Barack Obama, John McCain
