Why McCain is clueless about the economy

Obama: Bailout shouldn't be 'blank check'
Illinois senator advocates help for homeowners, but McCain says rival's plan lacks details
By DAN BALZ and ROBERT BARNES, WASHINGTON POST

"As of now, the Bush administration has only offered a concept with a staggering price tag, not a plan," the senator from Illinois said at an afternoon rally. He added that "in return for their support, the American people must be assured that the deal reflects the basic principles of transparency and fairness and reform."

As Hill Debates Bailout, Wall St. Shifts Continue
Paulson, GOP Oppose Democrats' Proposal to Limit Executive Pay
By Lori Montgomery and David Cho, Washington Post Staff Writers

Congressional Democrats considering the Bush administration's emergency plan to shore up the U.S. financial system countered with their own demands yesterday, presenting draft legislation giving the government power to cut salaries of chief executives at firms that participate in the bailout and slash severance packages for their top management.

Why is this so very important? Because the very corporations who made these catastrophically stupid investments want to expand the program to help shield them from other losses.

Big Financiers Start Lobbying for Wider Aid
By JENNY ANDERSON, VIKAS BAJAJ and LESLIE WAYNE, NY Times

Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

In nature, the strong survive while the weak die. Perhaps THIS is why the right doesn't like the teaching of Evolution and Natural Selection in our schools. Their incompetence will be revealed.

Finally, how did we get into this mess in the first place?

GOP Legislation To Blame For Financial Crisis
By KATHY CASTOR, Tampa Tribune

Early in the 1990s Congress played an active role for families borrowing money to buy homes. The Home Ownership & Equity Protection Act of 1994 included consumer protections for mortgages and required the Federal Reserve to issue rules against abusive lending practices. Under the Republican-controlled Congress, these regulations to protect all of us were never enacted.

The heart of our present problem dates to legislation passed in 1999. Sponsored by then-U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, the bill obliterated the long-held walls between banking and commerce. The new rules, championed by congressional Republicans, allowed for the excesses of banking and securities firms and insurance companies that culminated in last week's crash and the ongoing crisis in our housing markets.

Gramm, R-Texas, said he was proud of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. During his closing comments on the Senate floor, he said: "The question is not how proud we are of this bill today. The question is, how will it look 50 years from now when it has gone from infancy to maturity?"

We didn't have to wait 50 years. We know right now. In Tampa, in St. Petersburg, on Wall Street, it's just not working. An unbridled, unchecked system just doesn't cut it.

Take a guess - Which presidential candidate hired Phil Gramm as an economic adviser? That's right, John "Economically Clueless" McCain.

“The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should,” he said. But, “I’ve got Greenspan’s book,” he assured the audience.

Wow, I feel so much better now!!! Meanwhile, John McCain apparently is still clueless about the economy saying on Sept. 15, “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”


McCain Gaffes Could Undercut Message on Economy, Foreign Affairs
Presidential Candidate's Misstatements Threaten to Derail Campaign Message
By JENNIFER PARKER
Sept. 22, 2008

The most damaging gaffe came Sept. 15, when McCain said "the fundamentals of our economy are strong," which was a hard sell because it occurred on the same day that venerable firms Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch were collapsing.

While that statement is likely to haunt McCain through the rest of the campaign, he went on to make several other slips in the following days.

On Thursday, the Arizona senator said he would "fire" Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Chris Cox. However, while the president nominates and the Senate confirms the SEC chair, a commissioner of an independent regulatory commission cannot be removed by the president.

Trying to recover the next day, McCain confused the SEC with the FEC, the Federal Election Commission.

So, what is the approach of the McCain campaign when faced with their own incompetence? When in doubt, lie and flip-flop.

McCain should have stood by his words
MARSHA MERCER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

After noting "tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and on Wall Street," he said, "People are frightened by these events. Our economy, I think still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong. But these are very, very difficult times."

Instead of standing firm, McCain did what Washington politicians do when something they say ricochets around the talk-filled universe. He waffled and then he caved. First, he said he meant to say that American workers are strong. And then he scurried away from his words entirely and declared the economy in "a total crisis."