In lock-step with President Bush, Republicans are clamoring for a $700 billion-bailout-scheme for the disgraceful CEOs who have flushed our 401 K's down the toilet...with no oversight.
Here's a chilling quote from Section 8 of Bush's proposal: "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." Basically, Treasury Secretary Harry Paulson can do anything with your money, no questions asked.
Here's House Minority Leader John Boehner (pronounced BOH-ner) falling in lock-step with the president on passing the bill with no oversight: "We don't need 535 members of Congress adding their best idea to this bill," Boehner said. "We need to keep it clean, simple, move it through the House and Senate, and get it on the president's desk."
Could you imagine giving a roofer $70,000 to shingle your roof, thanking him before the work commences and never inspecting his progress?
The Republican-backed bailout threatens to destroy the "Idea," as Limbaugh calls it, that our lives prosper when government is small, markets are free, and welfare budgets are slashed.
The Republican-backed, sponsored, promoted and wildly endorsed, Republican bailout could be the tombstone for an era of Republican de-regulation that has buried America in nearly $10 trillion in debt and left us with a weak dollar world-wide.
If Democrats get tough and coordinated now, they can destroy the power of the myth that unregulated free markets will guide us to prosperity. Indeed, without government support now, we are told, we are all screwed.
Democrats can also take the opportunity to highlight the shameless hypocrisy of a political party that extols personal responsibility for everyone making less than $250,000, and government welfare for the limousine class when privileged rich kid CEO's ruin daddy's business just like President George W. Bush did at Arbusto, Spectrum 7 Energy Corp. and Harken Energy.
But they better start making their case now because Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and a chorus of Republicans are painting Senators Chris Dodd, Charles Schumer, Harry Reid, Representatives Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi, and former attorney general Janet Reno as the real culprits in this mess.
The Spin Twins are burning into the minds of their listeners the names "Franklin Raines" and "Jim Johnson." Citing a 2003 (bogus) "proposal" by President Bush to increase regulations for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Spin Twins argue that Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd led Democratic killed this proposal.
Ha! Christopher Dodd single-handedly killed a proposal. How quaint. Since when does a single member of the Senate have veto power? Huh, Hannity? You lying punk.
Here's what Limbaugh had to say yesterday: "We are witnessing the greatest nationalization of our society since the New Deal." Ha! And it's YOUR PARTY'S FAULT, LIMBAUGH. YOUR PARTY IS AUTHORIZING IT! LOOK AT WHAT BUSH SAID. LOOK AT WHAT BOEHNER (pronounced BOH-ner) SAID!
THIS IS WHAT WE GET FOR 28 YEARS OF REPUBLICAN RULE IN WASHINGTON!!!
"Twelve new attempts at oversight were stalled by Democrats [since 2003]," Limbaugh added! By Democrats? The attempts were made by Democrats. The stalls were by the Republican dominant Congress! (More on that below.)
Limbaugh and Hannity are stressing that the politicians who have received the most from Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac are Democrats, but this ignores the fact that in 2006, when Republicans controlled Congress, the mortgage agencies spent 53 percent of their campaign contributions on Republicans.
Even accounting for the latest round of spending, the following All-Republican team placed in the top 23 recipients of campaign contributions from the mortgage giants since 1989: Representatives Roy Blunt (R-MO), Deborah Pryce (R-OH), Gary Miller (R-CA), Tom Reynolds (R-NY), Spencer Baucus (R-AL) and Tom Davis (R-VA) and Senators Robert F. Bennett (R-UT), Christopher Bond (R-MO), and Richard C. Shelby (R-AL).
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