"...in their last moments, people show you who they really are..."

The Flashlight · Sep 29, 2008

The Joker: [to Det. Stephens] Do you wanna know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can't savor all the... little... emotions. In... you see, in their last moments, people show you who they really are. So in a way, I know your friends better than you ever did. Would you like to know which of them were cowards?

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWU2ODgzNzg2MmIyN2Y3ZWFjY2ZlODVmMTgzYjMwMjY=

The Tyranny of Good Intentions

It has been said that there are no atheists in foxholes. There are also no conservatives in economic meltdowns. In the face of another Great Depression, Democrat and Republican leadership is indistinguishable: Both are aggressively socialist. Beyond Wall Street and Washington, Americans are rightly furious. It is not just the shocking new tax liability, however, driving Americans over the edge.

In an ever-more-competitive global economy, we are choosing to load ourselves with more debt and regulation. We will pay for this in the form of lower growth.

And it’s Republicans who are bringing back the Era of Big Government. The New Deal set off a trend of higher taxes and more government that only got worse. Similarly, this generation will find it difficult to explain why the same paternal state we called upon to rescue Wall Street can’t bend down a little lower to provide government-paid health care, energy subsidies, and every imaginable social service.

So is this the time to pull our nation back from an economic precipice? Yes, for America cannot afford to play Russian roulette. If Congress votes down this bailout and our economy collapses, Americans will be at Washington’s door with torches and pitchforks. Remember when Republicans shut down the government? Imagine if Republicans shut down the economy. There is a liquidity crisis. Whether with loans or a bailout, our government must meet it.

Now, we must account for decisions made long ago. Washington’s dream was an America where every person could borrow enough money to buy a home. The Community Reinvestment Act, signed by President Carter and strengthened by Bill Clinton, encouraged bankers to loosen underwriting standards to “meet community needs.” Communities, of course, were not the ones obliged to pay the loans back.

As one former banker recently shared, “It is easy to recall sitting around bank board meetings in the last decade where it became a badge of honor for bankers to give loans to those who could not afford them. From that came lesser rates, larger loans and chicanery galore.” With this came the perverse incentives of sub-prime lending: loans without down payments, loans without equity, loans without verification of income or assets. New lenders like Countrywide lent money without tempering the risk with savings deposits.

It worked, as long as the value of the underlying asset, the American home, kept increasing: If a homeowner couldn’t pay the mortgage, he could sell the home for a profit. In 1997, Bear Stearns started securitizing these poisoned loans, packaging and reselling the tainted candy in large, Wall Street-sized containers. More Wall Street money chased risky loans and more speculative borrowers chased easy money.

When government regulation creates perverse incentives that disrupt the normal workings of an economy, it finds itself obligated to create equally perverse disincentives and regulations to limit the side effects of their good intentions. Government intervention attempts to repair its disruptions with even more regulation, an endless hall of mirrors from which policymakers can find no exit. Now we find ourselves socializing capital markets, led by a Republican president.

America’s great challenge and opportunity is still growth in a global economy. Before us lies a perilous but promising new economic frontier. If we compete there, America will be renewed and our economy will be strengthened again. For that we must open markets, reduce taxes and regulation, and end the old Era of Big Government, not embrace it.

Tomorrow we renew our commitment to less government and a growing American economy. Today, however, we pay for Washington’s utopian wishes. That is the tyranny of good intentions.

Washington ordered this meal long ago. The bill has come due. There is no choice now but to pay.
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I have quoted The Joker. Paladin is thereby summoned.....

evenflow · Sep 29, 2008

Didn't House Republicans just shut down the bailout today?

Reading Flashlight is like reading the newspapers, by the time he prints it, it's out of date!

The Flashlight · Sep 29, 2008

evenflow said: ↑

Didn't House Republicans just shut down the bailout today?
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That depends on who's spin you believe. Both sides are pointing fingers.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/09/29/house-republicans-blame-pelosis-speech/

House Republicans Blame Pelosi’s Speech

House Republicans blamed the failure of the $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan Monday on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), saying that Pelosi had been too partisan in a floor speech prior to the vote. (See the speech here, via CSPAN.)

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) said that Pelosi’s speech “poisoned” the Republican caucus and “caused a number of members we thought we could get to go south.”

“I do believe that we could have gotten there today, had it not been for the partisan speech that the Speaker gave on the floor of the House,” Boehner said. “We put everything we had into getting the vote to get there today.” Boehner added, however, that lawmakers have “no choice” but to work together and would have to find “a middle ground to bring enough votes to avert a crisis.”

Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R., Mo.) said he had 12 Republicans who would have voted for the bill but changed their minds, while Rep. Eric Cantor (R., Va.) holding up a copy of what he said was Pelosi’s floor remarks - said the speaker “frankly struck the tone of partisanship.” A senior aide to Pelosi rejected the Republican claims against the speaker, saying the suggestion that her speech motivated House Republicans to vote against the bailout plan was “absurd.”

“You don’t vote on the speech, you vote on the bill,” said the aide.

Frank, speaking at a press conference, mocked the suggestion. “Give me those twelve people’s names and I will talk uncharacteristically nicely to them,” Frank said.
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Nancy Pelosi has the power to cloud Republican minds!

evenflow · Sep 29, 2008

The Flashlight said: ↑

Nancy Pelosi has the power to cloud Republican minds!
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Sounds like clarity to me.

Tamar Garish · Sep 29, 2008

What about the 92 Dems who voted "Nay"...what's their "excuse"?

The Flashlight · Sep 29, 2008

Tamar Garish said: ↑

What about the 92 Dems who voted "Nay"...what's their "excuse"?
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Maybe they truly believed the bailout was the wrong thing to do. Or maybe they were just playing election year politics. In other words, they're behaving like politicians.

Bulldog · Sep 29, 2008

There were enough Democratic votes to pass this abomination without a single Republican having to support it. Yet Pelosi was such a weak leader that she lost 92 votes from her own party. Maybe if she had just kept her mouth shut instead of going into her little venom-spewing session just before the vote, the thing would have passed.

She has no one to blame but herself.

evenflow · Sep 29, 2008

Bulldog said: ↑

There were enough Democratic votes to pass this abomination without a single Republican having to support it. Yet Pelosi was such a weak leader that she lost 92 votes from her own party. Maybe if she had just kept her mouth shut instead of going into her little venom-spewing session just before the vote, the thing would have passed.

She has no one to blame but herself.
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My theory is that the Democrats saw that if the bill was no good, or that it was going to outrage the American people, then the revolting Republicans would leave it as an albatross around the Democrats necks. They couldn't afford to pass it on their own politically, so they killed it.

So Pelosi told those Dems to vote no.

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"...in their last moments, people show you who they really are..."

The Flashlight Contributes nothing worthwhile Cunt Git

evenflow Lofty Administrator

The Flashlight Contributes nothing worthwhile Cunt Git

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The Flashlight Contributes nothing worthwhile Cunt Git

Bulldog Only Pawn in Game of Life

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