The Undisclosed Costs of the U.S. Government Bailouts

Since I know this story will be spun into a positive news story on Monday, I thought it imperative to really tell you the honest headline of this massive government planned $700 billion bailout before the press releases their version. According to MarketWatch: “The plan allows the government to buy the bad debt of U.S. financial institutions for the next two years, according to a draft of the proposed legislation. It gives the Treasury secretary the authority to buy $700 billion in mortgage-related assets, in a bid to address the root cause of the turmoil that swept through markets this past week and resulted in the filing for bankruptcy by and government takeovers of some of the biggest U.S. financial companies.” However, Senator Schumer of New York noted that the plan “includes no visible protection for taxpayers.”

Of course not, because given the actions of the past several weeks, I can only guess that the American taxpayer is the designated sucker in this bailout plan as well. Because the American taxpayer has already been the designated sucker for the bankruptcies of Bear Stearns (BSC), Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE), and AIG (AIG), why change things now? By keeping the American taxpayer as the sucker, this allows all banking executives and Wall Street executives to keep the hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries, stock options, and bonuses that they have taken over the past several years. In fact, this reported news cements in my mind that the American taxpayer has already been targeted as the sucker in this new bailout plan: “Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson sent the plan to Capitol Hill on Friday night, a Treasury spokesman said. Lawmakers have pledged rapid action. On Friday, some said they were optimistic it would be approved next week.”

The biggest bailout in economic history, a plan so important to the future of every American, should have as a prerequisite for passage a carefully and intelligent moderated public debate for at least one week at a minimum. Instead, there is a sense of desperation to pass this legislation as quickly as possible, an urgency that I can only interpret to mean that there is something very unpalatable about this plan. Of course, the mainstream media will spin the urgency to pass this legislation quickly with an absence of debate as necessary due to the inability of blue-chip corporations to roll-over short-term commercial paper and a near meltdown last week. But this is just political spin. I am quite sure that the architects of this plan have been discussing this plan for months on end now. If you really believe that Hank Paulson and friends must pass the plan to save the U.S. and global financial system with no real debate due to its “urgency” as it is being painted, then you need to return to the Land of Oz where delusions predominate. It is being painted as a frantic plan put together in the wee hours of the night, just as the bailout of Bear Stearns was, so that zero debate can occur in regard to the most unpalatable elements of this plan that are the most destructive to every American citizen.

Fool Me Once. Fool Me Twice. Fool Me Three Times, etc.

In regard to who will likely ultimately pay for this new bailout plan, recall this Congressional hearing between Senator Jim Bunning and U.S. Secretary of Treasury Hank Paulson regarding the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout plan earlier this month:

Senator Jim Bunning: “Where will the money come from if in fact we have to use the backstop?”

Secretary Paulson: “As, as, as, as, I said to you, that, uh, that, it is my very strong belief that the way we can minimize the cost to the taxpayer, the way to minimize that cost in all likelihood is to be unspecified and to enhance confidence in, in, in the market. So that’s my answer. It continues to be my answer.”

Senator Bunning: “But it doesn’t answer the question. Where is the money going to come from if you have to put it up?”

Secretary of Treasury Paulson: “Well obviously it will come from the government.”

Senator Bunning: “And who is the government?”

Secretary Paulson: “The taxpayer.”

Note that during that previous Congressional hearing, Secretary Paulson argues that costs of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout to all Americans can be minimized by approving an “unspecified” line of credit, in essence a blank check, to bail them out. Excuse me, but Secretary Paulson you just received an an “F” for logic. The way to minimize the cost to the taxpayer would have been to cap the bailout number for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, instead of leaving it unspecified and unlimited.

Again, it is imperative to understand that whatever positive story is spun from this bailout, that all of these bailouts are literally taking tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the pocket of every working American (over generations). Again, as a basis for whether you should trust this new bailout plan, one only need recall the Congressional testimony of one of its top architects, Hank Paulson, when he was questioned by U.S. Senator Jon Tester. In response to the health of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac just weeks before their collapse, Secretary Paulson stated: “We have no intent to nationalize [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac]”, and “I don’t buy into the proposition that these institutions [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] are not viable.” So when Hank Paulson will undoubtedly tell us this week that this new bailout plan will only cost $700 billion and that it is what is best for every American, do you really want to blindly trust his proclamation?

Where Does the Money Come From?

Given that these cumulative bailouts are now in the range of trillions of dollars, what happens if American taxpayers can’t come up with this money? Again, official government numbers for this bailout are not credible. For example, the “official” cost to the U.S. taxpayer of $200 billion for the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of $200 billion is highly delusional and grossly underestimated. The final cost is much more likely to be north of $1 trillion. And oh, by the way, the U.S. government, by making U.S. taxpayers responsible for covering the losses of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has also implicitly stated in this action, that they have zero problem with having Americans subsidize the losses of China, Japan, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands. Since those five countries were the largest holders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debt, American taxpayer money is being used to bailout the debt of those countries as well.

Make ZERO mistake about it, the loser will not be just American taxpayers, but all Americans, American taxpayers and their children too. I know that a lot of people will state, “there is no way that the government can squeeze trillions and trillions of dollars out of the American taxpayer to socialize 100% the losses of the U.S. banking industry and Wall Street.” While this is true, they will squeeze as much as they can out of the American taxpayer until the squeezing process becomes like trying to squeeze blood from a turnip. At this point, as Senator Bunning said, “WHERE WILL THE MONEY COME FROM?” Furthermore, I’m highly skeptical of the $700 billion figure being fed to the masses. My guess is that the actual figure, when all is said and done, will be multiples of this initial estimate. The bigger question is this: Is this really how we want government to act? To systematically dismantle every piece of legislation that was specifically enacted since the 1933 Glass Steagall Act to prevent such a debacle from happening again, to respond to every Wall Street lobbying group by granting them every exploitable loophole possible to make billions and billions of dollars (if you know your legislative history, the SEC and the CFTC have been guilty of doing this for decades), and then to respond to this irresponsible behavior by passing more regulations in history to socialize all of these losses so that the burden lies not with the creators of this problem but with all American citizens?

The Answer is No Matter How These Bailouts Unfold, The Money Ultimately Will Come From the People

I can guarantee that even though I am publishing this article before the official plan is released that the media will spin the bailout plan as funded by the government money without ever addressing the question of “Where will the government get the money from?” As Secretary Paulson already established in Congressional testimony, he considers the people the government even though we have no say in the legislation that socializes these losses. But we’ve also established that once the people have no more money, that the bailout plans will likely still be short trillions and trillions of dollars. So “Where does the money come from?” The answer, again, is “the people!”. If you are confused by my answer, I’ll explain.

The money the government can’t squeeze out of the people for these massive bailouts will have to come from the printing presses of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Printing trillions of dollars can pay the balance of these losses but also guarantees erosion in the value of the dollar. Imagine that the bailout causes the dollar to erode another “X”% over the next five years. I don’t even want to take a stab at what “X” will be other than the fact that it will most likely be a huge number. If his happens, then this results in a loss of purchasing power parity for all Americans at home and abroad. In essence, it acts like an invisible tax. For all intents and purposes, if the dollar erodes by 30% over the next two years because of this near guaranteed monetary expansion, it matters not whether the government imposed a 30% tax on all American’s savings to achieve this or whether it happened because of massive monetary expansion. The end result is the same. So, WHERE DOES THE MONEY COME FROM? The answer, sadly, is not the government, but still the people.

The third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, once stated, “If the American people ever allow the banks to control issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers occupied.” Right now, Jefferson must be rolling over in his grave now because not only could we not figure out how to prevent what he warned us was going to happen even though we had 200 years to figure it out, but we were also so blind that we cheered the very events in the 80’s and 90’s that brought us the crisis we have today. However, the architects of this bailout must be smiling today, because they are in the process of committing the largest robbery of American wealth in history since the Great Depression. As for us, we’re still asleep at the wheel, still oblivious to this robbery, and still content to believe every word we’re told to believe instead of thinking for ourselves.

Comments

[CM in MA:]

Sheep get shorn. The answer is for the voters of this great country to take matters into our own hands and vote for anybody, repeat anybody, running on a third-party ticket or as an independent. Vote via write-in if necessary. Both major parties have become corrupt beyond comprehension. Yet, they succeed in convincing millions to vote for them under the delusion that the other guys will somehow be worse.

2008 Sep 22 04:09 PM

[rheffel:]

I DISAGREE with this bail-out of Wall Street. We should not socialize the losses. If you want to assist Wall Street, the US Government can buy the bad paper from each Wall Street firm today, and amortize the repayment by that firm over 30 years, the typical length of a home loan. And like Student Loans, you must ensure through legislation that these obligations are not annulled via a Wall Street firm declaring bankruptcy. The responsibility for repayment must be assigned to firms acquiring the good assets of these bankrupt companies as well. But the US Government, Treasury, Federal Reserve should not just be handing over the keys of the kingdom (tax revenue) to irresponsible firms. They took the profits and they should take the losses. The orderly process for firms that are insolvent is Bankruptcy Court.

Furthermore, Congress must pass legislation to prohibit derivatives. And the SEC must approve any new financial instrument in the future, in order to prevent Wall Street from by-passing the SEC regulation and jurisdiction.

There is no free lunch. Medicare and Social Security solvency is much more important than any Wall Street firms.

So if the Bush Administration and Congress have to act today, purchase the bad paper today, and make the financial institutions responsible for repayment over 30 years. That will introduce the liquidity into the markets but not just hand tax payer money over to private companies.

2008 Sep 22 04:13 PM

[Seven Star ...:]

Their desperation flows from the understanding that truth and justice are standing just outside the door. The chickens have come home to roost and our so-called leaders know that the end of their power is nigh !!!

tinyurl.com/moneypower
Here is Wisdom...

2008 Sep 22 04:17 PM

[JohnAl:]

We might be helpless to stop this, but we can at least scream at the Congresscritters.

Write 'em and let 'em know how much you disapprove of this plan!

www.senate.gov/
www.house.gov/

2008 Sep 22 04:23 PM

[Conservativ...:]

Agreed CM, any conservative who votes to support the policies and actions of the republican party after the last eight years of fiscal disaster would surely be a fool.

2008 Sep 22 04:29 PM

[User 267303:]

Could you imagine!? If the founding fathers were alive today they would still be screaming..... give me liberty or give me death! Unless the American people stand up soon then we will become slaves to foreigners and our children will live in poverty...all for sake of the almighty dollar. Which incidently isn't worth that much now due to the greed of Wall Street, politicians, and the oil companys. Lynching is really becoming quite attractive nowadays. I think we should start with the biggest traitor of all....George W. Bush....period!

2008 Sep 22 04:37 PM

[Jason Rines...:]

The people will revolt and vote in new government, but expect 2012 to be the turning point. The American taxpayer has just begun to see real pain in inflation, the next round (note oil's $16 march north today) will break the back of the Middle Class. The government should be very worried about this, the Middle Class are the ones whom start revolutions, because when they cannot run there small businesses and just get to work, they have a lot of time on there hands. And good luck to those in Washington whom think the military will be there to ward off pitchforks. This military has been *hit on. Hell, even Castro knew better.

2008 Sep 22 07:28 PM

[J. S. Kim:]

One last comment from the author. I know there are people that will say that our gov't had not choice but to socialize these losses because we were on the verge of a massive financial meltdown and capital markets were illiquid causing even some money market funds to fail this month. They will present some far-fetched, illogical argument like "Would you rather have America fail?" to try to paint this solution as a necessary solution that had zero alternatives. This argument, of course, will be propaganda instead of truth. If you check my blog, you will see that since two years ago, September of 2006, I have been stating that the worst financial crisis of our lifetimes was coming. It was plain to see even two years ago that the enormous risk assumed by bankers and Wall Street driven that was driven by their equally large appetite for greed would bring our great country down. Again, I didn't say that something bad would happen, but I stated that the worst crisis of our lifetime was coming because I dug well below the surface of media reports that painted a healthy, rosy economy to understand how our financial infrastructure was being severely undermined back then all in the quest for billions of quick profits.

If I knew this more than two years ago, certainly the CEOs of every firm that has collapsed this year knew this as well. Their understanding of these complex derivatives that introduced so much risk into the global financial system almost undoubtedly exceeded mine. So they knew. Not only that, if you look up the legislative history of the SEC and the CFTC for the past 10 years you will see that they acted not as regulatory agencies one single time, but more like Wall Street lobbyists, as they systematically dismantled a lot of the legislation that had originally been enacted to prevent what is happening today. The people heading these agencies all need to go as well and we need to get REAL regulators back in these crucial positions instead of paid lobbyists for Wall Street and big banking.

So even had the regulators started to do their job as recently as two years ago, this would have forced big banks and Wall Street firms to stop their destructive behavior. Instead, the SEC and CFTC stood by silently and did nothing, knowing full well what would happen today (again, how could these so-called regulators not know, given that I've known for two years running now)?

So had they stepped in to do their jobs instead of aiding and abetting the greed of Wall Street and big banks, this situation could easily have been avoided. Instead of problems of liquidity today and capital markets freezing up, perhaps we would have had one or two firms fail instead of many. Then the solution easily could have been to let those firms go bankrupt (the economy could have easily rebounded from the bankruptcy of one or two big firms) and there would have been NO need to socialize any of the losses of any financial institutions and burden Americans for generations to come.

2008 Sep 22 08:42 PM

[williambanzai7:]

How The Grinch Almost Killed Wall Street
(How the Grinch Stole Christmas revised by
William Banzai7)

Every Banker down on Wall Street Liked CDOS a lot...
But the Grinch,Who lived just north in Greenwich, Did NOT!
The Grinch hated those Street jerks for a whole list of reasons!
Now, that is why we are having this exciting fall season.
It could be his trader head was screwed on just right.
It could be, perhaps, that his white shoes were a little too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all,
May have been that his NAV was 12 sizes too small.
Whatever the reason, His smarts or his shoes,
He stood there last week, hating all Wall Street's Whose Whos,
Staring down at his trading NAV with a sour, Grinchy frown,
Detesting those warm lighted screens in Wall Street town.
For he knew every Captain down in Wall Street beneath,
Was busy now, trying to sail through the great Subprime reef.
"And they're firing their traders" he snarled with a sneer,
"In three months its Christmas! It's practically here!"
Then he growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming,
"I MUST find some way to give those investment bankers a drubbing!"
For Tomorrow, he knew, all the Whose Who of Bankers,
Would wake bright and early. And rush to save all their bonus earnings!
And then! Oh, the noise! Oh, the Noise!
Noise! Noise! Noise!
That's one thing he hated! The NOISE!
NOISE! NOISE! NOISE!
Then the Whose Whos, young and old, would all fly Far East.
And they'd try to talk Korea and China into feasting on trading book yeast!
And they'd feast! And they'd FEAST!
FEAST! FEAST! FEAST!
They would feast on champagne and rare banker roast beast.
Which was something the Grinch couldn't stand in the least!
And THEN They'd do something He liked least of all!
Every Who down in Wall Street, the Bulls and the Bears,
Would stand close together, with opening bells ringing.
They'd stand hand-in-hand. And the Whos would start singing!
They'd sing! And they'd sing! And they'd SING!
SING! SING! SING!
And the more the Grinch thought of this Singing,
The more the Grinch thought, "I must stop this whole thing!"
"Why, for year after year I've put up with it now!"
"I MUST stop a Wall Street bailout from coming! But HOW?"
Then he got an idea! An awful idea!
THE GRINCH GOT A WONDERFUL, AWFUL IDEA!
"I know just what to do!" The Grinch laughed in his throat.
And he made a some quick calls to spread rumours of unkown CDS stew.
And he chuckled, and clucked, "What a great short seller trick!"
"With this phone and this screen, I'll batter those Wall Street Dicks!"

"PoohPooh to the Whose Whos!" he was grinchishly humming.
"They're finding out now that no White Knight is coming!"
"They're just waking up! I know just what they'll do!"
"Their mouths will hang open a minute or two,
Then the Whos down in Wall Street will all cry BooHoo!"
"That's a noise," grinned the Grinch, "That I simply MUST hear!"
So he paused. And the Grinch put his hand to his ear.
And he did hear noises over the trading screen glow.
It started low. Then it started to grow.
But the sound wasn't sad! Why, this sound sounded merry!
It couldn't be so! But it WAS merry! VERY!
He stared down at Bloomberg and Reuters! The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every banker down in Wall Street, the longs and the shorts,
Was singing! Without any White Knight at all!
He HADN'T seen a Big Wall Street bailout coming! IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came!
And the Grinch, stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?"
"It came with out tickers! It came without a tab!"
"It came as Federal largesse in boxes and bags!"
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe a Bailout," he thought, "is not just for financial Whooers"
"Maybe Fed bailout...perhaps...me... a little bit more!"
And what happened then? Well...on Greenwich Main Street they say,
That the Grinch's taxes grew 12 sizes that day!
And the minute his wallet didn't feel quite so tight,
He whizzed with his Lexus through the Bronx morning light,
And he met those Wall Street boys for a Smith & Wolensky feast!
And he, HE HIMSELF! The Grinch carved the beef!

2008 Sep 22 11:49 PM

[NYM Arts:]

Absolutely ALL of the People invovled in the Scamming of Homebuyers MUST be put into labor camps, where they will be Worked Until their Nautural Deaths.
ALL of their Worldly ILL - Gotten Possessions MUST be "Liberated" Back to the American People. Amen

2008 Sep 23 08:20 AM

[NOWHEREMAN:]

I don't often concur BUT you are so right ozgood.

2008 Sep 23 10:52 AM

[Responsibility:]

To encourage people to be responsible, we should have tax penalty and special points for future loans on load defaulters and tax incentive to people who keep their mortgages, to those who take on new mortgages, and to those who increase their mortgages, similar to tax on big cars and incentives for small/hybrid cars. Please spread this if you agree so that the politicians will do something.

2008 Sep 23 02:24 PM

[hatebureauc...:]

Even if we were to think for ourselves, is there anything that we could even do to stop this insanity?

2008 Sep 23 03:03 PM

[williambanzai7:]

CHARGE OF THE TARP BRIGADE

(Charge of the Light Brigade, Alfred Lord Tennyson)

(Modified by WilliamBanzai7)


Half a trillion, half a trillion,
Give or take 200 billion, onward!
All in the valley of Balance Sheet Death
Rode the seven hundred billion tax dollars.
"Forward, the TARP Brigade!"
"Charge for the ABS Credit Default Swaps!" Hank said:
Into the valley of Balance Sheet Death
Rode the seven hundred billion taxpayer dollars.


"Forward, the TARP Brigade!"
Was there a politician dismay'd?
Not tho' the Congress knew
Some guy named Hank had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Balance Sheet Death
Rode the seven hundred billion taxpayer dollars.


CDOs to right of them,
CDSs to left of them,
AIG and the GSEs in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with Wall Street shot and shell,
Boldly that load of Federal largesse rode and well,
Into the jaws of Balance Sheet Death,
Into the mouth of subprime contagion Hell
Rode the seven hundred billion taxpayer dollars.


Flash'd all the workout sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the asset backed losses there,
Charging an army of tawdry bankers, accountants, and shysters, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the seedy subprime-smoke
Right into the red numbers they broke;
Lehman and Bear Stearns
Spared from the sabre stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the seven hundred billion.


Subprime CDOs to right of them,
Subprime CDSs to left of them,
Fat Wall Street advisory fees behind them,
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with derivative losses, asset backed shot and shell,
While level 3 zeros fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Balance Sheet Death
Back from the mouth of subprime contagion Hell,
All that was left of it?
Nothing left of seven hundred billion buckaroos!


When can its glory fade?
O the wild loss charges!
All the world wondered.
Honor the huge expenditures they made,
Honor the TARP Brigade,
Noble seven hundred billion taxpayer dollars.


(TARP--Troubled Asset Relief Plan of 2008)


williambanzai7.blogspo.../

2008 Sep 23 11:40 PM

[J. S. Kim:]

One last comment! Some people have noted that my prediction of a "positive spin" regarding this massive bailout has so far not come to fruition. I thought about why the spin doctors haven't come out of the woodwork yet, and then bingo, it hit me.

The anger among Americans being burdened with the losses from all these banking and Wall Street CEOs is palpable now, certainly to the point, where our Congressmen KNOW the people are angry. They fear that if they passed this legislation right away, without faking some kind of righteous indignation, that their constituents will vote them hastily out of office come November. So at the very least, they must appear to be on the same side of their constituents even if they are not. If this bailout plan was brought up one year ago, when the discussion was not so close to election time, I don't believe we would be seeing the same level of indignation.

I know that this may seem overly sarcastic, but there is a reason for my sarcasm. All Congressmen have been informed for decades through Congressional Finance Committee Hearings of the great risk and greed that was being perpetuated and did nothing about if for years (though this is monumentally boring, you can read through the archived hearings of the Congressional Finance Committees both for the House and the Senate here financialservices.hous... and here www.senate.gov/~finance/sitepages/he... I know that some of our Congressmen and women have not been in office that long, but even within the past several years, they had been warned time and time again of the dangerous assumption of risk in our financial sector in the quest for easy profits. Thus, they had multiple opportunities to stand in our defense, and every single time prior to this week, they failed miserably to do so.

The time for indignation is not now when it is far too late to prevent serious damage to the American taxpayer. Any way you spin this bailout, all American taxpayers are in for a world of hurt now. For this reason, though some may be encouraged that Congressmen are fighting for our rights now, this indignation rings false. If they were truly indignant about this situation, the time for action was years ago when they could have prevented this situation, not now when it truly is too late.

2008 Sep 24 06:46 AM

[c00ster:]

Seven Star Hand, I could use more enlightened ones like yourself at my forum!
waketheherd.proboards1...


On Sep 22 04:17 PM Seven Star Hand wrote:

> Their desperation flows from the understanding that truth and justice
> are standing just outside the door. The chickens have come home to
> roost and our so-called leaders know that the end of their power
> is nigh !!!
>
> tinyurl.com/moneypower
> Here is Wisdom...

2008 Sep 29 10:13 PM

[c00ster:]

Sadly, people are too narrow minded to understand the depth of who is at fault. The broad answer is BOTH Democrats and Republicans are to blame. It is very easy for the Liberals to paint this as a Bush disease, but the value of the dollar was ruined by Clinton and his "ingenuity" - essentially having counterfeit currency printed up. BUT Clinton is not the sole person to blame either.

This is a conspiracy of sorts that has a much deeper agenda, which is shared by the monopoly party "Republicrats" as they are becoming known as today. The only difference between the two parties is their method of enslaving us. They are 2 masks on the same face.

The Liberals point fingers at the Republicans for voting for deregulation. However, the liberal citizens dont seem to realize that it was under the regulation that the Democrats wish to keep, that all of this occurred. All of these problems arose, in a REGULATED atmosphere. Democrat ideas of regulation are nothing different from SPONSORSHIP. They have sponsored this rip-off and taken a lot of money off the top for their cooperation. (BOTH Republicans and Democrats alike.)

This is NOT a partisan issue, it is an issue that ALL of us need to consider. This is just ONE example of how we can be caught with our pants down, while we bicker amongst each other to defend which party is better. Meanwhile, in Washington they are together sipping tea and laughing at us, as we allow their pockets to get fatter.

2008 Sep 29 10:28 PM

[juandos:]

"Agreed CM, any conservative who votes to support the policies and actions of the republican party after the last eight years of fiscal disaster would surely be a fool"...

Obviously the comment of a leftist loon...

The fact is that the Repubs in this particular situation have very few finger prints on this particular fiasco...

The Repubs at least tried (did they try hard enough?) to put some brakes on this situation...

The Dems created the CRA the root cause of it all... The Dems during the Clinton administration put more teeth into the CRA...

The Dems fought it off: www.youtube.com/watch?...

Look at who the real players are: www.youtube.com/watch?...

2008 Oct 08 10:07 AM