One More Time For The Cheap Seats

It’s time to address the lies about our economic troubles.  The democrats are to blame.  They had dominant control over the House from 2006 on.  The House is in charge of the countries fiscal business.  They are responsible for oversight.  They are the Alpha and Omega of economic legislation, budgets, and spending, and nothing gets to the president without coming from them, or going through them. 

If they have to continue to blame Bush they must accept that despite a democrat majority for two years they failed in their obligation to the people to stop him.  An obligation they were more than equipped to fulfill.  But they not only failed to know better, they failed to do better.   Oversight is entirely their responsibility.  They ignored the problems, hid them, made them worse, or were two incompetent to see them.  And more likely all of the above, and most certainly for political gain. 

Some will try to argue they didn’t have enough time to stop the freight train.  But this is the same party that said they could save the banks, rescue the auto industry, stop unemployment, rescue the planet, and give everyone affordable accessible health care all at once, all in the first six months of 2009.  

They have since embarked on policy decisions that mirrored the ones even they claimed caused the original problem.  And we are to assume they had no hand in the first failures? All roads lead to the House.  They are to blame.  The democrats were running the show when the whole thing came off the rails.  And their current string of efforts only confirms their gross incompetence. 

Barney Frank and Chris Dodd should go to prison.  Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid should resign in disgrace.  And not a one of the hacks who obstructed efforts to regulate then—but who insist we need to regulate now—should ever be permitted to hold elective office again. 

Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter have long protested too much.  They never raised a finger or an objection to the mess to which they were a party..  And their “solutions” have only made matters worse.  So nothing they say or do know should be viewed as an effort to do anythng other than get elected.

Comments

[Herb Moyer]

Speaking of "incompetent", Steve MacDonald, shame on you for rewriting history with such an incorrect and biased slant.....and for writing it so poorly. I refer initially to your two significant grammatical/word use errors in this piece.

1. In the first paragraph you write: "The House is in charge of the countries fiscal business.". Didn't you mean to use the possessive, “the country's fiscal business” ?
2. Your use of this incorrect grammar in the second paragraph ("or were two incompetent ") instead of "too incompetent" blows my mind.

I'm not trying to be picky, but these are not typographical errors; they seem to indicate that you don't know how to correctly use the English language to make your written points in a public piece. If you really haven't yet learned these basics in the use of English, then you should either stop submitting public pieces, or get an editor. Sorry, but the teacher in me is appalled at your grammar ignorance. I suspect it may say something about the quality of your education, or maybe to your lack of attention to certain details ???

Now, as to the accuracy of your political analysis of our current situation... yes, both Republicans and Democrats share some portion of our current economic mess. But, using your thesis that the House is ultimately responsible for every bad economic condition, the Republican-controlled House is responsible for the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999. That bill released banks and other financial institutions from significant regulatory oversight, and is partly and directly responsible for much of this economic collapse. “The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allowed commercial banks, investment banks, securities firms and insurance companies to consolidate.” In the Senate, only ONE DEMOCRAT out of 45 voted for the repeal of Glass-Steagall. This was a Republican effort…now seen to be the disaster that it foreshadowed. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm%E2%80%93Leach%E2%80%93Bliley_Act .You may recall that former Republican senator Phil Gramm, with Republican colleague support, was a main cheerleader for gutting this and any significant regulatory oversight of the financial services industry. Sure, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd share some of the blame, but to portion it all on Democrats is factually and intellectually flawed. Back to school for you Steve MacDonald !!

[NH]

@Herb Mover: It's called typographical error. Get over it. Some men have large fingers and typing on a small keyboard can easily produce these. To point them out is nothing more than showing your pomposity and trying to give the perception of superiority before you present your equally weak contentious claims.

Back to etiquette lessons for you Herb.

[Herb Moyer]

Nice try, Steve, but they are NOT typographical errors. And, I invite you to refute the veracity of my "weak contentious claims.? I make no claims of superiority, but I do claim to have a better handle on the truth about the reasons for our economic recession than you do.

[Steve]

Must have hit a nerve, eh Herb?

Yes, they are typo's. Yes, my grammar suffers from certain limitations. No, it does not justify the result. But sometimes you have to break a few eggs...

I am impressed however that you chose to ridicule me as an introduction to your rebuttal. It adds a certain value to what follows. Must be the teacher in you.

So what follows…?

Nothing you mention contradicts my actual point. Did I say anything about what either party did prior to the democrats taking over the House in the 2006 elections? As a matter of fact I did not. (I fact checked it by reading what I actually wrote, typo's and all.)

You would have been better served by showing me how they tried to fix what it seems to them was obvious only after all hell broke lose. Is it odd that they lay the blame elsewhere for political profit after doing nothing when they had the opportunity? Very odd. I believe it was criminal.

[note--I origiannly referenced Lindsey Graham as "not a republican" in this comment. He's a bit too squishy, but I should have been refering to Phil Graham. Don't love Phil either.]

So while typo's are no excuse for an inability "to correctly use the English language to make [my] written points in a public piece," this pales in comparison to your inability to prove me wrong in making your own.

"He used the language beautifully, but for naught."

So would you like to make a point about how the democrats did not let the ship sink under their watch or is this the bulk of your contribution?

[edited]-after consideration

Maybe I'm reading this wrong but on the final vote 38 Democrats voted for this bill in the Senate and 155 for it in the House. So 84% of Senate Democrats and 75% of House Democrats voted for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley bill. If that's correct, I'm not the one re-writing history.

The democrats sold out for some community reinvestment language. Mighty guardians are they. And hey! A democrat president signed it into law. By the Bush bashing rules that makes every democrat ever born responsible.

This is your fault Herb. Just live with it.

[Herb Moyer]

This is what Congress accomplished in 2006, largely under Republican control:

•Congress cut the taxes of the rich

•Congress redefined bankruptcy rules to help banks collect money from those facing medical or financial tragedy

•Congress provided subsidies and other goodies for energy companies

•Congress protected pharmaceutical companies from Medicare drug subscribers who wanted cheaper drug prices

•Congress enabled lawmakers to use taxpayer money - fancifully called "earmarks" - for special projects to help them get reelected

•Congress made a citizen susceptible to incarceration without cause or redress, merely with the president calling him or her an enemy combatant
Source for the above: http://www.watchblog.com/democrats/archives/004259.html

Here are some of the modest accomp-lishments of the Democratically controlled 110th Congress in 2007:

Minimum wage: legislation to increase the federal minimum wage to $7.25/hour;

* Middle-class tax cuts: the 2008 Budget Resolution provides for permanent extensions of the Marriage Penalty tax relief, the $1,000 refundable Child Tax Credit; the 10 percent income tax bracket; the adoption tax credit; the dependent care tax credit; U.S. soldiers’ combat pay for the earned income tax credit; and reform of the estate tax to protect small businesses and family farms;

* AMT patch: the 2008 Budget Resolution ensures that the number of taxpayers subject to the alternative minimum tax will not increase in 2007, giving Congress and the Administration time to come up with a permanent solution;

* Head Start: a bill to expand eligibility for the Head Start program;

* Stem cell research: legislation to expand the number of human embryonic stem cells eligible for federally-funded research;

* Children’s health coverage: the 2008 Budget Resolution and the 2007 Emergency Supplemental provide needed funds for the Children’s Health Insurance Program;

* FDA reauthorization: a bill to greatly improve the Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of drug safety;

* Rebuilding the Gulf Coast: legislation providing a total of $6.4 billion for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, including $1.3 billion to complete levee and drainage repairs, $50 million to reduce violent crime in Gulf Coast states, and $110 million to repair the seafood and fisheries industries, which is vital to the region’s economic recovery;

* Army Corps reform: legislation to ensure that the Army Corps of Engineers does its job more effectively and soundly;

* Health care for wounded soldiers and veterans: legislation that provides $3 billion in supplemental funds for military health care and $1.8 billion in supplemental funds to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to accommodate the increasing number of new veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan;

The 111th Congress under Democratic control has enacted laws to:

· Stabilize the economy and support 3.5 million jobs

· Protect workers from pay discrimination

· Provide health care for children in need

· Combat mortgage and financial fraud

· Invest in health care, energy, and education

· Protect the American wilderness

· Strengthen oversight of TARP

· Expand national service

You may not find any of these helpful to your particular situation, but millions of other Americans are thankful that Democrats and a few non-ideological Republicans have begun the process of righting our economy and putting our policies back into alignment where they support more than just the wealthiest citizens among us. Granted, Congress could have done more sooner to reverse the detrimental policies of the Bush administration. And, I agree that some of their spinelessness had to do with the Presidential Election. But the continued behavior of Republicans as the party of "NO" does not help the American public, and ultimately will hurt them at the polls.

[Ed Naile]

All hail Herb Moyer "Maker of Lists" and intellectual heavyweight.

Another moonbat.