Just got off a conference call with Al Franken and reporters on the financial crisis. From the accompanying press release:
FRANKEN OUTLINES CONCERNS ON “BLANK CHECK” BAILOUT PACKAGE
Challenges Coleman To Explain Prediction That Bailout Will Net $14 Trillion
Franken: No More Blank Checks For This Administration - Not After Billions Spent In Iraq With No Oversight
SAINT PAUL [09/23/08] - With Minnesota’s middle-class families, already struggling in the Bush-Coleman economy, now being asked to foot the bill for a trillion-dollar bailout of the financial services industry, DFL U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken today announced the principles that he would demand in any bailout package.
Al Franken:
“If we’ve learned anything during the Bush-Coleman era, it’s that when we hand over tax dollars to these folks, we’d better get a receipt. We need to take action to avoid economic disaster - but the era of putting powerful special interests first and ignoring Minnesota’s middle class has got to end.”
This weekend, Coleman asserted that if the bailout was approved, “the government could make 10 or 20 times what it pays on this.” Franken today called on Coleman to explain his reasoning for such an estimate, as no economist has suggested such a “rosy outcome,” according to the Politico.
Franken announced that he would only support a bailout plan if it adhered to these principles:
1. No blank check. ”Not one dime should go to this bailout without independent oversight, real accountability, and complete transparency.”
2. Taxpayers get a stake. ”If we’re footing the bill for keeping these companies afloat, taxpayers should get an equity stake so that we can share in the benefits when and if they get back on their feet.”
3. No golden parachutes. ”In the public sector, there’s no such thing as a golden parachute. And if we’re going to sacrifice $2,000 for every Minnesota taxpayer to bail out these companies, these executives are going to learn about sacrifice, too. So, all excessive compensation, bonuses, and severance agreements are hereby cancelled.”
4. Bring back oversight. ”We need to restore the regulatory framework dismantled with George W. Bush in the White House and Norm Coleman in the Senate so that this doesn’t happen again.”
5. Help homeowners. ”The foreclosure crisis caused this problem, and we still haven’t taken the steps I’ve been proposing for months to address it. We have to freeze foreclosures and allow bankruptcy judges to re-set mortgages on primary residences.”
6. Protect consumers. ”I’m calling for a new Financial Products Safety Commission with similar duties and powers to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.”
Franken understands this crisis and wants to fight on behalf of Minnesotan taxpayers, while Coleman simply doesn’t get it. Listen to the main portion of the conference call here. (MP3)
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I have a couple issues that I’d like to see addressed in these banking committee hearings, if anyone can get them addressed:
1) Why was short selling ever allowed? Does it provide a useful function in the marketplace, and what is that function, if so?
2) If, as Sec. Paulson suggested, everyone needs to keep borrowing more money to stay in their homes and to keep their businesses running, what is the indicator that they should NOT be buying a home or running a business?
Things that make you go HHMMMMM.. from…
White House Dispatches Team to Push Economic Bill
September 23, 2008, 10:42 a.m.
By Keith Koffler
Roll Call Staff
The White House today is drumming up extraordinary pressure on Congress to approve its plan to enact a $700 billion mortgage bailout fund, suggesting the markets cannot wait much longer and dispatching Vice President Cheney and other top officials up Pennsylvania Avenue to jawbone lawmakers.
SNIP
But Bush himself continues to do little to explain his plan, and he has refused to be questioned about it.
Snip
Fratto said it would be “unthinkable” for Congress not to pass legislation this week, asserting the result would be a “very, very serious situation” for the U.S. economy.
SNIP
Fratto insisted that the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials. He acknowledged lawmakers were getting only days to peruse it, but he said this should be enough.
END Quote
So this has been in the works for “previous months and weeks by administration officials” yet not a thing was done publicly, until it became a crisis to solve in less than a week involving giving a blank check to the Bush Administration. This is stinking like week old fish left in the sun… they put together a plan over months, never said a word other than “the economy is sound” and then offered up a major crisis that needs immediate action. Why do I not trust this bunch? Oh yeah, now I remember.
So if the foreclosure “crisis” caused this and propping up needy home owners is part of the solution do you think Franken will offer an apology to the people who do not yet own homes? The ones he is asking to shoulder the burden by paying the still inflated prices for a house? Somehow I doubt it.
KH
You and your arguments, which have both been reduced to the absurd, can piss up a rope.
Mr. Hat it doesn’t disturb you that the Bush administration had been working on this Crisis Bailout BS for months and didn’t warn anybody or even talk to the Senate or Congress before insisting on a vote on that plan in a week? You are much smarter than that…
We should all know by now that this bunch of Republicans is nothing but
a pack of greedy liars intent on enriching themselves.
Whatever happens to the financial services industry, know this:
When the Republican administration is trying to scare you, they are lying.
All they want is your money. ALL OF IT.
We need to stop this bill until we can get rid of this crowd and
get some people we can trust in charge.
And, no, that does NOT include John W McPlane
I am opposed to the term bailout. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. I believe the entire relief package should be a loan from the tax payers not a bailout. So, the taxpayers cover the loan, the recepients of the loan return the funds with interest to the taxpayers. I know when I am in a financial bind.., if I go to a bank for relief I dont get a bailout, nor is one offered. Why should this situation be treated any differently?
lojasmo,
Sorry to bring up reality again. I know how it must offend. Did you have a point or are you simply reacting to something not aligning with your preconceived beliefs? Every dollar that a policy props up current home owners is one that costs new home buyers. Once again politicians from both sides are making promises with other peoples money and picking winners that benefit them politically. There are a lot of home owners, who are probably more affluent and more likely to vote than none home owners.
amuseinc,
It bothers me that the Bush administration, or anybody, is even considering the bailout, or the stimulus package or the invasion of Iraq or, well, you get the idea. How and when it was hatched is secondary. There are spooky parallels between this bill and the lead up to the Iraq war. A crisis with a capital C that must be dealt with immediately or there will be grave consequences. The one difference being I think the economy really is close to breaking. I don’t however think either party has a snowballs chance of doing anything about it. They had there chances multiple times and did nothing. Maybe a real economic crash is the only way to get a meaningful number of people to understand how incompetent and corrupt both parties have been.
Meaningful change rarely happens without a crisis.
Living below one’s means solves many problems. Our nation doesn’t do it. The individuals in our nation don’t do it.
We need a major, major mindset shift. I hate to say it, but both Barack Obama and John McCain only take us baby steps toward where we need to be.