The Blame Game

Our economy is in a lot of trouble right now and it seems that all the suits in Washington want to do is play the blame game. The mess we're in right now cannot be put squarely on the shoulders of one party, but it is mostly do to the continued actions and non-actions of one organization; congress. In the early '90's legislation was passed to loosen up the credit and lending laws because people were falsely claiming racism on the part of lenders. Thus, the 'sub-prime' loans were born. Over the years, more and more laws were stacked on top of the first ones to the point that they were practically giving houses away to first time home buyers 5-7 years ago. Both parties have had their opportunities to make changes and they haven't.

The following are some comments from Glenn Beck's website. He puts more of the blame on the democrats and brings up some surprising information that the mainstream media doesn't tell you. The comments in blue are those of a typical liberal and the reply are those of the always articulate, always charming and handsome conservative...

'The last thing we need is another 4 years of the failed Republican policies that have led us to the brink of disaster...with the mess they've made of huge financial institutions like Fannie Mae & AIG, that we now have to bail out!'
1. Fannie Mae really WAS run right into the ground wasn't it? And guess what? It was DEMOCRATS who did it. Former Fannie Mae Chairman and CEO Franklin Raines was the White House budget director under Bill Clinton. He was also cited by the Washington Post as an economic advisor to...Barack Obama. Obama, in his very short time in the U.S. Senate also quickly became the second largest recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae, ahead of even John Kerry.

'OK, ONE democrat doesn't make this a democrat caused problem!'
2. Well then, there's Jamie Gorelick. Does that name sound familiar? She served as Bill Clinton's Deputy Attorney General. She installed the Intelligence "Wall of Separation" that helped lead to the disaster we suffered on 9/11. Then she served as Vice Chairman at Fannie Mae. In 2002, she told "BusinessWeek" that Fannie Mae was "very, very strong" and was "managed safely". For her efforts, driving the company to the brink, she received $26 million plus bonuses.

'That doesn't explain this incredible mess we're in now'
3. Actually, in large part, it does. Fannie Mae is heavily involved with the Congressional Black Caucus. Interim CEO Daniel Mudd described the relationship Fannie Mae and the Congressional Black Caucus shared as a "family" relationship. The Caucus pressured Fannie Mae to get mortgage loans for millions of Americans who couldn't afford them. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the worst offenders in this housing loan crisis, which in turn caused so many banking institutions to go down with it. The crisis has had a domino effect throughout our financial institutions. In fact, AIG was in part brought down because it held $600 million in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Meanwhile, President Bush has called for reforming Fannie and Freddie 17 TIMES this year alone! The democrats' fingerprints are all over this crisis.

Here is the original White House Press Release. It would have been nice if the media actually 'released' it. They want you to think that this is all because of the GOP. A new CNN poll actually shows that the majority of people believe it too.

Should there be charges filed? Should these Fannie and Freddie people go to jail? Remember Enron? Do you think congress is going to hold hearings to investigate all of this? Last year at this time congress was busy holding hearings over steroids in baseball. Thank goodness we got to the bottom of that.

Promises. Promises.

Filling up the gas tank is getting more excruciating day by day. The $3.50 we are paying right now is actually based on the $100 barrel of oil we saw a few months ago. We won't see the prices of $120 oil at the gas tank until June or July. In light of all this, let's take a look at what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thought should be done about gas prices. On April 18th, 2006 she released this statement.

“As Americans pay almost 90 percent more to fill their gas tanks since President Bush took office, oil companies continue to reap gigantic profits and oil executives receive astronomical compensation. Record prices, record retirement packages, and record profits are just the latest example of the wealthy few benefiting at the expense of hard-working Americans under the Bush Administration.

“The Republican Rubber Stamp Congress has passed two energy bills, costing taxpayers $12 billion for giveaways to big oil companies. But the Republican bills clearly have done nothing to lower gas prices, as the price of a barrel of oil has settled above $70 a barrel – the highest price in our history. Even the Chairman of the Federal Reserve agrees that gas prices are decreasing the purchasing power of American families and depressing the U.S. economy.

“Democrats have a plan to lower gas prices, taking America in a new direction that works for everyone, not just the few. Our plan would empower the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on price gouging to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices, increase production of alternative fuels, and rescind the billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, tax breaks, and royalty relief given to big oil and gas companies."


It's hard to believe that we were only at $70 two years ago. Some economists believe it is possible to see $200 in relatively near future. Now I'm not going to point the finger at the Democrats as the reason for the oil prices, but what is laughable is the bundle of promises that are made and never followed up on. In 2006, the Democrats got into office by promising the end the war, immigration reform, stop the outsourcing of jobs, and by lowering gas prices. All we had to do was elect them to find out how they were going to accomplish these feats. What they've done, instead, is:

-accomplished nothing on the war, except insult our soldiers and commanders.

-do nothing about the corporate tax rates they've talked about for so long, and instead put it as part of their platform for the 2008 election.

-increased the taxes on big oil which, in turn, logically placed that burden on the consumer's backs.

-done nothing about illegal immigration and have only encouraged it by offering more handouts.

-pushed for the increased production of alternative fuels which have increased food prices around the world, increased the price of oil, and actually contribute more CO2 than traditional fuels. Here is just one example of the increasing number of articles written that call the Congressional food-fuel mandates into question.

Do you recall all of the media attention that was given to the "new congress" and their dedication to work a staggering 5 days a week? Oh, the humanity! The only thing that this congress can claim to have accomplished is increase the minimum wage. An unintended consequesce of the increase is the downward pressure on restaurants. The combination of increased food prices, increased minimum wage, and people's shrinking wallets have left restaurateurs in a very precarious position. Just this morning there was an article in the the Denver Post about Village Inn filing for bankruptcy.

I am not the only one who has noticed how un-accomplished this congress has been. Republican leaders recently sent a letter to the ambitious failure, Nancy Pelosi. Here is an excerpt from the letter.

“Two years ago this week, you stated that House Democrats had a ‘commonsense plan’ to ‘lower gas prices,’ ” the letter said. “In light of the skyrocketing gasoline prices affecting working families and every sector of our struggling economy, we are writing today to respectfully request that you reveal this ‘commonsense plan’ so we can begin work on responsible solutions to help ease this strain.”

“Once a nightmare scenario, $4 gasoline is now a very real possibility of becoming a summer staple,” the letter stated. “In some cities, including San Francisco and Chicago, it is already a startling reality.”

While I'm waiting to hear their plan I'll be busy hunkering down for the storm we can all see coming on the horizon.



Thanks to roadsidepictures (gas pump) and hrtmnstrfr (thirsty for oil) for the photos on flickr.