Regulation with F and F would have diverted this disaster:

When the bubble burst on our housing market, the financial markets started shaking..when Fannie and Freddie had to be seized on a Sunday, the world markets started collapsing..There was a lot of foreign investment in that market:
July 24, 2008 6:48 AM
http://rightvoices.com/2008/10/18/another-pelosi-lie-white-house-officials-prevented-treasury-secretary-henry-paulson-from-alerting-congress-sooner-of-the-looming-economic-crisis/

TREASURY Secretary Henry Paulson’s bailout plan for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be titled “The Bondholder Relief Act of 2008″: The taxpayers will be providing the relief to holders of Fannie/Freddie debt, many of whom are foreigners.

Paulson has asked Congress for a blank check from the taxpayer to pay off investors for losses already incurred and likely to be incurred in the next few years. He told Congress that, if it promises unlimited funds to backstop the lenders, Fannie and Freddie are unlikely to draw on the credit line. But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the most likely outcome to be a cost of $25 billion over the next two years – and more if housing deteriorates further.

McCain spoke forcefully
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=109-s20060525-16&bill=s109-190#sMonofilemx003Ammx002Fmmx002Fmmx002Fmhomemx002Fmgovtrackmx002Fmdatamx002Fmusmx002Fm109mx002Fmcrmx002Fms20060525-16.xmlElementm0m0m0m on May 25, 2006, on behalf of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005:
Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were “illusions deliberately and systematically created”by the company’s senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.

The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.

For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs–and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO’s report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.

I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.

I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation.

Each candidate has no choice but to cut taxes. The debt will grow, but they both know that if they increase any taxes right now, we will have a negative, trickle down nightmare on our hands. By cutting taxes, we have more revenue.. Raising taxes leads to smaller payrolls..

Regulations for Fannie and Freddie would have helped avoid lender fraud in the real estate market. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t have fixed the opaque and unregulated credit default swap market, where more money was being traded than on all the world’s stock exchanges combined. The domino effect of that market’s failures is what really put the Fed into panic mode.

When the candidates say they “will” cut taxes in their first term, they are lying. When they say they “want to” cut taxes, that’s technically true, but doesn’t change the fact that they won’t be able to do what they want.

Before this credit crisis and bailout, tax cuts were feasible, so it’s not as if they were lying all along. But money doesn’t grow on trees, and the $700 billion came from taxpayers for a reason. If they cut taxes, here are the options to make up for that lost tax revenue:

1. They print more new money, driving the value of the dollar down. The relative cost of foreign goods and resources (which affect the prices of domestic goods) goes up as the dollar plummets, and we continue to lose our standing in the world market. Because the exchange rate is favorable for other countries, our Universities will maintain their enrollment numbers with foreign students, so they won’t lower their tuition fees, and it will become more difficult for Americans to afford a good education. Without a strong math/science educated workforce, we miss the boat on becoming a leader in alternative energy, more jobs go overseas, and the downward spiral continues.

2. They borrow more money from China and other foreign countries (foreign debt is almost 25% of our $10.3 trillion debt now), increasing the ability of those countries to influence us politically through financial threats. (And yes, they already do influence us – otherwise we’d recognize Taiwan’s democracy.) If the government didn’t step in, Morgan Stanley would belong to HSBC (Hong kong Shanghai Bank Corp) – look it up – HSBC was interested on Sept 17th, then mysteriously lost interest on the 18th. A week later, bailout – asking for plenty of money to outbid any foreign bank. See, they could let foreign countries bail us out and buy up our financial institutions, and the world and US economy would stabilize far more quickly. But when it recovered, the US would be like a minority shareholder in our own economy, making us weak. If we can recover on our own, we come out of this mess strong. Unfortunately, recovering on our own means the taxpayers bear the burden. So maybe by their second term, Obama or McCain could cut taxes, but first term? Good luck.

http://rightvoices.com/2007/05/02/the-government-only-pays-for-the-appointment-they-dont-schedule-them-for-you/

“GMA Gets It Done: Taking on Medicaid. Fighting to Treat Tooth Decay.”The screencap shows a palpably emotional GMA co-host Chris Cuomo literally pointing his finger at the head of the federal Medicaid program. The moment came during the course of a segment this morning recounting the sad case of 12-year old Deamonte Driver, who died after infection from an abcessed tooth spread to his brain. The boy and his family were in fact covered by Medicaid, the government health care insurance program for poor people. But the boy’s mother [pictured below] had never before taken him to a dentist,”

The government pays for the visit but they don’t make the appointment for you!

As I said in another post, a doctor friend of mine retired last year, volunteers in a free clinic in the inner city. Clinic on bus route..He has a 75% no show rate..this is an internist that got his medical degree from the University of Michigan. I am thankful our healthcare system is nothing like Europes..You do kow that it is collaping don’t you?

McCain and the republicans tried to get a regulation bill passed in 05′,o Fannie/Freddie, that would have prevented this crisis, but it was that honest and open Pelosi/Reid that made sure it never happened.

Really? No tax cuts from either candidate? So they are both lying when they say they will cut the taxes?

OMG, get an education…you need it.

I know most of you are Republicans here, so you may not be capable of this, but try to extend your train of thought beyond your wallet sometimes, to see where things that may not benefit you directly today could actually benefit you indirectly in the future.

Second, there will be no tax cuts from either candidate. $700 billion in TAXPAYER money means they’re not going to print new money to cover it, and they’re not going to borrow more money from China and Japan to cover it – WE the taxpayers must pay for it. If you think they’re going to cover that $700 billion by lowering taxes, you need to wake up to reality and common sense.

One of the most impressive things about this election has been that McCain and his idiot sidekick keep shrieking about socialism, but the American people actually don’t seem to be fooled. Of course they probably realize that McCain, ruled by fear like all contemporary republicons, is as interested in growing the government and cutting freedoms as any scary socialist.

FAO, keep on fighting for Amnesty! You know that you’re doing the right thing!

As for spreading the wealth, why is Obama’s half BROTHER living in abject poverty in Kenya on under $100 a year when Obama made over $4,000,000 last year? If Obama is so about spreading the wealth, why doesn’t HE fund a trust fund to support inner city programs in Chicago. Hell, if he put 25% of the money he earned last year alone, he could endow a program for eternity. Notice that he only wants to spread EVERYONE ELSE’S wealth.

As for Joe (it’s his middle name, grow up folks) not being a licensed plumber, and not owning the business. Ever hear of a thing called education (He’s already been in the state apprenticeship program long enough to get a license.), and one called the Small Business Administration? SBA loans can be used to purchase already established businesses (which is what he said he wanted to do) and SBA counselors could help him grow the business to the point of making over $250,000 a year. I don’t know about where you guys are, but I’d bet the plumber I use makes that in spades. Then again, they have plumbers on call 24/7/365. I would guess they also have over a dozen trucks going out on calls. They even advertise on the top rated radio station in the metro Phoenix area which is definitely NOT cheap. With the rash of copper thefts in this country, A plumber who responds at night and on weekends can charge a premium if they do a good job.