Video: How We Got Here – The Mortgage Crisis

A few clarifications: This video blames Democrats for how we got here, which is accurate in many ways. Republicans, though, are not completely off the hook. They had a majority in both houses of Congress when they warned off the dangers and did not put their foot down like they did on the War on Terror, for example. 

As I said before, greed led to this bursting of the bubble. 

- Democrats are guilty of getting the ball rolling.

- Republicans are guilty of not stopping it.

- The American people are guilty of believing the illusion of our rapid-rising equity to say anything. 

Understanding how we got here is not simply hindsight. We need to keep it in mind so we don’t repeat the same mistakes. What do we do now that the bill has come due for our foolish living standards?

- Democrats need to pressure Chris Dodd and Barney Frank to recuse themselves from any solution-making process. 

- Republicans need to demand new legislation exclude government’s false idea of lending. No more GSEs, no more CRAs. Just qualified oversight and practical regulation. 

- The American people need to buy within their means and learn to stop living on so much credit.

Others: Hot Air, Michelle Malkin.

Kill [the] Bill: We DON’T Have to Have this Bailout

 

Kill the Bill

Via Michelle Malkin:

We don’t have to have this trillion-dollar bailout shoved down our throats.

You can make a difference.

Make your voice heard now. Every second counts: 202-224-3121.

It’s already working. Peter Viles at L.A.Land:

A key quote in this morning’s Senate hearing about the Paulson bailout is worth repeating. This comes from Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat:

“Like my colleagues, my phones have been ringing off the hook. The sentiment from Ohioans about this proposal is universally negative.”

Not “overwhelmingly negative.” Not “deeply suspicious.” Not “extremely upset.” Universally negative.

I’ll state the obvious: Members of Congress aren’t generally in the habit of passing historic and spectacularly unpopular legislation five weeks before election day.

Conservatives should consider making a special call to John McCain’s office. He’s playing politics and waffling on this while American taxpayers have a huge tab at risk.

Let the Drilling Begin

Finally. Starting October 1, the moratorium on off-shore drilling will be lifted. States will no longer have any federal restrictions. The Democrats have relinquished the issue to Republicans at long last.

Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in an months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.

Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election.

Republicans have made lifting the ban a key campaign issue after gasoline prices spiked this summer and public opinion turned in favor of more drilling. President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling in July.

Does this mean drilling can begin? As soon as the states and the federal government lease the lands. But the states aren’t likely to do so without revenue sharing, something the Democrats are still trying to block. But that’s expected to cede soon as well.  

Ed Morrissey is right on:

This puts quite the capper on the 110th.  Not only did Democrats fail to achieve their broad policy goals, they failed on almost every specific goal they set in 2006.  They failed to stop funding the Iraq war, they failed to impeach George Bush, and they surrendered on energy policy.  Their only policy goal achieved — an increase in the minimum wage — came in a war-funding bill.

This battle may have been won, but the larger war for a rational energy policy continues.  Congress has to pass a revenue-sharing bill with the states in order to get investment started in American production — a process that will create American jobs and keep our wealth in the US rather than overseas.  With the meltdown in the financial markets still looming, this could not come at a better time.

Since the Democrats have conceded oil production, I wonder if these failures still think it’s the War in Iraq that got them elected in 2006.

Whose to Blame for the Fannie-Freddie Mess?

H/t: Stop the ACLU

The short answer: Democrats.

Hot Air:

Fox deserves a little publicity for being willing to challenge the narrative. Especially now that we’re about to be told it’s McCain’s campaign manager and his lobbyist pals, not the Democrats they lobbied who actually cast the votes, who are the real culprits in all this.

The good news is that the FBI is launching an investigation into both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for fraud. Better late than never.

The FBI is investigating four major U.S. financial institutions whose collapse helped trigger a $700 billion bailout plan by the Bush administration.

Two law enforcement officials said the FBI is looking at potential fraud by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., and insurer American International Group Inc.

A senior law enforcement official says the inquiries, still in preliminary stages, will focus on the financial institutions and the individuals that ran them.

Officials say the new inquiries brings the number of corporate lenders under investigation over the last year to 26.

Also see: Michelle Malkin.

Tax Me so I too can be Patriotic

Joe Biden insulted every American today with is remarks about taxes yesterday:

CANTON, Ohio — Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden on Thursday called Republican John McCain’s answers to the current economic crisis “the ultimate bridge to nowhere” and said that paying higher taxes would be patriotic for wealthier Americans.

“We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people,” Biden said. Of those who would pay more, he said: “It’s time to be patriotic … time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut.”

So, the millions of Americans that are poor and middle class aren’t worthy of this “level” of patriotism, according to Joe Biden. And what about the wealthy? Since when is higher taxes (government theft of income) a prerequisite for patriotism? Patriotism is reflected more in the lives of those who have donated their time, money, and other resources to the disadvantaged. Paying higher taxes is not patriotic. It makes the wealthy a victim of theft. 

Joe Biden made $2.9 million last year and only gave $900 to charity. Talk about unpatriotic. 

Patriotism is not having more money forcefully taken from the wealthy and given to Joe Biden so he can spend it on government programs. Patriotism is about sacrifice and giving. Joe Biden obviously knows nothing about that. He could deliver one humdinger of a speech on how to hoard for oneself and spend other peoples’ money.

The scope of government, as outlined in the Constitution by the Founders, is to punish evil and commend good. Paying taxes for those purposes are patriotic. Beyond that, it’s theft and no amount of liberal government programs at the taxpayer expense justify an increased patriotism. Americans don’t want a government that will do everything for them. We don’t even want the government to “stand beside us,” as Michelle Obama thinks. Americans want the government to get out of our way. Just stay within the scope of the rights we the people grant you the government and nothing else. WE will stand beside the country, as the song goes, when need be.

Finger-Pointing in the Mortgage Crisis

The mortgage crisis is fully upon us. And there is plenty of finger-pointing going on in Washington. But no one is addressing the core issue here: greed. Some are greedy for power, others money, or even both. But any way you slice it, it’s greed. 

First, a bit of history so we know how we got here. Nancy Pelosi is insisting that Democrats are faultless in the mortgage crisis. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when asked Tuesday whether Democrats bear some of the responsibility regarding the current crisis on Wall Street, had a one-word answer: “No.”

Pelosi (D-Calif.) ripped President Bush’s “mismanagement” of the economy and a lack of regulation that led to the current situation.

“I think the American people have had it with this situation where the middle-income people in our country are not protected from the ramifications of the risk-taking and the greed of these financial institutions,” Pelosi told MSNBC.

Ignorance. 

Barack Obama is towing the party line ignoring facts as well. 

When the White House is hostile to any kind of oversight, corporations cut corners and consumers pay the price.

But the truth is that the Bush administration foresaw the bubble bursting and proposed tighter restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac government-subsidized “companies.” Side note: isn’t that an oxymoron? As the NY Times reported in 2003:

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt — is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates.

Gasp! How could all this blame be placed on the Bush administration then? Who was blocking this legislation? We read:

Significant details must still be worked out before Congress can approve a bill. Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.

”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”

Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

”I don’t see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,” Mr. Watt said.

The Bush administration’s mistake was they didn’t treat the problem with enough urgency. If Bush applied the same amount of pressure as he did the War on Terror, he could have gotten more cooperation from Democrats. And he didn’t have any “false intelligence” to worry about. These numbers weren’t lying. 

The Democrats biggest mistake was ignorance for the sake of blame in order to preserve power. 

But the American consumer is not exempt either. Even though the government was willing to loan money to people who had no business borrowing it, we should have exercised better wisdom than simply jumping on the greed train. Especially Christians. 

Christians should know better than to store of treasures on earth. Certainly we need to have a home and God want us to have a nice, clean place to live. But when the average home has increased from 1,600 square feet to 2,200 square feet in the last several years while the average family size has decreased, why do we need more room for less people? This is called greed. Greed is not only unbiblical, but it also effects non-believers as well. When people put their own desires above others, society loses. 

Greed by American consumers. And greed by politicians. A sure fire way to shoot a hole in the housing bubble. This is not solely a financial crisis, it is a moral crisis. I believe that Jesus is Lord over all of life and that His followers, Christians, need to speak biblical truth to the all issues, but most importantly these pressing situations. There is no biblical-secular divide with some areas off limits to Scripture. The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. The Church needs to speak up here and point a way out of this situation, at least in an emotional, spiritual, and moral sense, if not a financial sense. People are scared in God’s eyes and their jobs are on the line. We’re starting to reap from the greed we’ve sown. We need to call people to put their hope in God.

I’m Voting Democrat Because…

H/t: Wright County Republican

I’m voting Democrat because when we pull out of Iraq I trust that the bad guys will stop what they’re doing because they now think we’re good people.

I’m voting Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would.

I’m voting Democrat because freedom of speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.

I’m voting Democrat because I believe that people who can’t tell us if it will rain on Friday CAN tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years if I don’t start driving a Prius.

I’m voting Democrat because I’m not concerned about the slaughter of millions of babies so long as we keep all death row inmates alive.

I’m voting Democrat because I believe that business should not be allowed to make profits for their stockholders. They need to break even and give the rest away to the government for redistribution as THEY see fit.

I’m voting Democrat because I believe three or four pointy headed elitist liberals need to rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who would NEVER get their agendas past the voters.

I’m voting Democrat because I believe that when the terrorists don’t have to hide from us over there, when they come over here I don’t want to have any guns in the house to fight them off with.

I’m voting Democrat because I love the fact that I can now marry whatever I want. I’ve decided to marry my horse.

Makes you wonder why anyone would EVER vote Republican, now doesn’t it?

Hats for Hypocrites

The Obama campaign has announced the release of a new line of faith merchandise:

Dear friends,Great news! We now have faith merchandise available for you to show your support for Barack Obama as a person of faith.

Check out the Believers for Barack, Pro-Family Pro-Obama, and Catholics for Obama buttons, bumper stickers and signs….

Take good care,

Paul Monteiro
Deputy Director of Religous Affairs
Obama for America

Ah, yes. The perfect compliment to your bible, which clearly says, Intentionally. Killing. Innocent. People. Is. Sin. There simply isn’t a biblical justification for an openly pro-murder candidate. Now, it’s true that four Republican presidents have been unsuccessful in overturning Roe. But is that an excuse to vote for a pro-murder candidate that has supported legislation to make abortions easier to have? Absolutely not. It’s hypocritical. 

Abortion is not something any president is going to handle on his own. It’s a moral issue that needs two treatments, in this order: 1. prayer. And 2. political support. Past presidents have done all they could. George W. Bush managed to get Partial-birth abortion banned and made it more difficult for minors to get abortions with parental notifications laws. Those are key accomplishments that often get lost in the fray because Roe has not been overturned yet. But even if he didn’t achieve those things, that’s not a reason to vote for a candidate who has supported and will continue to support legislation that will make abortions easier to obtain in the name of “change.” 

So order your faith merchandise from Barack Obama, if it makes you feel better. Just know that you are a hypocrite and leading others astray. As Christians, our faith is in the Messiah of the bible, not the messiah of the Democrats.

UPDATE: Commenter, birdfan, notes an interview Cathleen Falsani of the Chicago Sun Times did with Obama that is worth posting (Falsani goes by GG in the transcript):

GG: What do you believe?
OBAMA: I am a Christian…I believe that there are many paths to the same place.

GG: Do you believe in heaven?
OBAMA: What I believe in is that if I live my life as well as I can, that I will be rewarded. I don’t presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die. But I feel very strongly that whether the reward is in the here and now or in the hereafter, the aligning myself to my faith and my values is a good thing. When I tuck in my daughters at night and I feel like I’ve been a good father to them…that’s a little piece of heaven.

GG: Do you believe in sin?
OBAMA: Yes.

GG: What is sin?
OBAMA: Being out of alignment with my values.

GG: What happens if you have sin in your life?
OBAMA: I think it’s the same thing as the question about heaven. In the same way that if I’m true to myself and my faith that that is its own reward, when I’m not true to it, it’s its own punishment.

GG: Who’s Jesus to you?
(He laughs nervously)

OBAMA: Right. 
Jesus is an historical figure for me, and he’s also a bridge between God and man, in the Christian faith, and one that I think is powerful precisely because he serves as that means of us reaching something higher.

And he’s also a wonderful teacher. I think it’s important for all of us, of whatever faith, to have teachers in the flesh and also teachers in history.

GG: Do you ever have people who know you’re a Christian question a particular stance you take on an issue, how can you be a Christian and …
OBAMA: Like the right to choose.

I’m always stuck by how much common sense the American people have. They get confused sometimes, watch FoxNews or listen to talk radio. That’s dangerous sometimes. But generally, Americans are tolerant and I think recognize that faith is a personal thing, and they may feel very strongly about an issue like abortion or gay marriage, but if they discuss it with me as an elected official they will discuss it with me in those terms and not, say, as ‘you call yourself a Christian.’

WOW! So, we’ve got getting to heaven on your own deeds, sin is out of line with his values, Jesus as a dead, historical figure, and only discussing moral issues on political playing fields. I’m not calling his salvation into question, but I am questioning his judgment. And it’s not a select few disagreements Christians have with his worldview. It’s everything. I’d have to stretch to find common ground here.

Seeing the Light

It’s amazing. Some liberals are seeing the light while most remain ignorant and continue down the foolish road of actually trying to defend Barack Obama.

Popular Democrat strategist and columnist, Kirsten Powers, wrote a piece in the NY Post yesterday becoming the most recent of a handful of Democrats to recognize how imprudent it is to continue with these dimwitted attacks on Sarah Palin, as if she were the presidential nominee. Democrats chiding their fellow members, especially in the media, happens about as often as Haley’s Comet, so posting is compulsory.

Obama’s toughest challenge has always been to connect with working-class swing voters. So attacking the poster child for small-town values, Sarah Palin, was a bad strategy.

No, Obama didn’t engage in the mass sneering at Palin – but he did fall into the trap of disrespecting her. When McCain chose her, the Obama campaign’s first response was to ridicule the size of her town. Then the candidate himself began referring to her as a “former mayor” when she is in fact a sitting governor.

When she retaliated (justifiably) by mocking his stint as a organizer, the Obama camp was clearly rattled. Obama himself actually began arguing about the importance of community organizing. His supporters amplified this cry – claiming Palin’s attack was a racist slur and passing around e-mails titled “Jesus was a community organizer, Pontius Pilate was a governor.”

Meanwhile, the rest of the country was probably wondering what being a community organizer has to do with being president.

Lured by the McCain camp, Obama supporters engaged in an argument about who had more overall experience – the top of the Democratic ticket or the bottom of the GOP ticket. This diminished Obama.

Meanwhile, the media lit up in all their cultural-elite splendor.

Alaska? they sneered. It has the population of Las Vegas! Funny how the coastal elite only sneers at red states with small populations. Howard Dean hailed from a blue state with almost the same population as Alaska and was a national phenomenon and front-runner for the presidency. Joe Biden’s Delaware has a similarly small population – but no mocking was forthcoming there.

Evangelicals will never vote for a woman who works! they declared. This from people who’ve likely never met an evangelical in their lives. They could barely contain themselves when they found out Gov. Palin’s daughter was pregnant, so sure were they that evangelicals would hang her from the highest tree. When evangelical leaders expressed support, there was a palpable disappointment that Palin or her daughter wasn’t branded with a scarlet letter.

They claimed that the Palin announcement was some desperate pick that came out of nowhere. Had they been doing their jobs, or even perusing The Weekly Standard or right-wing blogs, they’d have known that she was on the list.

Since they didn’t know anything about her, they started making things up. Anything that fit the caricature of a right-wing hypocrite was thrown up with, seemingly, no fact-checking.

They said she opposes contraception, when she said in a campaign debate that she is pro-contraception. They said she cut funding for pregnant teens, when she provided a massive funding hike.

They accused her of cutting funding for mentally disabled children, when she raised it 175 percent over the former administration. She was said to have been a member of the wacky Alaska Independence Party; The New York Times had to run a retraction.

Like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Palin has been deemed one of the GOP’s rising stars. Since it’s national reporters job to cover American politics, their ignorance of about her is distressing.

Most Americans think that the media are cheerleading for Obama, so they’ll punish him for the reporters’ and editors’ sins.

So now he is weighted down with more baggage as he works to convince an important voting bloc that he and his party don’t hold them in contempt.

Liberals, can I ask a favor of you: please continue to bring up the “experience” issue one more time. You’ve been whooped on it over and over, and it’s only helped the McCain campaign. Please tell us a mother of 5 can’t have a career. Please criticize her values for having a daughter who got pregnant. Please continue to fabricate stories. I hope your troops in Alaska find a piece of dirt on her. Something. Anything to stop the bleeding.

Just Discuss It, Please

We at least need to go there. That’s all. Please read on and see what I mean.

Sarah Palin, Republican nominee for VP. Woman. Mother of 5. And much more. 

This is written primarily to anyone who believes the bible is the primary source of truth. Those of other beliefs may tend to misinterpret the context of what I am saying. But, as a conservative, you must give me credit for not being “married to the GOP.” Just so you know up front. 

The best thing about faith in politics is that the bible is always there as a moral benchmark. Christians should never become so inordinately focused on politics that it becomes the solution to solve our moral dilemmas. Christians are called to be prophetic. And when it comes to politics, that role means speaking biblical truth to all situations and issues, including the focus of this post, the sensitive issue of the role of women. This doesn’t mean I am opposed to Christians being politically active or running for office. It simply means we should participate on the premise of truth, not a party affiliation. 

I am a true conservative in every sense. Most already know how I’ll vote in the upcoming election. And I realize that discussing this issue before the elections runs the risk of alienating a segment of conservatives that may not apply the bible to this specific situation. This issue has never been brought up because we’ve never had a mother of young children nominated for the second highest office in the land. But as Christians, it’s important to promote the good in our candidates while we cling unswervingly to our biblical convictions on important issues. 

Do I think Sarah Palin is unfit to serve because she is a mother of 5? No. Is it wrong for a mother to work? No. Were those on the left wrong to criticize Sarah Palin for running for VP while being a mother of young children? Yes, absolutely, there is a double standard there. Rarely, if ever, do we see this same standard of parenthood applied to mothers in the Democrat party. But conservatives, especially Christians, need to be careful not to create our own double standard. 

What does that mean? It’s easy for Christians to defend Sarah Palin’s candidacy because she is running on the Republican ticket. But what if Sarah Palin, mother of 5, was a Democrat? Would she be receiving the same level of support? Doubtfully. Dr. Albert Mohler, one of only a handful of evangelical leaders to take the lead on this discussion, correctly points out the biblical context for this discussion:

The New Testament clearly speaks to the complementary roles of men and women in the home and in the church, but not in roles of public responsibility.  I believe that women as CEOs in the business world and as officials in government are no affront to Scripture.  Then again, that presupposes that women — and men — have first fulfilled their responsibilities within the little commonwealth of the family.

(another good commentary on the subject here).

Bottom line: consistency, not condemnation. 

The whole country is talking about this. McCain/Palin received a huge convention-bounce and now lead in some polls. Palin’s speech garnered as many viewers as The One himself did in Denver. It would be easy for Christians to miss the boat and allow a double standard to apply to us here. But, since no one is perfect, we can disagree with a candidate on an issue and still accept their candidacy. In order for Christians to help America understand the biblical worldview in politics, we must apply the standards to everyone regardless of party affiliation.

I don’t doubt that Sarah Palin is an outstanding wife and mother, second only to my wife  I’ve heard she sleeps maybe four hours per night. It’s not up to us to judge her and criticize her candidacy because she has young children. I believe that she understands her biblical role of wife and mother comes first and her career comes second. She seems to have the blessing of God upon her life and career as evidenced in her life’s journey and convictions. But when those on the outside looking in see Christians fully supporting a mother of 5 who has a newborn with Down’s Syndrome and has a 17 year old daughter who is 5 months pregnant, that message can get cloudy, fast. As they say down south, “That dog won’t hunt!” 

In speaking truth to this situation, there is no right or wrong answer. It’s up to each individual to come to their own conclusion on what God is speaking to them. But we do need to at least address this issue in our minds so we can help others work through it before we just accept it on a universal level. A balance can be found here. I am simply saying we need to look for it instead of assuming it automatically exists. If we compromise the view that we have held for a long time, then the manifestation is hypocrites who seek power more than truth. This could ultimately damage our witness and result in a worse position than when we started.