James Moore At Huffington Post: A Nation Of Village Idiots

[Hissyspit]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-moore/a-nation-of-village-idiot_b_127340.html

A Nation of Village Idiots

Don't let them tell you this economic meltdown is a complicated mess. It's not. Our national financial crisis is readily understood by anyone who has seen greed and hypocrisy. But we are now witnessing them on a profound, monumental scale.

Conservative Republicans always want the government to stay out of business and avoid regulation as long as they are making lots of money. When their greed, however, gets them into a fix, they are the first to cry out for rules and laws and taxpayer money to bail out their businesses. Obviously, Republicans are socialists. The Bush administration has decided to socialize the debt of the big Wall Street Firms. Taxpayers didn't get to enjoy any of the big money profits on the phony financial instruments like derivatives or bundled sub-prime paper, but we get the privilege of paying for their debt and failures.

Let's just consider the money. The public bailout of insurance giant (becoming a dwarf) AIG is estimated at $85 billion. According to one report, that's more than the Bush administration spent on Aid to Families with Dependent Children during his entire time in office. That amount of money would also pay for health care for every man, woman, and child in America for at least six months.

How did we get here?

That's pretty easy to answer, too. His name is Phil Gramm. A few days after the Supreme Court made George W. Bush president in 2000, Gramm stuck something called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act into the budget bill. Nobody knew that the Texas senator was slipping America a 262 page poison pill. The Gramm Guts America Act was designed to keep regulators from controlling new financial tools described as credit "swaps." These are instruments like sub-prime mortgages bundled up and sold as securities. Under the Gramm law, neither the SEC nor the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) were able to examine financial institutions like hedge funds or investment banks to guarantee they had the assets necessary to cover losses they were guaranteeing.

MORE

[Maccagirl]

1. No arguement there

The fact (if it is indeed fact) that this election is even competitive says everything.

[Winterblues]

2. I resemble that remark

At least I feel like a village idiot as an American.

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[pnutbutr]

4. socialists? Good or bad?

This blatant partisanship is killing me, I have to say something about it.

Republicans are socialists has been thrown around like a bad word in the past few days but prior to that, socialist leaning policies and nationalization of industries was a positive democratic goal. So which is it? Good or bad?

[unblock]

5. the point was the hypocrisy. socialism is a bad thing per republicans, except when they need it.

but, of course, they refuse to call it socialism when THEY do it.

[pnutbutr]

6. ok

In this case you are right but I have seen it used as I described. It has really been bothering me and I guess I just misinterpreted it in this instance.

Carry on while I jam my foot in my mouth.

[unblock]

7. no problem, they certainly use it as an insult. even 'liberal' is used as an insult.

republicans are on the wrong side of virtually every issue, and they know it. they know they can't win in a straight up, issues-oriented debate. so they try to make elections about personalities and insults and image, and so they sneer when they refer to our side and otherwise try to make fun of us. it's pathetic, they have nothing else to run on.

[adamuu]

8. And where is Phil Gramm now? Oh yeah...

http://McLobbyist.com