rssMcCain Suddenly Shifts Gears on Regulation
Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 11:11 am
- 2 Comments
It is quite striking to watch Sen. John McCain take a downright populist tone as he champions stronger regulation as several financial giants teeter on the verge of collapse — while pretending he wasn’t a central player in the deregulation of financial markets in the first place. From The Washington Post:
In 2002, McCain introduced a bill to deregulate the broadband Internet market, warning that “the potential for government interference with market forces is not limited to federal regulation.” Three years earlier, McCain had joined with other Republicans to push through landmark legislation sponsored by then-Sen. Phil Gramm (Tex.), who is now an economic adviser to his campaign. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act aimed to make the country’s financial institutions competitive by removing the Depression-era walls between banking, investment and insurance companies.
That bill allowed AIG to participate in the gold rush of a rapidly expanding global banking and investment market. But the legislation also helped pave the way for companies such as AIG and Lehman Brothers to become behemoths laden with bad loans and investments.
McCain now condemns the executives at those companies for pursuing the ambitions that the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act made possible, saying that “in an endless quest for easy money, they dreamed up investment schemes that they themselves don’t even understand.”
He said the misconduct was aided by “casual oversight by regulatory agencies in Washington,” where he said oversight is “scattered, unfocused and ineffective.”
This morning, the McCain campaign released a statement on the $85 billion federal bailout of insurance giant AIG, which he said he opposed yesterday but has since softened his position.
“Today, the government was forced to commit $85 billion to stop the collapse of AIG, another in a growing series of events that includes Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These actions stem from failed regulation, reckless management, and a casino culture on Wall Street that has crippled one of the most important companies in America…
“We should never again allow the United States to be in this position. We need strong and effective regulation, a return to job-creating growth and a restoration of ethics and the social contract between businesses and America.”
At the same time, McCain schizophrenically tells reporters that he’s the man to fix the mess, because he chaired the Senate committee charged with economic regulation. From The Associated Press:
“I was the chairman on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation for six years,” he told reporters aboard his “Straight Talk Express” campaign bus amid Monday’s market meltdown. “That’s the committee that oversights our economy — transportation, science, telecommunications, airlines — all of the factors that drive our economy.”
McCain chaired the committee from 1997 until 2001 — which would place him at the helm when the aforementioned Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was passed — and again from 2003 until 2005.
In an interview on Good Morning America this morning, McCain cited “greed and corruption” as a cause of AIG’s near-collapse, but The Associated Press reports the campaign could not cite a specific example when asked.
“Well, at this hour, when you look at the situation, it is still muddled and unclear,” [McCain campaign adviser Steve] Schmidt told The Associated Press. “But it is clear that the system has been corrupted, that there has been systemic failures, that the economy has been damaged by greed and avarice, and the broken institutions between Washington and New York have now conspired in a way that has put the American economy in crisis.”
However, until recently, an opposition to government regulation has been one of McCain’s consistent themes on the campaign trail. Here’s a sample of recent McCain quotes on the subject:
“I don’t think anyone who wants to increase the burden of government regulation and higher taxes has any real understanding of economics and the economy and what is needed in order to ensure the future of this country.” [McCain Town Hall in Inez, Kentucky, 4/23/08]
“When you’ve got a bad economy, the worst thing you can do is increase people’s tax burden. Let’s reduce it. Let’s reduce regulation.” [CNN, "Ballot Bowl," 3/15/08]
“We need to return to the Reagan years. We need to have fiscal conservatism. We need less government. We need less regulation. We need to end of spending spree which has eroded our base of Republican support.” [PBS, "Washington Week," 1/25/08]
There’s a lot more where that came from. The simple fact is that McCain has subscribed to an anti-regulatory worldview for his entire career. That he is suddenly changing his tune two months before a presidential election should probably call into question his sincerity.
2 Comments
Comment posted September 17, 2008 @ 11:02 am
After being exposed for Lying, McCain is now Engaging in Identity Theft — as he is now sounding more like Barack every day — Change we can believe in, Enough is Enough and now Regulation! Maybe he thinks he can lie, steal and cheat his way to the Presidency. After all its been done before!
Yesterday McCain said we needed a 911 Commission-like study to investigate our failing economy, however, yesterday in his speech in Colorado Barack hit back at McCain with “Instead of offering up concrete plans to solve these issues, Senator McCain offered up the oldest Washington stunt in the book — you pass the buck to a commission to study the problem,” . “But here's the thing – this isn't 9/11.” Barack went on to elaborate — we know how we have got here, and what we need is Leadership!” This shows a distinct contrast from a Party with no new ideas and failed policies to Barack, who does have ideas and who is ready to lead!
I quess there is a light at the end of the tunnel because Five Conservative writers have now come forward to speak out and tell the truth that Sarah Palin is not qualified and is not experienced to lead as Vice President or the Presidency. They are making it clear to the public that John McCain made a poor judgment call, a rash judgment and an unneeded risk when times are bad and in a crisis mode. As a gambler, McCain should know you never take an unneeded risk in a crisis when things are already shaky. Enough is Enough! The American people will not reward a dishonorale and immoral man to the top job in the land, someone they cannot have confidence in. A Wizard as in Oz, who blusters and pretends but has no real solutions. American people want someone they can trust and believe in. They want a renewed Government working and looking out for them again, not just corporations and Fat Cats — Giving welfare bailouts and support to Corporations and none to everyday Americans.
So you got your guns, but you can't afford to pay your mortgage? We have to get rid of that mentallity and embrace unity and change for all. Look, there is a message in Ground Zero — that afer 7 years, it is still a dark hole. This is is a symbol of the failed polices of Republicans, that after 7 years, Ground Zero is still a hole, left desolate and it speaks volumes that we are a country unable to find leadership, unable to unite and unable to rebuild and show ourselves and the world that we know how to overcome adversary, yet trillions of dollars go daily to Iraq, to allegedly rebuild a country which should never have been invaded in the first place. Talk about selling someone the Yellow Brick Road, I mean OIL! Because continued Drilling is not going to end our addiction, it is a band aid. We need 21st Century ideas and innovations, we need Intelligence instead of experience. We need the intellectual capacity of someone who can see the way forward when it is dark and to lead us out of the dark and into the light. We need a Rudolph whose nose was so bright, only he could lead the way from darkness to light and from the unreal to the real.
Comment posted September 17, 2008 @ 4:02 pm
After being exposed for Lying, McCain is now Engaging in Identity Theft — as he is now sounding more like Barack every day — Change we can believe in, Enough is Enough and now Regulation! Maybe he thinks he can lie, steal and cheat his way to the Presidency. After all its been done before!
Yesterday McCain said we needed a 911 Commission-like study to investigate our failing economy, however, yesterday in his speech in Colorado Barack hit back at McCain with “Instead of offering up concrete plans to solve these issues, Senator McCain offered up the oldest Washington stunt in the book — you pass the buck to a commission to study the problem,” . “But here's the thing – this isn't 9/11.” Barack went on to elaborate — we know how we have got here, and what we need is Leadership!” This shows a distinct contrast from a Party with no new ideas and failed policies to Barack, who does have ideas and who is ready to lead!
I quess there is a light at the end of the tunnel because Five Conservative writers have now come forward to speak out and tell the truth that Sarah Palin is not qualified and is not experienced to lead as Vice President or the Presidency. They are making it clear to the public that John McCain made a poor judgment call, a rash judgment and an unneeded risk when times are bad and in a crisis mode. As a gambler, McCain should know you never take an unneeded risk in a crisis when things are already shaky. Enough is Enough! The American people will not reward a dishonorale and immoral man to the top job in the land, someone they cannot have confidence in. A Wizard as in Oz, who blusters and pretends but has no real solutions. American people want someone they can trust and believe in. They want a renewed Government working and looking out for them again, not just corporations and Fat Cats — Giving welfare bailouts and support to Corporations and none to everyday Americans.
So you got your guns, but you can't afford to pay your mortgage? We have to get rid of that mentallity and embrace unity and change for all. Look, there is a message in Ground Zero — that afer 7 years, it is still a dark hole. This is is a symbol of the failed polices of Republicans, that after 7 years, Ground Zero is still a hole, left desolate and it speaks volumes that we are a country unable to find leadership, unable to unite and unable to rebuild and show ourselves and the world that we know how to overcome adversary, yet trillions of dollars go daily to Iraq, to allegedly rebuild a country which should never have been invaded in the first place. Talk about selling someone the Yellow Brick Road, I mean OIL! Because continued Drilling is not going to end our addiction, it is a band aid. We need 21st Century ideas and innovations, we need Intelligence instead of experience. We need the intellectual capacity of someone who can see the way forward when it is dark and to lead us out of the dark and into the light. We need a Rudolph whose nose was so bright, only he could lead the way from darkness to light and from the unreal to the real.
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