McCain: Throw Out Baby With The Bathwater

In an effort to prove his bonafides to the fiscal Conservatives John McCain is willing to tank the economy, allowing millions of American homes to be foreclosed on. In what will be a well orchestrated plan by the Bush/McCain camps, McCain will be campaigning as a free marketer while Bush’s administration will be spending billions bailing out the real culprits who created this mess (Wall Street) while the victims will be left up the creek without a paddle. According to McCain it is not the Government’s job to bailout speculators which includes all of the consumers who are facing foreclosure. Now while there may be some people facing foreclosure who were using the loose mortgage regulations to take out risky loans to speculate on the housing boom, the vast majority did not. The vast majority were sold the panacea of the balloon mortgage with eternal low interest rates by the greedy mortgage bankers. Should they have been more diligent in investigating the fine print of their loans? Of course they should have, but today you have to almost be a Nobel Prize winning economist to understand these contracts.

“Rampant speculation” on both sides is the root cause of the crisis, Mr. McCain said. He placed part of the responsibility for the mortgage mess on lenders, who he said had grown “complacent” in a rising market and as a result acquired a “false sense of security” that caused them to “lower their lending standards.”

But in a departure from Democrats, who have focused on the lending industry’s role in the crisis, Mr. McCain suggested that some homeowners had also engaged in dangerous practices, including borrowing too much in hopes that a rising market would cover their mortgages.[1]

Senator McCain is willing to let the same ones who created the crisis fix it with his hands off approach. He is willing to play craps with the nation’s economy similar to the approach taken by Herbert Hoover. Today however the difference is that he doesn’t seem to have a problem with bailing out the banks and brokers whose reckless practices caused this fiasco. Once again John McCain is showing his age and how out of step with the 21st century he is. According to McCain’s economic plan he believes that the greedy bankers and brokers if left alone will step in an rescue the homes of the millions of Americans facing foreclosure. And he talks about Obama being a merchant of dreams.

Lets face it folks John McCain has changed political positions so often, he makes Mitt Romney look like Teddy Roosevelt. Senator McCain was against the tax-cuts before he was for them, he was against bailing out the banks before he was for them, and he was against regulation before he was for it. The sad part about it is that because the Democrats are so busy cutting each other up McCain is having a free ride to make these ridiculous speeches unchallenged. We all know he will not be called on these statements from the MSM, who have all but coroneted and canonized McCain. Even the Bushies recognize that their “laissez faire” approach to the brokerage houses has had a negative effect and now McCain wants even less government involvement.

Mr. McCain said he favored government intervention only when standing by would produce “catastrophic effects” to the economy. Asked if the Federal Reserve had gone too far last week in moving to prevent the collapse of Bear Stearns, he replied that it was “a close call, but I don’t think so,” because of the impact that the investment bank’s disappearance would have had on Wall Street and throughout the economy.[2]

I’m sorry, did I say less government involvement. I mean less involvement for the average American who is losing their homes due to their reckless speculation, but not less involvement for the bankers and brokers. Mr. McCain doesn’t seem to have a problem with bailing out the bankers and brokers who he obviously believes are in their positions by relying on those less than forthright borrowers. At this rate I would not be surprised if McCain proposes more subsidies for the big oil companies to help them cope with the record oil prices being caused by those greedy consumers. With each passing day Senator McCain exposes his lack of understanding and concern for the poor and the middle-class.

At one point in his career Senator McCain opposed the Bush tax-cuts because he felt they were tilted towards the wealthy and that was unconscionable. It seems now that he is the Republican nominee not only has his views changed but also his conscious. Yes to torture. Yes to tax-cuts for the wealthy. The only thing left is yes to bombing Iran to complete the trifecta. According to McCain, the Bush policies aren’t the problem just how they are being implemented. There was a time when if anyone had run on Bush’s policies they would have been summarily dismissed as a lunatic, here today we not only have McCain running on them but also trying to make them seem mainstream. Is time for the Democrats to focus in on the real enemy and stop their petty sniping. If not we might as well kiss the baby good-bye, because McCain will surely throw it out with the bath water.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/us/politics/26mortgage.html
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/us/politics/26mortgage.html