This ad from the NRCC marks the official taking off of the gloves. This signals that they’re bringing the heavy artillery out. Check this out:
It isn’t easy to hold people’s attention for 90 seconds. This video does. Bravo.
Technorati Tags: NRCC, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, Credit Crisis, Franklin Raines, Scandal, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
The first thing that struck me was Sen. Biden’s opening answer. Here’s Gwen Ifill’s question and Sen. Biden’s answer:
IFILL: The House of Representatives this week passed a bill, a big bailout bill, or didn’t pass it, I should say. The Senate decided to pass it, and the House is wrestling with it still tonight.
As America watches these things happen on Capitol Hill, Senator Biden, was this the worst of Washington or the best of Washington that we saw play out?
BIDEN: Let me begin by thanking you, Gwen, for hosting this.
And, Governor, it’s a pleasure to meet you, and it’s a pleasure to be with you.
I think it’s neither the best or worst of Washington, but it’s evidence of the fact that the economic policies of the last eight years have been the worst economic policies we’ve ever had. As a consequence, you’ve seen what’s happened on Wall Street.
If you need any more proof positive of how bad the economic theories have been, this excessive deregulation, the failure to oversee what was going on, letting Wall Street run wild, I don’t think you needed any more evidence than what you see now.
Sen. Biden’s talking points failed him badly. In fact, staying ‘on message’ caused him to open with a whopper. “Excessive deregulation” didn’t have a thing to do with the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac crisis. Nothing whatsoever. Saying that it was caused by Bush administration policies is another whopper.
I’m not saying that I agree with all of President Bush’s economic policies but the crisis was set in motion when Bill Clinton signed into law a bill that penalized banks that didn’t grant enough mortgages to people who were bad credit risks. That had nothing to do with President Bush. In fact, it had to do with a bill that Sen. Biden likely voted on.
Reading through the transcript, something else jumped out at me. Here’s Gov. Palin’s answer to the same Ifill question:
You know, I think a good barometer here, as we try to figure out has this been a good time or a bad time in America’s economy, is go to a kid’s soccer game on Saturday, and turn to any parent there on the sideline and ask them, “How are you feeling about the economy?”
And I’ll bet you, you’re going to hear some fear in that parent’s voice, fear regarding the few investments that some of us have in the stock market. Did we just take a major hit with those investments?
Fear about, how are we going to afford to send our kids to college? A fear, as small-business owners, perhaps, how we’re going to borrow any money to increase inventory or hire more people.
The barometer there, I think, is going to be resounding that our economy is hurting and the federal government has not provided the sound oversight that we need and that we deserve, and we need reform to that end.
Now, John McCain thankfully has been the one representing reform. Two years ago, remember, it was John McCain who pushed so hard with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform measures. He sounded that warning bell. (more…)
Robert Novak has posted something at Townhall.com about Sen. Obama mocking Sen. Obama’s definition of a tax loophole. Here’s what Mr. Novak posted:
How would Barack Obama pay for the $800 billion that John McCain claimed in the first presidential debate Sept. 26 in Oxford, Miss., that his Democratic opponent would spend if he were elected president? Obama replied, by “closing tax loopholes.”
Obama was no more specific in the debate, and tax experts doubt that structural changes without increasing taxes can raise anything close to that amount of money.
My office asked the Obama campaign for the details, and it responded with a 19-page single-spaced paper on the candidate’s “tax plans.”
In fact, there was precious little about tax policy in the paper, which amounted to a repeat of Democratic campaign oratory that can be heard in 30-second speeches before both houses of Congress daily on C-SPAN. (more…)
Following Monday’s vote on the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailout, two things should be clear to the American people: Barack Obama is a sideline watcher and Nancy Pelosi cares more about playing hyperpartisan politics than she cares about doing what’s right for the American people.
When John McCain jumped into the mess last week, 4 House Republican were on board with the bailout. When the final tally was counted yesterday, 65 Republicans voted for the bill. John McCain’s jumping into the fray meant another thing: House Republicans got a seat at the table, allowing them to negotiate into the bill some meaningful provisions that would’ve protected taxpayers to a certain extent. John Boehner worked hard to get Republicans on board. That’s the picture of leadership.
By comparison, Barack Obama wanted to stay away in the worst way. He only returned to Washington because President Bush invited him. That isn’t the picture of leadership. The minute the meeting ended, his jet was winging him away from Washington. He didn’t lift a finger over the weekend. Yes, he stayed in touch with Secretary Paulson but he didn’t call House Democrats urging them to vote for this bill.
He essentially voted present again. That’s unacceptable, especially considering the fact that this was supposedly the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. In my opinion, there’s two reasons why he isn’t interjecting himself into this crisis. (more…)
John Boehner’s office has issued this statement on the Democrats throwing in the towel on drilling. Leader Boehner sounds the same caution I sounded earlier. Here’s the money quote from Leader Boehner’s statement:
Lifting these outdated bans is a long-overdue but crucial step toward American energy independence. But it is just that: a step. Congress still has a great deal of work left to do before the ‘all of the above’ energy plan proposed by House Republicans becomes a reality. Two months ago, we introduced the American Energy Act to increase environmentally-safe drilling that gives states a stake in energy production occurring off their shores and on their lands, encourage more conservation and efficiency, and promote the use of renewable and alternative fuels.
Giving states a financial incentive would be the last domino that’s needed to fall to achieve final victory for the American people. States would get healthy in a hurry if they got annual checks in the hundreds of millions of dollars. (more…)
Sen. Biden has provided alot of fodder for late night comedians thus far. How much more late night fodder the Obama-Biden can take is anyone’s guess. Here’s Sen. Gaffemeister’s latest:
Here’s the transcript:
Part of what a leader does is to instill confidence. It is to demonstrate that he or she knows what she’s talking about & communicates with people. If you’re following & listening, we can fix this.
When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on television & he didn’t just, you know, talk about the princes of greed. He said, “Look, here’s what happened.”
FDR got on TV immediately after the stock market crash? Do tell. Let’s start with a history lesson. FDR wasn’t president when the Stock Market crashed. Hoover was. Second, There weren’t more than a virtual handful of TV’s in operation in 1929. For that matter, people were still probably arguing where this new thing called radio was a passing fad or if it would last.
Sen. Gaffemeister is right. Part of what a leader does is “demonstrate that he or she knows what she’s talking about.” By that definition, he’s just told America that he isn’t a leader. I expect him to distance himself from this comment ASAP. That still won’t change opinions, though. He’s still making a fool of himself.
Technorati Tags: Joe Biden, Stock Market Crash, FDR, Television, Leadership, Gaffes, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
At midnight of October 1, the ban on oil exploration and production could come to an end. It would also mean that the federal government would shut down temporarily. In the meantime, Speaker Pelosi is trying to pass a continuing resolution that includes an extension of the various moratoria. Here’s the statement from the Institute for Energy Research:
Having failed to pass the required measures to fund the government for the next fiscal year, Congress must now pass what is known as a Continuing Resolution (CR) in order to avoid a government shutdown. A draft of the resolution contains a provision taken from the recently passed House bill, H.R. 6899, to continue the ban on energy exploration and production on nearly all of the taxpayer owned Outer Continental Shelf in the lower 48 states for another year. At present, the ban is set to expire at the end of September. Dan Kish, Senior Vice President for Policy at IER issued the following statement:
“In 9 days the long-outdated ban on energy exploration on the energy rich, taxpayer-owned Outer Continental Shelf will come to an end. But like a thief in the night, it appears our government is attempting to sneak a new energy ban into a must-pass spending measure, thus continuing the decades-old, government-imposed American energy embargo.” (more…)
Whenever I want the clearest picture of the Democrats’ non-energy energy bills, I head straight to the Institute for Energy Research. Wanting to put forward the best explanation on why the bill pushed through by Pelosi’s Democrats, I visited this webpage. I’m glad I found it. Here’s what I found:
The bill permanently bans and development within 50 miles of shore. [Sec. 102]
The vast majority of undiscovered oil and gas reserves are projected to be between the coast and 50 miles offshore.
Here’s another noteworthy point made:
Fails to open new, energy rich areas for exploration and development in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. These areas in the Gulf could start producing oil and gas very quickly because they are close to existing infrastructure.
If the Democrats were serious about providing instant price relief, lifting the ban on drilling here should’ve been their highest priority. This proves that providing quick price relief isn’t the Democrats’ highest priority. That begs this question:
If prices at the pump are crippling families’ budgets and high heating bills only 2 months, if that, off, and with high prices at the pump crippling the economy, shouldn’t providing price relief be the Democratic majority’s top priority? Apparently, this legislation is proof that it’s barely a blip on the Democrats’ radar. (more…)
I’m a proud contributor to the NRCC. I’m a proud contributor to the NRCC because the House Republicans have fought the good fight against the dictatorial anti-drilling rule of Speaker Pelosi. Despite the Democrats’ latest anti-drilling legislation, John Boehner and the House GOP Caucus aren’t leaving the battlefield. Here’s Leader Boehner’s latest press release on the subject:
Prior to today’s debate on the No Child Left Inside Act (H.R. 3036), House Republicans will move to force a debate and vote on legislation to keep the number issue on the minds of the American people, high energy costs, on the radar of this Democratic Congress. The measure, sponsored by House Republican Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), would put Democrats on notice that Congress should not adjourn until a real, comprehensive energy reform bill is enacted into law.
Two days ago, the Democratic Majority passed a sham bill they claim would increase American energy production and lower gas prices, but in reality, it was designed to provide political cover for vulnerable Democrats who have promised their constituents they would support pro-energy legislation. An editorial in this morning’s Charleston Daily Mail slammed the bogus “no energy” bill: (more…)
While Nancy Pelosi works frantically to cobble together enough support for their latest version of a non-energy energy bill, Mary Landrieu has already declared the bill DOA in the Senate. This is how Sen. Landrieu specifically delivered that message:
Even if the bill reaches the Senate, he said, the bill is in trouble, given strong opposition by Sen. Mary Landrieu, (D-LA), who calls it “dead on arrival” since it fails to provide revenue sharing between the states and federal government. “The Senate will never pass a bill without revenue sharing, in my view,” she was quoted as saying.
The House bill hinges on that provision. Ms. Pelosi won’t sign off on a bill that gives financial incentives to states to opt in. The minute the bill has financial incentives in it is the minute that states opt in. It’s estimated that Virginia would get an estimated $200 million annually by opting in. The chances that they wouldn’t opt in are minimal at best. Louisiana would likely get a healthy chunk of cash from such a bill, too. There’s no way that Bobby Jindal would bypass that type of cash flow.
Putting out his best spin, Rep. Nick Rahall, (D-WVA), offered this timid defense: (more…)