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Liquid Assets are Seeping Down, Seeping Down Now
By Jeff Fecke | September 25, 2008
So John McCain flew boldly back to Washington today to put his country first. And by putting country first, I mean putting John McCain first, by blowing up the agreement that had been in place:
“I can’t invent votes,” House Republican Leader John Boehner warned the administration about the lack of support in his conference for the massive government intervention. And House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) angrily accused House Republicans — with the tacit support of Republican presidential candidate John McCain — of crafting an alternative to undercut Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
In short, the House Democrats, White House, and both parties in the Senate were on board with an agreement in principle that resembled the Dodd plan. But John McCain has decided to align himself with the House Republicans, who are pushing for a brilliant solution to the problems caused by deregulation, that being further deregulation. Brilliant!
McCain has seized on this because — obviously — he isn’t in Washington to get something done. He’s in Washington in order to try to help himself in the polls. He wants to run away from Bush and Congress on this one, and why wouldn’t he? It’s a debacle. But leadership — real leadership — means sometimes you have to actually deal with the debacle on the table. McCain had the opportunity to do what Obama evidently did today — push for a resolution to the problem. Instead, Hank Paulson was stuck admitting that the GOP in the House and their buddy Johnny Maverick were getting close to blowing this up real good.
So I’m with John Cole: walk away. Now. Unless you have John McCain’s aye vote, a majority of the Senate GOP, and at least a sizeable portion (~100 votes) from the House GOP, shut it down. Give Paulson $100 billion or so to play with until January, and deal with this when President Obama is sworn in. Until and unless the GOP is willing to add a bi- to their partisanship, the Democrats have an obligation to themselves to protect themselves politically. It may not be the most responsible decision, but the most irresponsible decision possible would be to allow Johnny Maverick to take the oath of office in January.
Topics: Economics | 1 Comment »
September 25th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
“I can’t invent votes,” House Republican Leader John Boehner warned the administration ”
Since when?