Obama blames Wall St. crisis on Republican policy

[dkf]

CHICAGO (AP) - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said Monday the upheaval on Wall Street was "the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression" and blamed it on policies that he said Republican rival John McCain supports.

"This country can't afford another four years of this failed philosophy," Obama said after the shock-wave announcements that financial giant Lehman Brothers was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy while titan Merrill Lynch was being bought by Bank of America for about $50 billion.

Obama's statement, issued as he prepared to fly to Colorado to begin a swing through contested Western states, was intended to serve two purposes: to link McCain with the unpopular presidency of George W. Bush and to express sympathy with the anxiety of most Americans who say the economy is issue No. 1 in the election.

"The challenges facing our financial system today are more evidence that too many folks in Washington and on Wall Street weren't minding the store," Obama said in a statement. "Eight years of policies that have shredded consumer protections, loosened oversight and regulation, and encouraged outsized bonuses to CEOs while ignoring middle-class Americans have brought us to the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression."

"I certainly don't fault Sen. McCain for these problems," Obama said, "but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9374EMO0&show_article=1

[Hope And Change]

1. K & R!Good.Keep hitting McSame on the economy!

[demnan]

2. All he needs to do is keep saying this every day

With the economy in the toliet even the most thick-headed in America are bound to wake up.

[FlyingSquirrel]

3. Yeah baby! Come out hitting hard and beat 'em to the punch

They'll be trying to blame the Democratic Congress but ya beat 'em to it. Way to go!

[Breeze54]

4. Obama is on ABC right now!

K & R

[DoctorMyEyes]

5. Hang it around his neck!

This shit is a direct result of the Republican "free market", "deregulation" bullshit that McCain subscribes to. I hope Obama hangs it around his neck like a 100 pound stone!

And it wouldn't hurt to remind Americans how grateful they should feel that this gang has so far been denied their ultimate wet dream of "privatizing" our social security system. Yeah - that'd be working out SO great right about now, wouldn't it?

[debbierlus]

6. Hammer the economy - HARDER - McCain does not understand economics

[FatDave]

7. You know why this is great?

Because he's not just hammering McCain on the economy. He's hammering the entire conservative philosophy. That's what we need to do. Conservatism has failed. Every time we try it, it fails. It failed in 1929. It failed in 1992. It failed in 2008.

[blondeatlast]

9. Yep--this can open a "dangers of deregulation" debate. I welcome that.

The republicans made this happen with their "sunny" phiilosophy of unbridled capitalism.

Now they have to dig themselves out of the muck they made for the rest of us.

[vaberella]

12. In what respect, blondeatlast? I wonder if Palin understand the def. of Capitalism. n/t

[Alter Ego]

8. I'm glad he made the distinction at the end.

[Peacetrain]

10. Hammer away Obama.. hammer away

[central scrutinizer]

11. Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act.

Yes, that Phil Gramm, McW's economic guru who scolded Americans to stop whining. Here is more info, thanks to DUer mrJJ, posted as a reply to another thread yesterday:

McCain & the GOP Screwed America

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act.

53 Republican Senators plus one Democrat - AYE

44 Democrats no Republicans - NAY

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, Pub. L. No. 106-102, 113 Stat. 1338 (November 12, 1999), is an Act of the United States Congress which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, opening up competition among banks, securities companies and insurance companies. The Glass-Steagall Act prohibited a bank from offering investment, commercial banking, and insurance services.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) allowed commercial and investment banks to consolidate. For example, Citibank merged with Travelers Group, an insurance company, and in 1998 formed the conglomerate Citigroup, a corporation combining banking and insurance underwriting services. Other major mergers in the financial sector had already taken place such as the Smith-Barney, Shearson, Primerica and Travelers Insurance Corporation combination in the mid-1990s. This combination, announced in 1993 and finalized in 1994, would have violated the Glass-Steagall Act and the Bank Holding Acts by combining insurance and securities companies, if not for a temporary waiver process <1>. The law was passed to legalize these mergers on a permanent basis. Historically, the combined industry has been known as the financial services industry.

...

Economist Robert Kuttner has criticized the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act as contributing to the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis.<6> Economists Robert Ekelund and Mark Thornton have made similar criticisms, arguing that while "in a world regulated by a gold standard, 100% reserve banking, and no FDIC deposit insurance" the Financial Services Modernization Act would have made "perfect sense" as a legitimate act of deregulation, under the present fiat monetary system it "amounts to corporate welfare for financial institutions and a moral hazard that will make taxpayers pay dearly".

100's Of Banks WILL FAIL. The FDIC DOES NOT have enough liquid funds to cover the insured depositors. Of course the FDIC will go to the FED and get the needed money. Those funds Will NOT show up on the books as a deficit. The taxpayer gets screwed again.

"John McCain voted FOR the bank laws that led to the current credit crisis. John Mccain's economic advisor WROTE the law. 53 Republicans voted YES to the law. When you're in danger of losing your house, can you take a chance on more of the same from those who wrecked out economy?"

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 106th Congress - 1st Session
as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/r...

[DCofVA]

13. Yes!

Maybe it will even sink into the thick skulls of Wall Street that the Bush/McCain economic policies are bad for the economy. Big Oil and the Military contractors can not hold up the sky by themselves.

[uponit7771]

14. GREAT!!! Please keep it up!!!