A Few Months Ago, McCain Called for “Removing Regulatory Impediments”, Now He's For Regulation???

[McCamy Taylor]

"Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia." George Orwell, 1984

I. This Spring McCain Said the Mortgage Crisis Would Be Solved By “Removing Regulatory Impediments”

John McCain’s campaign is run by lobbyists. Over 130 of them at one point.

http://mccainsource.com/corruption?id=0006

And none of the lobbyists has had such a profound influence of his economic policy as ex-Senator Phil Gramm. Before I even get started, I want you to watch a video from Countdown about John McCain and his BFFE, Gramm.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/27/breaking-mccain-campaign-general-co-chair-at-heart-of-foreclosure-crisis/

Be sure to catch the quote about a minute into the video of McCain this spring saying that our approach to solving the mortgage crisis should include “Removing regulatory impediments”.

McCain: Our financial market approach should include encouraging increased capital and financial institutions by removing regulatory, accounting and tax impediments.

Someone needs to take this video and make an ad of it. This is what John McCain stands for. Banking industry deregulation of the type that has gotten America into the mess it is in now. Unemployment over 6%, people losing their homes, stock market falling----

Today, McCain says that he has always favored more regulation of the banking industry.

John McCain is a big fat liar, who will do and say anything to get elected president.


II. Phil Gramm Speaks for the McCain Campaign

They are going to do their best to hide old ex-Senator Phil Gramm---except when the lobbyists and business interests come calling. Then, John McCain will assure the good old boys that Good Old Boy extraordinaire Phil Gramm of Texas is still in the saddle.

But as of today, free wheelin’ John McCain abandoned his anti-regulation ways and embraced regulation as if he and it had been married for the last twenty years. Those of us unfortunate enough to see Carly Fiorina lying through her teeth on Race to the White House heard her proclaim that McCain is a long term proponent of increased government regulation of the banks and that Congress and the Bush administration failed to regulate the mortgage industry and that is why they are failing….

Congress? As in the body that he has been a member of for sever decades? A member of the majority party for almost two decades? And Bush as in the guy whose policies he voted for 90% of the time?

Savvy people know that Ms. Fiorina does not run McCain’s economic policy. She is just the lipstick on his economic policy. Phil Gramm is the one in charge. And this is what he thinks regulation

http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2767

That Gramm is now advising the Republican nominee for president on economic matters “shouldn’t give people a lot of comfort,” says University of Maryland law professor Michael Greenberger, a senior official at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the late 1990s. “Gramm has been a central player in two major economic crises—the credit crisis and the incredibly high price of energy. ... He’s got his fingerprints all over legislative efforts that led to this.”
Nonetheless, Gramm holds fast to his ideology. “I’ve never seen any evidence that opening up competition among banks and insurance companies in any way contributed to this,” he says with the patience of the college prof he once was. “You’ve got a lot of people trying to rewrite history. You’ve got people with an ax to grind. They always wanted more government regulation, and when you have a problem, they want the government to regulate more.”

Sounds like Gramm is criticizing his good buddy John McCain and the about face he made today.

While John McCain proclaims that he has always been for more regulation, here is what the man whom he chose to be his economic adviser and whom he has been discussing as his possible Secretary of the Treasury has actually done .

When his new party won control of the Senate, Gramm rose to chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, where he was able to put his anti-regulation views into law. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 repealed laws put in place after the Great Depression setting up protective barriers between commercial banks, investment banking firms, and insurance companies.
Consumer groups strenuously opposed the landmark legislation. “It was strongly deregulatory and ... did not address safety and soundness,” says lobbyist Ed Mierzwinski of the public interest group U.S. PIRG.

There are other reasons why pro-business Gramm is not an asset to John McCain right now:

“Crony capitalism is not the only arena in which Gramm’s record might tarnish McCain’s campaign. While McCain has promised to end congressional earmarks, Gramm, the legislator, once bragged, “I’m carrying so much pork, I’m beginning to get trichinosis.” And there’s the question of whether McCain, who wants to appeal to moderates and independents, needs political coaching from a man who once told The Dallas Morning News, “I know a political zealot when I see one. I am one.”

Yet ideologically the two largely agree, whether it’s on free trade or slashing government services. Given Gramm’s free market philosophy, in a McCain administration he can be expected to continue his push for privatization of important government functions, particularly Social Security. McCain now says he would favor “maybe giving people the option” of personal retirement accounts, opting out of the Social Security system.”

After the “nations of whiners” statement from Gramm and after the UBS scandal, McCain tried to make Phil Gramm less visible. However, if you look at the Republican Party platform from a few weeks ago, you will not find any call to regulate the mortgage industry or any other industry. The only things the Republicans wanted regulated were government.

http://www.gop.com/2008Platform/

Phil Gramm is still in charge, and his policies are still the official policies of the Republican Party. That is why they are fighting so hard to win this election. They schemed hard to bring this country to the brink of another Great Depression. Now that they have us where they want us----where working people stand to lose their homes while the ultra rich snatch up the nation’s wealth at bargain prices---there is no way they are going to let another FDR style reformer get into office to spoil things for them.

This has been the Federalists’ goal all along. Destroy the middle class. Make us the serfs of the elite. Fuck the American Dream.

No how, now way, no John McCain.

[beac]

1. "I'm John McCain and I have NO IDEA what my message is." n/t

[McCamy Taylor]

2. ROFL. Thanks. I needed something funny. The news has been so bad lately.

[beac]

7. Definitely doing a lot of crying through the tears too.

Hoping the media does its job and doesn't let McCain get away with this BS. (faint hope? possibly. :( )

[AwakeAtLast]

3. It's Bizarro Election 2008

Didn't you get the memo? ;)

[Nikki Stone1]

4. Good catch.

K & R

[Nikki Stone1]

5. Good catch.

K & R

[debbierlus]

6. Nice.

[Armstead]

8. His idea of "reform" is fewer regulations

That is what is so frustrating about how the McPalin campaign is framing the issues.

When McCain says "change" and "reform" and "My party has strayed off course" he means we need more conservatism, and the Republicans have not been conservative enough.

[Jackpine Radical]

9. Destroy the Middle Class, institute a new serfdom. Oh, yes.

I'm reminded of what one of the Mellons said in about 1931: "Depressions are those times when wealth flows back to its natural owners."

Always remember that, when people were losing their farms and homes, other people were buying a lot of farms and homes for pennies on the dollar.

[blondeatlast]

10. He's either for Ronald Reagan or he's against him. Which is it, Senator McCain? nt