Angelo Mozilo, Tea Partier?

[ProSense]

Angelo Mozilo, Tea Partier?

by Matt Stoller

I was combing through the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission resource materials, and I found an interesting email from former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo to his senior executives. It was written in 2004, and the main subject was the declining credit quality of loans due to heavy competition from mortgage originators.

The last part of the email, though, got very political.

I must admit that the upcoming election has exacerbated my concerns in that a Kerry win could cause a serious disruption in the economy if he is successful in rolling back a substantial portion of the tax breaks initiated by Bush. It is the wage earners $200,000 and over that are the drivers of the economy and that is the group that Kerry has stated that he will attack. This could clearly cause a major bump in the road.

As you know I have no political bias but I would be concerned about any candidate that proposes a massive wealth transfer from the people to the federal government.

<...>

It’s true Mozilo had no political bias in terms of who got favorable lending treatment; lots of Democrats took out low-cost Countrywide “Friends of Angelo” loans. But the rhetoric and politics he uses here are straight up Texas GOP.

The transfer of power from the people to the federal government, and with Obama, we’ve had a giant leap in that direction.

He and Reagan were both government-haters. Now, Mozilo needn’t have worried about the 2004 election, as John Kerry voted to extend the Bush tax cuts last year and probably would have found a way to extend them as President. It is interesting that Mozilo, whose business depended on the income of people in lower and middle income brackets, felt that it was people with incomes of $200k and up who drive the economy.

more

Seriously, WTF?

Then there is Stoller's bogus claim about Kerry, who voted against both Bush tax cuts, voted against bankruptcy reform, campaigned against the tax cuts and last year voted for both Senate bills ending the tax cuts. He also voted for Bernie Sanders' amendment.

<...>

Before they passed the plan, Senators considered an amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who spoke out against the bill for nine straight hours last week, that would have replaced the payroll tax credit with an extension of the Make Work Pay Credit, imposed an estate tax of 45 percent on estates worth more than $3.5 million and provided a cost-of-living-adjustment of $250 to seniors, veterans and the disabled dependent on government benefits. It failed 57 to 43.

<...>

Kerry as President in 2004 would have led the country to a far better place than it was in at the end of Bush's second term. In a second Kerry term, beginning in 2009, there would have been no need for bailouts. The crisis is a result of Bush's policies and neglect, primarily inaction in 2008. Those policies would have been reversed long before 2008.

Democrats suffer from too much political sabbotage in the media, from powerful special interests and even within their own ranks.

Stoller's swipe was unnecessary. He could have mentioned the 2010 vote without the speculation about a Kerry presidency.



Edited to add link.