What about the House GOP plan?

Great Debates
21

Oy!: Here’s a Bloomberg article on liar loans. Read between the lines. Nobody extends a no-documentation loan with the expectation that they will receive honest answers.

elucidator: But remember that the Senate Republicans have always been on board and that the House Republicans on average have safer seats. So why is the clown show in the House? I fear that this is a mixture of crank economics and reflex action. No need to think deeply about the unobtainable.

Another arch-conservative who is on board is Bruce Bartlett, author of the Kemp-Roth-Reagan tax cuts. His piece, “Why the Bailout?” isn’t a bad intro to the financial system.

Look, both parties will always have more than their share of poseurs and clowns. But the constructive wing of the Republican party has been dangerously hollowed out. Modern conservatives need to gaze into the mirror and conduct the sort of soul searching that the Democrats did during the 1980s. The country needs and deserves a better conservative party.

More on insurance premiums:

It won’t. But that doesn’t make it a bad idea: it just implies that it doesn’t address the problem at hand.

In fact, this insurance payment has been part of the plan all along: “At the end of next year, the Treasury temporary authorities will expire, the GSE portfolios will begin to gradually run off, and the GSEs will begin to pay the government a fee to compensate taxpayers for the on-going support provided by the Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements.” Henry M. Paulson, Jr., Sep 7, 2008. That fee, to be commenced in 2010, is essentially an insurance premium.

Don’t tell the House Republican “Working” Group though. We need them to stay on board. (Hat tip, Brad DeLong)

22

Their business dried up, for one thing. For another, at every step of the way banks got left holding some of the useless bonds, which they kept because they were paying so well - and because they had thought they insured them.

23

Item the first: All of the House seats are up for re-election. Not all Senate seats. Some Pubbie Senators have time to put this behind them, Pubbie Rep.s only have about 40 days.

Item the second: The Republican brand has been fairly compared to canned dog food. “New! Improved! With Electrolytes and Crunchy Rabies Crystals”. They have already lost three “safe” seats in special elections. Fear and trembling.

Item the third: the disappearing news point. As a paranoid, I am abnormally adept at spotting conspiracy, especially invisible ones. Its a gift.

But what usually starts my radar blipping is a disappearing news point, one that pops up, casts an interesting conjectural shadow, and vanishes. One such was the Friday news story of how Reprehensibles were astonished at the number and intensity of public outcry, like really (see extended metaphor above). They expected fear, were planning on exploiting fear, rage is a lot trickier.

(Heard the story in passing maybe twice, and then gone! Poof! Gone to the place the candle flame goes when you blow it out. Watson, the game is afoot, and definitely a two-pipe problem!..)

Sink or swim time, and they’ve already got a cast iron albatross around their neck, and then this! What to do?

The People’s Republican Party will not stand for this exploitation of the working class! They will protect the proletariat from oppression by uber-rich Democrats, like Big Gay Barney.

So they lay groundwork for plausible denial. Put together a pinata proposal, something that won’t pass and wouldn’t be effective if it did. Let the Dem/Bush alliance take ownership of something that, even if it works, will cause considerable anguish and hardship. If it doesn’t work, you told them so. If it does work, claim credit for the cure, blame the hair loss and impotence on the Dem/Bush conspiracy.

They want it to be the Dems fault. But they can’t simply be obstructionist, so they throw together something complicated enough to fool Goober, but essentially empty. Gather half a dozen academic economists willing to sacrifice all credibility for some tenured position, and you got instant defensibility. “Experts say our plan is the tits, but the Dems and Bush want to give your money to the bankers and the Gnomes of Manhattan!”

Bonus points: distance from toxic President
Double bonus points: attaching toxic President to your opponent!

Irony so thick on the ground, you gotta call in the snowplows to clear the roads…

24

About that letter…

It was written by Freedom Works Foundation - the lead 2 signatories were (former contract on America booster and current Chairman) Dick Armey and another guy. The head of Cato signed it, but it did not include many first stringers.

But the letter wasn’t that bad. It attacked the Treasury plan, but was silent on the modified Treasury plan that Frank and Dodd negotiated. And it didn’t put forth a counter-proposal, which means that it was silent on the Republican Working Group’s brain wave. So while I understand the House Reps liked waving it about, it wasn’t much of an endorsement.

Among economic bloggers, opposition to the original Treasury plan was nearly unanimous. But I’m guessing that the more recent version has won grudging acceptance.

25

Mrs. Shot Clock and I were having one of those “kitchen table” discussions you hear so much about. Here’s the scene:

Mrs. Shot Clock- “The Democrats have the votes to pass the damned thing…why don’t they go ahead and do it? Why do they want the House Republicans on board?”

Me- “Well, they don’t want to hear adds like this for the next forty days;Representative John Spratt says he loves America, yet he voted to give 700 Billion Dollars of your money to greedy moneylenders…elitist money lenders…jewish money lenders…700 Billion Dollars…that’ll buy a lot of tires (paid for by the RNC).”

Unlike most folks, I’ll admit I’m undereducated and confused on this issue. My initial gut reaction was to say; “Screw ‘em all…let it burn…friggin’ greedy bastards!” I read all the news stories and listened to both sides, but I had a hard time wrapping my arms around the whole picture. So, I did what I always do when I’m undecided about an issue-- I consulted the office of U.S. Senator and Worthless Asshole Jim Demint (R-SC).

Jim’s thoughts about how this situation is the fault of liberals and that the proposed legislation will turn America into a socialist colony of the European Union helped convince me that the bailout package is probably a good idea overall, since he is so adamantly against it.

Mama once told me (yes, I’m a southerner, so I have more than a few 'Mama-once-told-me-isms), in reference to a complex political issue in South Carolina; “All other things being equal, if (SC State Senator and Worthless Asshole) Mike Fair is for it, you’re probably better off if you’re against it”. Applying her gentle wisdom to Jim DeMint on the national level seems to be a prudent couse of action at this time.

26

Thanks for that. No wonder it was referred to as a “one page letter of principles”.

27

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Kucinich_says_bailout_doesnt_have_votes_0928.html
Kucinich says the votes are not there for the bill. That is interesting to consider. The Repubs fought the inclusion of credit card repair bill. They want to let the rich folk off but they do not want to get their hooks out of the rest of us. The debate should be interesting.