Democratic Talking Points – Page 3

For 26 years John McCain has ALWAYS stood for less regulation. Yesterday, he was against supporting AIG, but today did an about face and supported it. Today, he embraced regulation of the corruption on Wall Street…for the FISRT TIME, but he offered no plan or specifics.

First of all, I’m not clear that most of what has brought down the investment banks, Fannie and Freddie was illegal. Most of it was probably legal, but risky and born of greed. This situation is a direct result of inadequate regulation. Big business will ALWAYS move toward uncontrolled excesses that are destructive to the nation and its citizens, unless basic regulations insuring fair and sensible practices.

In Michigan today, McCain attempted to portray himself as a protector of the American worker, again for almost the first time. He has advocated a top-down approach to economics his entire career. Obama, perhaps more than any other Democrat because of his community organizing experience, advocates a bottom-up approach to the economy.

Think about it, if early on the Bush administration had supported home owners and trapped mortgage borrowers, the vast majority of the current wreckage to the economy and its infrastrucure might never have occured. Rebuilding the economic vitality of the middle class from the bottom up is EXACTLY what we need, and NOW!

John McCain may think the economy is fundamentally strong, but most Americans do not. Millions of families are losing their homes, major investment banks are imploding, Fanny and Freddie have essentially been nationalized, jobs are disappearing, gasoline is still over $4 per gallon and our health care system is broken.

The current administration, and Sen. McCain, believe in free markets as though it was their religion, but greed has historically resulted in great damage to the public when markets are totally unregulated. Markets can still be free even while basic oversight has been put in place. After all, it NOT just the corporate executives of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Lehman Brothers who suffer…It is the American people who are damaged and perhaps irreparably harmed.

McCain and advisers like Phil Gramm have been directly responsible for the continued deregulation of the banking and investment industry. That’s what the Republicans continue to stand for, and that’s why we need change.

A Word from the Author

In a way, I really admire Republicans. It NEVER ceases to amaze me how they manage year after year to get SO MANY Americans to vote against their own self-interests again and again. They are brilliant, though cynical. I am afraid they are on the verge of doing irreparable harm. In the name of patriotism, they want to dismantle our government. They have taken Ronald Reagan's words as gospel, believing that government is the casue of all of our problems and that can remedy none of them. They have politicized nearly every aspect of government, orchestrated assaults on the separation of church and state, science, attorneys, the courts, higher education and even the Constitution itself. We have allowed ourselves to fall victim to the propaganda that led to war in Iraq without a critical analysis of arguments in support of the decision. Global warming appears real and is worsening while we fail to act. Our economy is in shambles. The housing crisis deepens. Our currency has lost substantially in value, and our manufacturing base is a remnant of what is was only a decade ago, with our jobs leaving for foreign lands, while big business sits on billions of dollars and giant corporations in banking, oil and energy remain largely under-regulated. We seem to have surrendered our future to a political discourse that descends to the lowest common denominator, usually influenced by fear, personal attack and destruction, rather than dispassionate consideration of the merits. If we are going to thrive once again, something has got to change. Here is my small contribution to that end. I will try to respond to what I read in the news, but I am NOT a scholar. I leave it to others to fact check, follow up and support my points, but I refuse to continue to sit quietly while our demacracy is subverted and turned to the support of wealthy, powerful and cynical interests.

Category: Democratic Talking Points

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Economic Disaster and the Campaign