DISQUS

POHearn · 1 year ago

Here is a post from David Berstein over at Volakh.com which echoes my own sentiments:

Speaker Pelosi's speech before the House today was remarkable, but not in a good way. She was trying to round up votes for a bailout package that shes claims to believe is essential for the stability of the American economy. She can't, and doesn't want to, pass the bill without a substantial number of Republican votes. So what does she do? You would think she would say, "let's pass this emergency measure now, in the best interests of the country, and talk about who is to blame later." Instead, Pelosi began her speech with a highly partisan tirade against "Bush" and "Republican" economic policies, which were allegedly to blame for this situation. She focused on an attack on the growth of federal deficits, which clearly are at best tangential to the current crisis. That, to me, is the sort of irresponsible thing you do when (a) you're not claiming there is a vast emergency; and (b) you are in the minority, and not claiming to exercise leadership. [Commenters point out that Republican Housemember were acting equally irresponsibly to the extent they rose to Pelosi's bait and voted against the bailout out of pique at Pelosi. True. But the Speaker of the House is a leader, not just a random member of the House, and her actions inevitably and justifiably get more scrutiny than those of her colleagues.

SteveK · 1 year ago

A Monday to Remember!
The bailout is going to cost all of us and our children an amazing amount of money in the future. We as a country just can not afford to continue adding to a national deficit of what will be more than $11 Trillion by the end of this year.

We fully understand the implications of no bailout. It is pretty much guaranteeing, at this point ,that we and the....
continued at
www.mortgagebreakdown.com

penrenter · 1 year ago

Because she wanted it to fail. Most people wanted it to fail. But she couldn't vote against it.

POHearn · 1 year ago

Penrenter,

I think that Pelosi's speech may just end her term as Speaker of The House, if not her career. It's getting a LOT of play, even from the mainstream press, and I'm not sure voters are going to appreciate such partisanship in the face of a national crisis.

Tom Delay was known to be equally tough in his demands on House members, but at least he had a bit of charm.

Eric · 1 year ago

I saw her speach on the youtube and honestly it didn't seem all that harsh (basically explaining what got us to this point). Are we to believe that Republicans in the house that were going to vote for this threw up their hands and said "she was mean to us, so we are going to destroy the financial system." It was a poor time for her to make a political statement no doubt, but it isn't what sunk this deal. i don't think she has the political skill to orchastrate sinking of this bill and making the Republican's look they (and based in his intervention Sen. McCain) are responsible for the largest point drop in the DOW ever.

Barr '08

POHearn · 1 year ago

Eric,

I agree that Pelosi's speech likely did not sink the bill. I think, however, launching a partisan attack before what could be a nation-saving vote in the House was a serious mistake. What I'm saying is that there are some in congress who are so reflexively partisan that they'll take any opportunity to attack the opposition.

And Pelosi's arguments regarding how we got into this mess were not even accurate. It was congress that created this mess when they pressured they pressured Fannie and Freddie to begin supporting sub-prime loans. It was a market they never should have supported and it virtually guaranteed a meltdown.

GOP · 1 year ago

Puhlease

The GOP is desperatly casting about for a scapegoat to deflect the Reality that they couldn't muster the votes with their own members. It is completely disingenuous to characterize this as Pelosi's fault. These folks have sharp elbows and can handle criticism. The simple fact is the GOP needs political cover - Pelosi is an easy target.

Rhonda Porter · 1 year ago

I was disgusted with Pelosi's comments yesterday. Barney Frank, I would expect that type of rhetoric from...not somone in Pelosi's position just prior to an important vote. It was bitchy and unprofessional.

POHearn · 1 year ago

My point all along has been that, in the face of a 9/11-like economic crisis, why was it necessary to go on a partisan attack right before a critical vote in the House? From Bizjournals.com, this quote I think is relevant:

Pelosi also gave a charged speech before the House vote, blaming President Bush’s and Republican economic policies for the credit and finance disorder, saying they followed a “right-wing ideology” while hailing the Clinton administration. Banking deregulation and home ownership pushes blamed in part for the mortgage problems curently saddling banks, enjoyed support from the Clinton and Bush administrations, including some former Clinton economic aides now advising Barack Obama.

Pelosi also called the original plan forwarded by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Bank chairman Ben Bernanke “arrogant” and hammered home criticism of Wall Street executives’ compensation.

Despite supporting the bill, Pelosi spent much of her speech criticizing Bush policies and Wall Street and echoing some of the liberal criticisms of the bill. She spent less time saying why she was supporting it.

Republicans said Pelosi’s speech and criticisms turned off some fence-sitting Republicans and emboldened more Democrats to vote “no” on the bill.

Ninety-five freshman, Hispanic and liberal Democratic lawmakers voted against the bill.

The article lists a host of factors contributing to the failure of the bill. If you would like to read it, you can view the article here:

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2008...

Regards,

PatOH

Bea · 1 year ago

Even more offensive than the hyperpartisan nature of Pelosi's rant was her false assertion that the "Bush administration" is responsible for this financial crisis. The facts say otherwise. It was a socialist crusade by democrats that started this with regulation mandating increased sub-prime lending, which was then perpetuated by greed and politically motivated resistance by democrats to adopt Republican instigated Fannie/Freddie regulation. The video below is remarkable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs&eurl