Jim Jordan cracks me up.
“It was a little bit surprising that we were able to prevail,” Jim Jordan (R-Urbana) said after the vote. He represents Ohio’s 4th District and was in Washington for the vote. Jordan, a Republican voted against the plan, which he said would have provided a government solution to a problem that would be best served by the free market. “I think members by the vote tally said loud and clear they want a different solution,” he said. “They want to do it the way America has always done it: with a free market, free enterprise solution.”
I guess he isn’t aware how Wall Street got hold of those toxic assets. The Free Market!
Yes back in the 1990’s when the GOP was in charge they got rid of those nasty rules and regulations dating from the 1930’s. It was like giving booze and car keys to a teen and asking them to be safe….. and Jordan thinks the free market will help?
I feel bad for average people who will be really hurt if we just let the market collaspe. No credit, no money for growth, no money for new city projects, no money for school buildings etc….. if something isn’t done to bail out the frat boys on Wall Street.
I feel bad that Jordan and the GOP put themselves ahead of the country.
Liberal nut!!!!
Which party made a n investigation committee in 2002? One man committee. Which party asked for better controls 14 times since 02?
Who works for Obama, got fined 5.7 m$ (Million) for cooking books at fanny made plea bargin and left with tens m$ in fraud bonus (starts with R ends with aines). Which congressional caucas insisted lower standards for owner entitlement? If GOP was to blame media would be front page headlines. What leader asks for bipartisan effort than blasts across the isle before the vote. Why did 96 Dems say no. Why is congress approval in single digits and all we hear is bush at 34% for approval.
Far left liberals are anti God, profit, local government, energy independence, winning just wars……..etc.
God help us all!
I'm sure that will still sound good when we are all selling apples on street corners because the GOP is gassed on the "free" market.
Wall Street is the heart of the economy – try and cut a heart out and see how long someone lives… not long at all.
Why did only 33% of Republicans vote for the Bailout while 60% of Dems did?
So feel free to spew your anti-american comments – hope you checked on your 401k plan today.
Thank Jim Jordan for standing firm. Wall Street is for the fat cats. We sent Jim to Congress with a Backbone and it is showing. Thanks Jim
I am happy that my representative Jim Jordan not only voted correctly but apparently did enough to convince his colleagues to do the same. It's not enough to just vote correctly.
The problem isn't deregulation but the wrong kind of regulation. We should start by repealing the CRA (community reinvestment act) & all the tweeking that was done over the years to encourage banks to hand out risky loans. Then we should cut all government ties to Fannie & Freddie & let them liquidate.
So the market went down — then it came back up.
If we do nothing we'll see the market fall a little more — probably down to about 8000 or so & then a slow rise back to about 10 or 11 thousand; naturally — not artificially induced by government involvement.
Well, from where I sit, it's the "free market" (as a synonym for "do whatever you can to line your own pockets" market) that the Repubs supposibly love that got us into this mess and now, because of unchecked, immoral greed, we are left with the ugly choice of a) Paying off a bunch of companies looted by a few millionaires so that the rest of us can afford to keep our shops open or buy our cars or b) let the market "correct" itself by continuing in a distasterous fire sale that will only further consolidate wealth, power, and control in the hands of a few while adding to the permanant peat bog of an underclass that our federal government (both Dem and Repub) has been working on since the time of the Immortal Reagan. I suspect that the only reason Bush and his buds don't want this "market correction" to happen is because they understand they are not at a level high enough (or Far Eastern enough) to continue to roll in the loot.
We all play games because there is a chance at winning, but, if the game has no rules, and the other side can just tip the board off the table at any time anyway, what's the point in playing? This is the difference between a "free" market and an "unfair, wild, cheating" market. The people who have been running the joint for the last 25 years have been perfectly happy with the wild market because they have been able to slurp the trough dry, all the while distracting those who are not really players by yelling "Abortion!" or "Gay Marriage!" so they'll look at something else while their 401Ks and IRAs and Social Security are emptied. A market without rules and regulations, though, is a joke, because, if you own the game board, you are going to win no matter what. We're now at the ugly point where the game board has been snapped closed so many times it has broken in half and, for those who own the board, they will shrug it off, maybe pay some fines, and buy another board, possibly to go play with their friends the Chinese. As for the rest of us, we must now pool together and buy a new gameboard ourselves just to keep playing.
America is a great place because it allows discourse, because the God-lovers and God-deniers, the Big Guv and the No Guv, the King-Don eaters and the Ho-Ho cravers, the fans of Godzilla and the fans of King Kong, the pros and the anti-s, can all come together and heatedly and freely argue with the same healthy goal (and one we too often forget that the opposite side is also striving for)- to make our society better. What we miss while we debate is that the till is open and being pilfered, and how anyone who has time to read blogs could even defend this behavior is beyond me, because we are not the ones who benefit from the stolen dough. I don't care about the approval ratings of Bush or Congress- the true enemies of America are the ones who have put their own interests above those of their society and have systematically been dismanteling the very institutions We the People have built and own. If voters who follow this line and have supported these enemies of America and their theft under the guise of "social" issues they don't truly support or even "fiscal" issues they don't invite anyone else to play with do not soon wake up, we all can start wiping with our 401K statements (because toilet paper will be $40 a roll) and struggling to learn to speak Chinese so we can ask our bosses for a day off.
Ya lets get rid of the free market. I cant wait till Barry Obama takes office and I can retire before the age of 30. Change is assume! He will give me everything and I wont even have to work. Plus the government can tax the crap out of everybody and punish those rich corporations. Shame on them for making money. I can vacation on Myrtle Beach while more regulations runs this country into the ground with more regulations! Plus we can tax that 4 billion dollars in profit that gas companies have made that way we can give them another reason to raise gas another 4 dollars. I love people with all of the answers! You rock!
Greg, De Nile is a river in Egypt. Where have you been – we have seen the "free" market at work – it means welfare for the rich on the backs of those least able to afford it. The only people being tax are the poor and middle class. I say it is time those who are defrauding us should have to pay their taxes.
A free market implies access for all and equal opportunity of success for all, and it does work and is a beautiful thing when this type of competition can flourish. But try and open your own independant grocery store and see how well you compete, or your own manufacturing plant and see how well you compete, or your own media outlet or your own telecommunications business or your own insurance company or your own financial institution and see how well you compete. I can promise one of two outcomes, assuming that you are even able to start your desired business without personal access to some level of government- the worst case will be that you are put out of business through the aggressive tactics of your deep-pocketed and better-connected competitors, in which case there is no competition and no free market. The best case is that you have such a good product you can sell out to one of your competitors, in which case you may become rich but there is still no competition and no free market. And, if you choose to follow the Frank Capra route and try and save your beloved business by refusing to sell-out, you will be put out of business by your deep-pocketed and better-connected competitors anyhow. Don't tell me there is any such thing as a "free market" in a society where only a handful of monopolies have the access and cash required to be a part of it and no reason to better America when it only cuts into the bottom line.
And don't tell me that a free market cannot exist with regulations. In fact, regulations are necessary for it to exist. If I own a store and my neighbor owns a store, I would stand to make more money if I went over and burnt his store to the ground. Heck, if I burnt every store in my area to the ground, I could charge anything I wanted and make tons and tons of money on this 'free market'! But I can't burn other people's stores to the ground because there are laws- another word for "regulations"- that say I will be punished for burning other people's stores to the ground, even to the point of losing everything I own to compensate those who I have damaged. I haven't heard (although I won't be surprised if I do) anyone arguing that arson laws are unfair to businesses and competition. It is expected by our society that a business can make enough money within the "regulation" of not burning other businesses to the ground to survive and maybe even profit. Anyone who believes that regulations on for-profit businesses requiring them to behave in socially, politically, and morally appropriate ways harm a business are either in the top 1% or have been conned by the top 1%. "But what about China! What about Mexico!" the flat-worlders will argue. To which I would say, at some point, a society must draw the line about where it stands. I fear there are more than a few people who would be just fine with American slave labor in order to better compete with Mexico, China, and all the other current manufacturing paradises. There are some things that America truly stands for, though, with freedom being one of the most important. It amazes me that many of the same people who would identify themselves as "patriotic Americans" would be so quick to allow the most fundamental parts of the American Experiment to be torn apart like a $3 t-shirt made in a Chinese sweatshop.
Stand for something already, and love your country and the citizens who make it great, not the privateers who would happily loot it before moving on to shinier shores.
I would never profess to having all the answers. People far smarter than me do not have all the answers. I am, however, able to recognize the problem.
However regulations such as telling a company how much to pay their employees is crazy. If someone is willing to work for 1 dollar an hour, where does personal responsibility come into the equation. Where does trying to improve yourself come into the equation?
Most of our problems today, has come from bad banking and bad personal decisions, however we should not be bailing people out who shouldn't of received a loan for much more than they could afford. People need to use common sense and know what they are getting into.
This whole mess was nothing more than both parties leading us down the road of socialism which is not best for freedom or personal choices. All this is going to enforce is punishing the rich and punishing the people who have done things right.
This leads to know no incentive to do well in life and the US’s lead in innovation in the world will decrease dramatically.
John McCain offered several million dollars to the person who invented battery that would get us off oil. Why would that even be necessary when the pay back of this technology would surpass whatever the government would pay? Did Thomas Edison need government aid to come with his modern inventions? There may be a need for some regulations but lets remember that the government should only guard our borders and smooth roads. If we want more regulations these should be at governments closer to us like states and local, not the federal government where we lose all control.
And the ability to regulate ourselves at the local level is something I also would support 100%, and something I expect most socially concious Americans from any party or ideology would welcome, as well. That is the way we would truly let OUR voices be heard over the corruption and greed that stain most levels of government and corporation at the national level, and the way that the people who make up America can take part in and take back what is ours. And then we can do what we as Americans have always done…sit down in the tavern, have a beer, hash out our differences and strengthen our resolve, and move forward with the innovation, ownership, pride, dedication, individualism and determination that we all truly want to share and that marks our society as great.
One reason Federal regulations are better in some respects – like banking or healthcare for example is for the simple fact that if left the states there would be a mish mash of rules etc…. So that one person in Michigan might experience something completely different than someone in Ohio who might have different rules.
We live in the United States not just in a state or local area.
Capitalism is a beautiful, self regulating system. Greed cannot co-exist with true capitalism, because there is always someone coming behind you to offer the same, or better service or product at a better value. When government steps in, this process gets destroyed. Hence, too much government regulation leads to the need for government to bail out the regulated entity. The federal government is too big, too broad and far too over reaching. Unfortunately, we are in for more of it in the next 4 years.
Capitalism does not work when people are not allowed to fail. Socialism does not work when people are allowed to succeed.