Democrats misrepresenting the financial disturbances

President Bush on Monday welcomed the Federal Reserve's sweeping intervention in the nation's financial markets as his administration faced accusations that it had supported the bailout of a prestigious investment bank while doing little to address the hardships of Americans facing foreclosures on their homes...

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois declared the economy "in shambles," but he and his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, trod carefully, expressing concern about the broader market and, in Mrs. Clinton's case, for the employees of Bear Stearns, based in her home state, New York.

"There is no doubt that we are teetering on a potential crisis on Wall Street that could have ramifications all across the country," Mr. Obama said at a news conference after meeting with voters during a campaign stop in Monaca, Pa., a town near the Ohio border. "We have a credit market that is locked up."

Mrs. Clinton said that Main Street was as important as Wall Street, but like many Democrats, she did not directly criticize the government's intervention in the sale of Bear Stearns. In a statement, she noted that she had spoken with Mr. Paulson and the president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Timothy F. Geithner. She urged that the administration do more. "We have blown it," she said at a news conference in Washington in which she linked the economic turmoil in part to Iraq. "And one of the reasons why we must end the war in Iraq is we cannot afford it. We have got to get control of our economic destiny. There are so many danger signs on the horizon." .....

Both Clinton and Obama are talking through their hats. Many of the employees of Bear Sterns have had their fortunes disappear with this "bailout." Those who invested in the compan's stock have losses similar to the employees of Enron, yet the Democrats are treating them like fat cats who got saved from a huge loss. In fact their losses were probably significantly greater than those who have walked away from upside down mortgages because they have little to lose. It was those who were walking away from houses because of a declining market who caused the huge losses that Bear Stearns incurred, yet Democrats act like the defaulters are the victims.

Harry Reid is as bad as Clinton and Obama. Wall Street has taken the big hit from peoples failure to live up to their obligations and Democrats have mischaracterized these firms as "predatory lenders." What a bunch of worthless demagogues. Meanwhile Obama and Clinton's prescription is Smoot-Hauley light by reneging on NAFTA and on top of that raising taxes in a down economy which is just the sort of prescrpition that led to the great depression.

Democrats should be working to try to resolve this situation rather than trying to take advantage of it, but that maybe asking too much.

Source

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your handy-dandy summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH