Republicans Get a Little ‘Hope’ of Their Own
He also took a shot at the wizards in the housing market who, he joked, introduced a new type of mortgage — the “why have an income?” mortgage. Much of Forbes’ ire was directed at not a person but a rule, the so-called “mark-to-market” accounting rules which require financial institutions to constantly adjust their assets to the market value of those assets. And ending his list, Forbes decried talk of bank nationalization and an erratic series of bailout plans which have given the financial sector “cardiac arrest.”
Forbes, however, argued that the fix for our current predicament is rather easy and the recovery can be quicker than many imagine. His solution is to eliminate the mark-to-market accounting rules, adjust certain SEC regulations (reinstitute the “uptick rule” and enforce prohibitions on “naked short selling”), and send the Fed out to aggressively buy up mortgage-backed securities. Then he says individuals and lenders can renegotiate mortgages in the free market place and the financial sector can regain its footing.
While Forbes was providing an erudite economic analysis, the governors assembled there seemed most occupied with looming fiscal problems in their states and future political races. Each is navigating the precise course he intends to take to address the Obama administration’s policies, both those enacted and those contemplated.
Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty makes no bones about his approach to the stimulus bill: “It’s a bad bill but it’s the law,” he told me. While he proposed a tough budget which sought to attract business and avoided tax increases, the stimulus bill will now change the fiscal outlook. For example, rather than the modest increase in education which he recommended or the small cut which state Democrats suggested, Minnesota now will get a large chunk of cash for its schools.
As for politics, Pawlenty plans on campaigning for Republicans in the Virginia and New Jersey governor races this year where he thinks Republicans will be fielding strong candidates. Asked about his own presidential prospects, he eschewed the usual denial of any interest and said, “I’m going to take some time to think about it.” He then quickly added that he was focused on his state’s immediate budget needs.
Sanford, along with Governors Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, has expressed the view that they might not use all the stimulus money, especially funds for additional unemployment insurance. Both in remarks to the group and in comments afterwards to reporters, Sanford contended that governors “are now doing what Congress should have done in going line by line through the stimulus bill” to see what makes sense for each state.
I asked Sanford what the reaction in his state was to the proposed mortgage bailout and if there was a “Rick Santelli” backlash against it. He chuckled, observing that Santelli’s reaction had certainly raced through the blogosphere and the news because it hit “a live nerve there.” While acknowledging that there was legitimate concern that people would be subsidizing those who bought houses they couldn’t afford, he said it was still too early to judge the reaction.
“It is still too fresh,” he repeated. As for the bank bailout, he stressed that what was needed was “certainty.” “They need to know what the rules are going forward,” he explained. That lack of certainty he said is now “mirrored in the equity markets” which took a beating this week.
As for the attendees at the Saturday dinner the mood was generally jovial, in part because of the fundraising news. But a month into the Obama administration there are other reasons for optimism. One veteran of the Bush White House described the high hopes for off year governors’ races. He recalled that in 1993, Christie Todd Whitman won in New Jersey as did George Allen in Virginia, which helped build momentum for the GOP comeback in the Congress. While no one is predicting that the Republicans will recapture the majority in either the House or Senate in 2010, this is a group which sees “a deep bench of talent” in the states, as RGA’s Executive Director Nick Ayers refers to the Republican governors.
Observing a White House which has not yet found its footing, Republican governors and their supporters appear to have an ample supply of something which has been lacking of late among conservatives — hope.
“Observing a White House which has not yet found its footing…”
That’s only half of it. The White House is also unlikely to find its footing. The shallow and poorly read Barack Obama is existentially committed to socialist doctrines. He is incapable of even beginning to comprehend how economies grow and prosper. Obama didn’t bother to get his act together when he had the opportunity. Now the president is too busy to do the reading and thinking that should have been done years ago.
Republican governors you are not working for the people !
Imagine you have family members, sick and ill, tried hard but still can’t find a job to afford any insurance. Are you going to let keep getting sick and …
Jesus ! The next generation will work harder and learn how money are hard made. For Chris cry out loud, we are trying to get people who NEED insurance to survive ! And you are worrying about future tax ? Save people’s life NOW !!!
‘the “why have an income?” mortgage.’
EXACTLY.
“Observing a White House which has not yet found its footing, Republican governors and their supporters appear to have an ample supply of something which has been lacking of late among conservatives — hope.”
We need more than hope but hope is definitely a good move from all of this “Crisis-Crisis-Crisis-Catastrophe-Crisis!” blather. I’ve had it up to HERE with all of the Zero’s depressoid speak.
Han, if the government goes spending itself into default to provide ‘free’ insurance to everyone the next generation won’t ever be able to work hard enough to make enough money to pay the taxes which support it.
High taxes make it even harder for working people to survive on what little they make.
High taxes take away the money from businesses and individuals to both invest and hire people to do work.
What part of that equation do you not understand?
“Minnesota now will get a large chunk of cash for its schools…” and expectations for school funding at these levels will outlive the “stimulus bill” by many years.
What will Minnesota do then? Raise taxes, or ask the feds for more money?
What will the NEA response be if Minnesota doesn’t continue the “large chunk” funding?
And so it goes, a bit here and a bit there and over time, you’re screwed!
Just say no to the stimulus!
Han: poor people are covered by medicare and medicare, not to mention emergency rooms, where they must be treated by lay for emergencies
Government is pleying for about half of the health care system now. That is why it costs so much.
Sound like you need to check it out yourself. A little pinch of lithium might do the trick.
BTW, Hillary’s “47 million uninsured” has been completely debunked, you know. just more Left wing lies.
The education funding is not about instruction or achievement. it changes light bults, furnaces, windows, commmputers etc to save energy. In other words, it pays back contributors while students remain illiterate. That’s the 21st century classroom. It is chilling how these people treat people. They are just means to their ends, mostly just spenders. I would be a lot more intersted in an emphasis on developing human capital.
Han is probably the type of guy who complains that Wall Street is short-sighted, too.
MS. Rubin; How can one become hpoeful,when the hopeless, hapless,lamebrain,frankenstein impersonator California governor,can continue to pose as a republican. THIRD PARTY NOW!
At least Steve Forbes gets it. Now we only need the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to get it. Refinancing mortgages is not gonna do the trick though. A one time tax deduction or tax credit of 80% of all loan interest in adjustable rate loans and tax deduction/credit for 80% of losses on fixed rate loan bonds 2007/2008. That is the only cure that will place the syringe right in the center of the cancer. Finance it with Treasury bonds (the Oil barons need a place to put the money they made in 2007 and 2008). It’s a widespread misconception that the problem only lies with sub prime mortgages. It’s everybody who has an adjustable rate loan in anything or owns bonds. Sub prime is just the visible tip of the iceberg.
Schwarzenegger is P-whipped, by a Democrat, no less. He’s a RINO. Arnold’s as clueless as Obama.
Jennifer: As someone who loves this country and thanks God every morning for being born here, let me make this prediction: If our arrogant President Obama doesn’t get his shit together real soon, John Boehner will be the Majority leader of the House of Representatives after the mid-term elections in 2010, and Nancy Pelosi, if she hasn’t been mummified in the interim, will be the Minority leader.
Forbes was firing on all cylinders right up to the point he suggested that government, which the dems are fashioning as the “spender of last resort” instead become the “greater fool of last resort” in aggressively buying bad MBS’s and SIV.
The solution logically involves less of what came before, not more.
The right better pull their collective heads out of their a**es, backslapping at the good ‘ol boys club won’t get it done.
Han: Firstly, learn how to type. Secondly, What’s the point of spending huge amounts of money, more money then most people will ever see much less have, on saving people now if we sacrifice future generations of Americans? Emergency rooms are required to give care to those that come in their doors. The USA has better care for the unemployed and uninsured then most third-world countries have for their insured and employed. It has been proven time and again that government intervention in times of economic downturns only lead to an extended period of economic depression. What the Obama administration is doing will not only extend the recession but cause long lasting effects that will irrevocably change American life. I for one do not want this to happen.
I’m glad to see Forbes acknowledge how the Fed messed up.
The best means to achieving the end of a stable and growing economy will continue to be debated, but we really need to learn from such obvious mistakes.
The Republican Party must look critically at what was accomplished from 2001-2009, and consider carefully how to escape from the corner they are painted into.
Forbes has started this process by acknowledging that it was a failure on the part of government and the Fed, under GOP leadership, that built the economy we now face.
History will be more kind to those who recognize the errors of the past than to those who repeat them.
Peace.
DS
Chris, you’re trying to use logic on an hysterical ninny Obamabot. Ever read Don Quixote? Obamabots, like windmills, are inert – tilting at them will only give you a headache.
Han: Your an idiot, enough said. You see, we have a thing called the Constitution. It is not a living document but a contract written between the government and the people. There is nothing in there giving the Federal government power to do what it is doing.
But if Obama/Pelosi can push through amnesty and create another 12m Democrat voters than the GOP is toast.
It all depends… If Obama pushes through cap-and-trade, everyone’s electric bills will skyrocket. A DOE study said that the cost of coal for power plants would go up by between 161% and 413%. You think it was bad when gasoline prices doubled? Try having electricity bills double, triple or quadruple when the coal many power plants use is punitively taxed. Once people figure out that “saving the planet” means electric bills as high as their house payment or rent, and they figure out that it’s Obama and the Democrats’ fault, and once old people on fixed incomes start dying because they can’t afford to pay their electric bills, then Democrats won’t even be able to be elected dogcatcher.
The Republican power structure *still* doesn’t get it – Reagan was and is *still* right: Government isn’t the solution, it is the problem.
#2 Han – I willl put macroecoonomics into terms you can understand. No matter how tough things get, I raid neither my kids’ college funds nor their piggy-banks. We don’t steal from our kids’ futures to ensure our own well-being now. Actually, the reverse is true. We sacrifice our well-being now to ensure our kids’ futures. People nowadays seem to have lost sight of this principle.
Our new president didn’t have a clue as a community organizer, why would we expect he would know what to do as president. To have his people work in groups for three to four hours and think they would come up with the answers to help our economy in a half a day is too unbelievable. Maybe we must bring individuals into court and sue for taxation without representation!!!
As usual, David S. Hollow observations calculated to make you appear smart. No solutions offered. Your posts are reflexively anti-GOP and add nothing of substance.
What “such obvious mistakes” were made? How did “failure on the part of government… built [sic] the economy we now face”?
Ditch whatever you read in the New Yorker or Salon. Come up with an original thought, that’s what many folks on here actually do.
Want mine? Here it is: this economy went bad based on unfettered rent-seeking by everybody, borne of the elevated standard of living provided by those who went before us. People got comfortable enough to get lazy. Now if you’re well-read you realize what I’m saying is that these folks have been seeking to make money without actually contributing anything of value through their labor (even 8 hours worth of manual labor) and therefore represent the inefficient allocation of capital. These folks are people, not Democrats or Republicans. They are both (and one more than the other in my opinion). Too many people wanted to elevate their standard of living without working hard or producing anything — witness running up their credit cards, signing mortgages they cannot afford or don’t intend to pay (recklessly hoping they will produce income), buying cars they can’t afford. Corporate execs who meet revenue targets on flimsy accounting and without real value creation. People who invest their 401(k) in a single company stock. All of this is the same, you can’t single it out. It’s all related to everyone being greedy. But, the people who work hard are not responsible. The people who do not work hard are in fact responsible. Our neighbors making bad financial decisions have created an unstable cottage industry of employment for support of their bad financial decisions, and it’s finally starting to crumble, sparked by commodity speculation but caused by something far more sinister. Sheer laziness.
What I have just said is not political. But what I’m about to say is: one party wants to have one group bail out the other. Another party rightly recognizes that will do more harm than good.
But you know what? You don’t hear me blaming the Clinton administration for pushing banks to make bad loans non-credit-worthy borrowers. Want to know why? Because they still made them, and because it’s the laziness of these non-credit-worthy borrowers that is the ultimate problem in the first place. Of course a Democrat will try social engineering — but they didn’t invent the reason for it.
Say what you will about my argument. At least it’s original and at least I made one without trying to blame a party I hold to be incompetent.