“52. David:
I believe Obama’s heart is in the right place on trying to do what he can, but the actual impact of his help is hurting America by prolonging the pain.”
No doubt your reservations are genuine, but I believe that if he did what his detractors want him to do, that too will prolong the pain.
Terry,
“A civic duty for the ‘greater good,’ Herb?”
No, a civic duty for your own good. We live in an interconnected world, a global marketplace from which you cannot extricate yourself. When the government starts taking your property and your money, then you can complain about “socialism.” If they’re just raising your taxes…vote harder next time.
therealist,
“your Uncle Sam is a not-so-silent partner that contributes no capital” Capital, no. Infrastructure, legal protection, and the very backing of your currency, yes. Don’t be naive.
55. Paul:
“Bush’s tax cuts weren’t permanent because Congress wouldn’t make them permanent. The President would much rather have made them so.” So what? Scott Norwood really wanted to kick that field goal in Superbowl 25 –I mean, he really wanted it– but he still missed wide right. In the real world, failure isn’t absolved by wishing you had succeeded.
As to this: “Clinton and Reno forced banks to write mortgages to people otherwise unqualified….” Yeah, I know. I’ve heard that one before.
The CRA of 77 was used by Clinton and Reno to ruin the lending industry, etc, etc. There’s a couple problems with that though. The Democrats, conveniently, are the bad guys. They wrote CRA. They supported it.
And yet, somehow it survived Reagan. It survived Bush. Both of ‘em.
It wasn’t a factor in the recessions of 1980-1982, or 1990-1991, or 2001…but somehow it caused the one we’re in now, in 2009, when (conveniently) another Democrat is in charge.
And let’s say it forced banks to make risky loans they didn’t want to, they sure embraced it all those years, didn’t they? They came up with all kinds of interesting loans, a whole menu of stuff they didn’t want to sell. ARMs, interest-only mortgages, reverse mortgages, all kinds of financial instruments they didn’t want to make money off of.
So yeah, I guess CRA really did cause the recession…or maybe not. Whatever it was, I know it was a Democrat!
Get real, man.
