Sen. John McCain: I was misled on bailout

[jamesrage]

What next, he is against illegal immigration or something else?


Sen. John McCain: I was misled on bailout

Under growing pressure from conservatives and "tea party" activists, Sen. John McCain of Arizona is having to defend his record of supporting the government's massive bailout of the financial system.

In response to criticism from opponents seeking to defeat him in the Aug. 24 Republican primary, the four-term senator says he was misled by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. McCain said the pair assured him that the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program would focus on what was seen as the cause of the financial crisis, the housing meltdown.

"Obviously, that didn't happen," McCain said in a meeting Thursday with The Republic's Editorial Board, recounting his decision-making during the critical initial days of the fiscal crisis. "They decided to stabilize the Wall Street institutions, bail out (insurance giant) AIG, bail out Chrysler, bail out General Motors. . . . What they figured was that if they stabilized Wall Street - I guess it was trickle-down economics - that therefore Main Street would be fine."

Nearly 15 months later, commercial lenders still are in shaky condition and the commercial real-estate industry is in trouble, he said. On Friday, President Barack Obama announced $1.5 billion in funding for new measures to help Arizona and four other states hit hard by the tanked housing market and by joblessness.

But McCain stopped short of calling the TARP a mistake.

"Something had to be done because the world's financial system was on the verge of collapse," he said. "Any economist, liberal or conservative, would agree with that. The action they took, I don't agree with."

Republican Senate primary challenger J.D. Hayworth is using the TARP vote as a bludgeon against McCain's reputation as a fiscal hawk. Tea partyers point to it as the start of a new explosion of federal spending that has continued into the Obama administration.

 

[jujuman13]

Obviously he did not realize that Politicians make promises (in order to get votes) that they have no intention of keeping having been elected or of having their favored piece of legislation passed.

For this reason it would be sensible to boot this guy from office, he is obviously suffering from onset Alzheimer disease.

 

[Councilman]

Any time a politician can make the claim that he was misled about a piece of legislation he didn't do his do diligence and use his own judgment after reading the Bill.

This same claim will run rampant if the phony Health Bill passes as legislators scramble to justify voting for yet another bill they failed to read and understand.

McCains time is past and he's not a Conservative and it's time for him to retire;.

 

[American]

I'm sorry but I don't buy this bull****.

 

[Deuce]

Enjoy your retirement, Mr. "I'll sponsor the so-called Internet Freedom Act despite not knowing how to use a computer."

 

[pro-bipartisan]

What next, he is against illegal immigration or something else?


Sen. John McCain: I was misled on bailout

Under growing pressure from conservatives and "tea party" activists, Sen. John McCain of Arizona is having to defend his record of supporting the government's massive bailout of the financial system.

In response to criticism from opponents seeking to defeat him in the Aug. 24 Republican primary, the four-term senator says he was misled by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. McCain said the pair assured him that the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program would focus on what was seen as the cause of the financial crisis, the housing meltdown.

"Obviously, that didn't happen," McCain said in a meeting Thursday with The Republic's Editorial Board, recounting his decision-making during the critical initial days of the fiscal crisis. "They decided to stabilize the Wall Street institutions, bail out (insurance giant) AIG, bail out Chrysler, bail out General Motors. . . . What they figured was that if they stabilized Wall Street - I guess it was trickle-down economics - that therefore Main Street would be fine."

Nearly 15 months later, commercial lenders still are in shaky condition and the commercial real-estate industry is in trouble, he said. On Friday, President Barack Obama announced $1.5 billion in funding for new measures to help Arizona and four other states hit hard by the tanked housing market and by joblessness.

But McCain stopped short of calling the TARP a mistake.

"Something had to be done because the world's financial system was on the verge of collapse," he said. "Any economist, liberal or conservative, would agree with that. The action they took, I don't agree with."

Republican Senate primary challenger J.D. Hayworth is using the TARP vote as a bludgeon against McCain's reputation as a fiscal hawk. Tea partyers point to it as the start of a new explosion of federal spending that has continued into the Obama administration.

Couldn't he have just read the bill?

 

[Deuce]

Couldn't he have just read the bill?

Senator Grassley: "I didn't read the bill, I don't need to read the bill, I'll vote against it anyway."

(or something to that effect, re: healthcare)

 

[phattonez]

Politicians are all snakes anyway. Who cares?

 

[winston53660]

Politicians are all snakes anyway. Who cares?

Why do you insult snakes like that?

 

[justabubba]

09/15/08 mccain quote:

"the fundamentals of the economy are strong"

 

[Iron Yank]

With pressure from JD Hayworth & an election down the road John Mcain will say whatever he needs to get re-elected. Then when (if) he does he will go back to doing what ever the hell he wants, whether his constituancy approves or not. This guy is a fraud and despite his service to his country (which was admirable) he needs to be shown the door by the good voters of Arizona.

 

[Clark Griswold]

According to Henry Paulson's book, John McCain was pretty much clueless during the whole fiasco.

 

[American]

09/15/08 mccain quote:

But.....but I thought we had a stimulus package and 2,000,000 jobs, and housing is down and Toyota is in trouble, and Government Motors is in trouble.......uh never mind.

 

[Deuce]

But.....but I thought we had a stimulus package and 2,000,000 jobs, and housing is down and Toyota is in trouble, and Government Motors is in trouble.......uh never mind.

At the time it served his political purposes to say that. He was running for election and trying to deflect blame that was being directed at the GOP for the economic decline. People were thinking "Hey, that dang Bush and his GOP buddies got us into this, we need something different to get us out!"

So suddenly McCain started telling people that everything was fine, and that he was a "maverick" despite previous bragging about voting with Bush 98% of the time.

This sort of thing is so typical you could probably find twenty instances of almost exactly the same thing in either party.

 

[justabubba]

At the time it served his political purposes to say that. He was running for election and trying to deflect blame that was being directed at the GOP for the economic decline. People were thinking "Hey, that dang Bush and his GOP buddies got us into this, we need something different to get us out!"

So suddenly McCain started telling people that everything was fine, and that he was a "maverick" despite previous bragging about voting with Bush 98% of the time.

This sort of thing is so typical you could probably find twenty instances of almost exactly the same thing in either party.

what mccain's position, "the fundamentals of the economy are strong", does illustrate is that he had no grasp of the looming economic crisis. so when he now tells us he was misled, is this not just mccain's attempt to deflect our attention from the fact that he possesses a limited intellect

 

[Kushinator]

But.....but I thought we had a stimulus package and 2,000,000 jobs, and housing is down and Toyota is in trouble, and Government Motors is in trouble.......uh never mind.

The fiscal stimulus was just psychological eye candy. The real economic stimulus came in the form of quantitative easing. Without it (and the burst from TARP) there would have been a collapsed financial system.

Now come 2011 when the Fed withdraws all that liquidity, you will be very happy about the presence of $500 billion of government spending. Too bad so much of it was based on tax breaks :shrug:

 

[phattonez]

The fiscal stimulus was just psychological eye candy. The real economic stimulus came in the form of quantitative easing. Without it (and the burst from TARP) there would have been a collapsed financial system.

Really? You always point out the fact that people want to save so we need inflation to stop that. How is it that the financial system would have collapsed? Would a lot of companies gone under? Yes, and I say good. Some banks would have stuck around, and they would have gotten all the savings. Just get rid of FDIC and people would take care to research where they are saving their money.

Now come 2011 when the Fed withdraws all that liquidity, you will be very happy about the presence of $500 billion of government spending. Too bad so much of it was based on tax breaks :shrug:

Oh yeah, I'll be so glad that money will be wasted via government spending on things that I don't want. That's the way to have an economy responsive to your needs.

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

Really? You always point out the fact that people want to save so we need inflation to stop that. How is it that the financial system would have collapsed? Would a lot of companies gone under? Yes, and I say good. Some banks would have stuck around, and they would have gotten all the savings. Just get rid of FDIC and people would take care to research where they are saving their money.



Oh yeah, I'll be so glad that money will be wasted via government spending on things that I don't want. That's the way to have an economy responsive to your needs.

Just like people researched where they put their money before the great depression?

Not going to happen and it didnt happen before. A normal person does not have the ability to go through a books loan records to see how risky that institution is

The FDIC was created to add stability to the US banking system. Ie prevent runs on banks during an economic crisis. People in a panic would line up take out their funds from the bank, which while otherwise healthy now has to call its loans back, in order to refund depositors.

Overall the FDIC is a fantastic program, one that has ensured the US economy does not have wide swings to the downside. Just imagine what would have happened to most banks in 2008 if most people thought they could lose their life saving if the bank went broke. (they would pull their savings asap from most banks

 

[phattonez]

Just like people researched where they put their money before the great depression?

With inflation so persistent in the 1920s, people who wanted to save money were screwed no matter what they did.

Not going to happen and it didnt happen before. A normal person does not have the ability to go through a books loan records to see how risky that institution is

That's fine, you don't have to. The companies that don't secure that money eventually will fail via bank runs and those that do secure that money will survive. The bad will be weeded out.

The FDIC was created to add stability to the US banking system. Ie prevent runs on banks during an economic crisis. People in a panic would line up take out their funds from the bank, which while otherwise healthy now has to call its loans back, in order to refund depositors.

Yeah, it also created a moral hazard so that banks get involved in bad business practice because they don't have to be safe with the money as they previously had been.

Overall the FDIC is a fantastic program, one that has ensured the US economy does not have wide swings to the downside. Just imagine what would have happened to most banks in 2008 if most people thought they could lose their life saving if the bank went broke. (they would pull their savings asap from most banks

People would start saving money in banks that had a high reserve ration. Except that with inflation how it is, saving money is worthless.

 

[justabubba]

With inflation so persistent in the 1920s, people who wanted to save money were screwed no matter what they did. ...

massive inflation in the 1920's you say
let's take a look
wrong again. in fact -10.5% in 1921 was the lowest rate of inflation in the 20th century

 

[phattonez]

massive inflation in the 1920's you say
let's take a look
wrong again. in fact -10.5% in 1921 was the lowest rate of inflation in the 20th century

Actually, it's you who are wrong again. CPI is not an accurate measure of inflation. Inflation is (as I've used the term many times on this board before) a general increase in the money supply. Look at how the money supply increased during the 1920s.

 

[justabubba]

Actually, it's you who are wrong again. CPI is not an accurate measure of inflation. Inflation is (as I've used the term many times on this board before) a general increase in the money supply. Look at how the money supply increased during the 1920s.

nope
you should have said the money supply in the 1920's was such that it caused people to spend rather than save (that too, would have been wrong, but at least it would then correlate with the bogus position you have since backed into immediately above)
but that was not what you said
here is what you said:

With inflation so persistent in the 1920s, people who wanted to save money were screwed no matter what they did.

[emphasis added by bubba to show it does NOT read "money supply"]
and i have offered you the inflation rates for the period 1914 until 2005 - which proves your weak assed argument to be both inarticulate and very wrong

 

[VanceMack]

What next, he is against illegal immigration or something else?


Sen. John McCain: I was misled on bailout

Under growing pressure from conservatives and "tea party" activists, Sen. John McCain of Arizona is having to defend his record of supporting the government's massive bailout of the financial system.

In response to criticism from opponents seeking to defeat him in the Aug. 24 Republican primary, the four-term senator says he was misled by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. McCain said the pair assured him that the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program would focus on what was seen as the cause of the financial crisis, the housing meltdown.

"Obviously, that didn't happen," McCain said in a meeting Thursday with The Republic's Editorial Board, recounting his decision-making during the critical initial days of the fiscal crisis. "They decided to stabilize the Wall Street institutions, bail out (insurance giant) AIG, bail out Chrysler, bail out General Motors. . . . What they figured was that if they stabilized Wall Street - I guess it was trickle-down economics - that therefore Main Street would be fine."

Nearly 15 months later, commercial lenders still are in shaky condition and the commercial real-estate industry is in trouble, he said. On Friday, President Barack Obama announced $1.5 billion in funding for new measures to help Arizona and four other states hit hard by the tanked housing market and by joblessness.

But McCain stopped short of calling the TARP a mistake.

"Something had to be done because the world's financial system was on the verge of collapse," he said. "Any economist, liberal or conservative, would agree with that. The action they took, I don't agree with."

Republican Senate primary challenger J.D. Hayworth is using the TARP vote as a bludgeon against McCain's reputation as a fiscal hawk. Tea partyers point to it as the start of a new explosion of federal spending that has continued into the Obama administration.

I am so disgusted by these politicians and all their claims that they were mislead, they didnt know, no one told them. Thats their JOB to know before they vote. If you made a decision...man up and own it. If you were wrong, take your lumps like an adult.

 

[texmaster]

Any time a politician can make the claim that he was misled about a piece of legislation he didn't do his do diligence and use his own judgment after reading the Bill.

This same claim will run rampant if the phony Health Bill passes as legislators scramble to justify voting for yet another bill they failed to read and understand.

McCains time is past and he's not a Conservative and it's time for him to retire;.

He needs to resign if he is sucker enough to be "misled"

 

[phattonez]

nope
you should have said the money supply in the 1920's was such that it caused people to spend rather than save (that too, would have been wrong, but at least it would then correlate with the bogus position you have since backed into immediately above)
but that was not what you said
here is what you said:
[emphasis added by bubba to show it does NOT read "money supply"]
and i have offered you the inflation rates for the period 1914 until 2005 - which proves your weak assed argument to be both inarticulate and very wrong

When I mention inflation on this board I mean money supply. Ask people I've debated with on this board before. So no, that graph doesn't prove me wrong.