Democrats and their special interests: A relevant argument

Here in liberal Minnesota, we're bombarded with an endless string of Norm Coleman and Stuart Smalley, er, Al Franken attacks ads, especially the ones whereby Smalley, er, Franken castigates Coleman for accepting money for "big oil."

Yawn. Big deal.

Here's one thing you have to love about Democrats. They know how to push our buttons. Because of the global warming lie and the subsequent mistruth that 1.) the resultant gasoline is polluting our skies and causing global warming; 2.) big oil is engaging in price gouging and raking in "record profits."

What they hope is that mass public will simply their insane notions at face-value, without engaging in any exculpatory investigation. If the public would peruse the sites of anything BUT the Mainstream Media (including ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post), they might realize that a good deal of contrarian information exists.

For example, according to John Hawkins, did you know that for every $1 spent by "Big Oil," they recoup $.08?

Unsurprisingly, given the outrageously high cost of gas and the Left's penchant for pointing the fickle finger of blame at big corporations, we've heard a lot about how big oil is gouging consumers.

However, when you take a look at the actual numbers in California, for example, you find that the "Distribution Costs, Marketing Costs and Profits" for the oil companies make up only 8 cents per gallon of gas.

That doesn't sound like gouging, does it? But if you believe it does, what would you say about the 70 cents per gallon in taxes that's paid by California consumers? Additionally, as Karl Rove has pointed out,

(Oil companies) make about 8.3 cents in gross profit per dollar of sales....Electronics make 14.5 cents per dollar and computer equipment makers take in 13.7 cents per dollar, according to the Census Bureau. Microsoft's margin is 27.5 cents per dollar of sales.

Sure, these oil companies are huge and therefore, even an 8.3% profit adds up to billions of dollars, but when you look at the relatively small percentage that they're putting in their pockets as compared to the humongous share that the government is raking in, it's pretty clear that it's the government, not the oil companies, that is gouging consumers.

Of course Democrats don't want you to know that. Instead they'd rather throw a number in your face, for example $1 billion in profits; well, 1.) "Big Oil" is arguably the biggest industry in the world; 2.) those "billions in profits" are going towards Average Joe's 401k or pension, it's not merely going to Texas Tycoon.

Now we're hearing that Republican-enabled greed fueled the potential economic calamity, greed perpetuated by Wall Street during the Bush Adminstration.

Here we go again.

Much has been written about the Carter and Clinton Administrations' efforts to put minorities into homes (see: Community Reinvestment Act of 1977). What it did essentially was force mortgage lenders to overlook shady credit histories and low incomes in order to make minorities homeowners. In fact, it was "community activists" such as Barry Obama, in efforts to "assuage" banks, threatened to label those who financial institutions who adhered to strict lending standards, RACIST.

Furthermore, under the "special interests" banner, note the following from Townhall's Terry Paulson:

What was our champion of change and hope doing about the problem? Nothing! Records from the Federal Election Commission reveal a possible reason for Obama’s silence. In his three complete years in the Senate, he’s the second largest recipient of Freddie-and--Fannie-connected campaign contributions. It took Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate banking committee, eleven years to receive $165,400 in contributions from GSE PACs and individuals. Obama received $126,349 in just three years.

And now these same hypocritical sons of bitches are pinning the cost of this damn $700 billion bailout on homeowners who bought homes the RIGHT way: through hard work, saving money, sensibility, and good faith.

The Economy and the Subprime Mess: "Root of our calamity"

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer stated it appropriately when discussing just how the subprime housing mess contributed the current financial CRISIS.

"For decades, starting with Jimmy Carter's Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, there has been bipartisan agreement to use government power to expand homeownership to people who had been shut out for economic reasons or, sometimes, because of racial and ethnic discrimination. What could be a more worthy cause? But it led to tremendous pressure on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- who in turn pressured banks and other lenders -- to extend mortgages to people who were borrowing over their heads. That's called subprime lending. It lies at the root of our current calamity."

Naturally, the Left is blaming the greed of Wall Street. Of course, they played a part; therein lies the problem with Capitalism. But the roots of the housing mess were took hold decades ago, under Democratic leadership and emboldened by Leftist community groups. I made the point yesterday, the Democrats and the Left played as much of a role, IF NOT MORE, than anyone else.

Of course the Democrats are blaming this ENTIRE problem on Wall Street and predatory lenders. What an insane notion. Check out Michelle Malkin's article on the Left Wing Mortgage Counseling Racket. A plethora of mortgage counseling exists and DID exist when the subprime bullshit was going down.

Conservatives in the Senate (the few of them that are left) seem to have just rolled over and accepted at face value the liberal premise that the subprime mess was primarily created by a lack of education–as opposed to high-risk borrowers and lenders consciously making bad decisions and expecting now to be insulated from the consequences of their actions. From the way Harry Reid and company talk about the $100 million mortgage counseling provision, you would think helpless, hapless, vulnerable borrowers are being left adrift with no one to turn to for information.

Furthermore, Malkin adds the following:

As I’ve pointed out several times over the past year, mortgage counseling is a thriving racket that benefits far Left groups ranging from the AARP to ACORN to La Raza and Legal Aid. The Department of Housing and Urban Development funds hundreds, if not thousands, of these groups across the country. In October, HUD announced more than $44 million in new housing counseling grants to over 400 state and local efforts. The White House has increased funding for housing counseling by 150 percent since taking office in 2001.

And now we're on the verge of passing an extremely unpopular $700 billion bailout measure; thanks to unholy alliance with these same Democrats who created this mess and a misguided President George Bush. What does this do? Essentially it serves a dual purpose: 1.) it absolves a g-damn greedy Wall Street that acted in a reckless behavior, but 2.) it also erases culpability on the homeowner's end; they bought houses they couldn't afford with shady credit histories. Furthermore, it exonerates the Democrats who set in motion the events that created this travesty.

It's shameful. The Democrats are destroying this country. In addition to this subprime mess, which is somehow pawned off onto Republicans, their devotion to this ungodly Global Warming will bankrupt this country if allowed to continue unfettered. Couple that with their adherence to a dogma that kills babies, protects death row inmates, figurately and literally spits in the face of our military, while ramming progressive values down our throat and stifling free speech, thought, and religion, and we have a recipe for disaster.

And now, we the taxpayers, are paying for everyone else's indiscretions. Query a homeowner, a REAL homeowner; someone who saved for a down payment, pays their mortgage every month faithfully, and who did NOT buy a house that superceded their budget.

These people are demoralized. They did things the right way. Read Michelle Malkin's latest article; it sums up the situation perfectly.

Liberal Lies: The Housing Crisis

In this installment of "Liberal Lies," the Twin Cities Conservative examines the notion that the housing crisis was resultant of Wall Street, poor decisions from the Republicans, and was set in motion during the Bush Administration.

EHHHHH (buzzer sound)...wrong answer.

Now we're hearing, from self-righteous SOB's like Senator Chris Dodd (D-CO), that the housing crisis was preventable and occurred under President George Bush's watch.

EHHHHH (buzzer sound)...wrong answer

Syndicated Cal Thomas, in his article in today's online Townhall.com, states, "It was pressure from the Carter and Clinton administrations that forced Fannie and Freddie to grant more high-risk loans to people who otherwise would never qualify."

Furthermore, Thomas adds:

"Democrats would love to blame the Bush administration for a disaster they mostly helped to create. But, according to the White House, as early as April 2001, the administration warned that the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was 'a potential problem," because 'financial trouble of a large (government-sponsored enterprise) could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting federally insured entities and economic activity.' As recently as June of this year, President Bush asked Congress to take the necessary measures to address growing foreclosures. 'We need to pass legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,' he said. In July, Congress passed reform legislation, but it was too late."

Further compounding the problem is Democratic presidential candidate Barry Soetoro/Dunham/Obama and his colleagues in the United States' role in helping create the subprime mess. It was Obama's role as a lawyer within the "left-of-center" Public Research Interest Group, which ultimately forced banks to provide loans to minorities under the threat of racism.

Ultimately, it was Obama and a Democratic Congress that created laws and regulations, which planted the seeds of the subprime housing industry. Columnist Jerry Bowyer states:

"Obama spent his pre-elected career working right in the middle of the complex of law firms and activist groups which use law and regulations to push banks into vastly increasing their lending to Subprime borrowers right in the middle of the golden age of the expansion of the Subprime industry. "

Finally, there was the role of community organizations and civil rights law firms that, according to columnist Bowyer, threatened to cry "racism" if banks did not lend to minorities:

"(T)here simply was no such thing as a developed Subprime mortgage industry until the US congress created it by ordering banks to issue loans to people who were not credit worthy. Community activist groups (such as the Public Interest Research Group and Acorn) and civil rights law firms (such as Miner, Barnhill & Galland) had make their living by accusing banks of racism when the banks hesitated to approve loan requests from minority citizens with poor credit scores.

These "champions of minority rights" worked diligently to pass the Community Reinvestment Act, a law which forces banks to provide home loans to minority neighborhoods, regardless of their credit history, risk factor, neighborhood location, crime, etc. Bowyer states the following:

"The Community Reinvestment Act was created as a result. Initially the act was used, not to get banks to lend to minority households, but to get them to cut checks to ‘community groups’. Left of center activist agencies, which had pushed for the act in the first place, used it as a shakedown tool. So long as the banks kept paying off to the activists, the activists would hold off on sending complaints to the bank regulators’ CRA files.

Eventually, under Clinton, the CRA was renewed and, not surprisingly, made more punitive. Banks were required to make Subprime mortgage loans now too, or else suffer a low CRA rating and be punished accordingly. The Fed played it’s part. The Home Mortgage Disclosure rules created an unfunded mandate for banks to track and publicly disclose the race and gender of it’s mortgage clients. Now the shakedown artists had an easy source of complaints and a club with which to beat the banks into submission. The bankers complied and the Subprime mortgagage market was born."

And now guess who gets to suffer? The taxpayers, as a mis-guided Bush Administration, and a completely "off-it's-rocker" Democratically-controlled Congress are looking to pass a $700 billion bailout bill that rewards Wall Street, banks, and CEO's for bad behavior, while eliminating culpability from Leftist community groups and elected officials, which essentially lobbied for regulations that created the subprime mess.