Treasury
Oliver Stone w/ Bill Maher "Bush Would Have Died in Vietnam"
Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Citi, Credit Default Swaps, Credit markets, Dana Bould, David Walker, Deregulation, Dow Jones, Election 2008, Federal Reserve, G.W. Bush, Hedge Funds, Henry Paulson, John McCain, Keating 5, Lehman, LIBOR, Maxine Waters, Mortgage Crisis, Oliver Stone, Politics, Realtime, Short Selling, Steven Moore, Treasury, Tullycast, Video, Wachovia, Wall Street bailoutThe Right-Wing AM Radio Universe Cries: "Socialism" Over Wall Street Bailout
StoriesUS talk radio holds firm over ‘socialist’ bailout
ATLANTA, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Opposing the White House’s Wall Street bailout and letting stocks take a beating was a worthwhile price to pay to keep a “socialist bill” from meddling in the free market, conservative U.S. talk radio said on Tuesday.
Many of the influential hosts strongly oppose the rescue plan proposed last week by U.S. President George W. Bush, once a talk-radio favorite, as inappropriate government intervention in the free market likely to make the situation worse, not better.
Congress will live to regret it if the $700 billion bill were passed hastily, they said, urging lawmakers to spend more time on a search for a solution that adheres to conservative ideals.
“I shouldn’t say this, but I’m going to say it anyway. Screw the market! …. OK, I’ll take that back, not screw the market but let me tell you something,” conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh said as part of his analysis of Monday’s events.
“When the government fails to pass a socialism bill and the market goes south, let it go south. I don’t want to pass a socialism bill just to protect the stock market,” said Limbaugh, by far the most popular host on U.S. radio.
“This raw deal would make things worse,” he said on Tuesday.
U.S. lawmakers in the House of Representatives rejected the bailout package on Monday after most of House Democrats supported it, but a majority of House Republicans opposed it.
The surprise failure sent the market into a record tailspin and prompted a flood of bickering and fingerpointing from both parties.
Stocks recovered somewhat on Tuesday and Congress will have a chance to vote again or change the bill when it reconvenes on Thursday.
While conservatives said they recognized the seriousness of the market’s fall, they would hold fast to their principles that on the economy include low taxes, small government and fiscal responsibility.
‘NOT PARTICULARLY DISTRESSED’
“I’m not particularly distressed that the bailout bill did not pass. I want to see this thing (the bill) flesh itself out a little over a period of days,” said talk show host Neal Boortz, who describes himself as a libertarian.
Hoping to win more support for the rescue plan, Bush said on Tuesday the U.S. economy was depending on decisive action or the economic damage could be “painful and lasting.”
But part of the problem for some conservatives was a lack of confidence in a president they once saw as a champion of their cause for his commitment to tax cuts and his firm response to the Sept. 11 attacks.
They blame the Democrats for the home mortgage crisis at the root of the problem, saying liberals put pressure on mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make housing loans to people who could not afford to repay them.
“I don’t trust you (Bush) and when you start screaming now of dire consequences if we don’t get a bailout bill, I don’t trust you. I need convincing and apparently there are a lot of members of Congress who feel the same way,” Boortz said, in a view echoed by several of his listeners.
Some callers to the shows said they did not appreciate what they saw as scare tactics used by Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
“It almost sounds like they are demagoguing and preaching that the sky is falling, which makes me skeptical,” one said.
Tens of millions of conservatives tune in to AM talk radio and trust its nationally syndicated hosts more than media outlets they say have a liberal bias.
Several of the hosts say they are engaged in a long struggle to persuade the Republican Party and the country to return to its conservative roots and they see the bailout bill as an important test of their strength. (Editing by Patricia Zengerle)
700 Billion? "We Just Wanted to Choose a Really Large Number"
Stories“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”
Bad News For The Bailout
FORBES DOT COM 09.23.08, 6:39 PM ET
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill seem determined to work together to pass a bill that will get the credit markets churning again. But will they do it this week, as some had hoped just a few days ago? Don’t count on it.
“Do I expect to pass something this week?” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., mused to reporters Tuesday. “I expect to pass something as soon as we can. I think it’s important that we get it done right, not get it done fast.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, says his office has gotten “close to zero” calls in support of the $700 billion plan proposed by the administration. He doubts it’ll happen immediately either. “I don’t think it has to be a week” he says. “If we do it right, then we need to take as long as it needs.”
The more Congress examines the Bush administration’s bailout plan, the hazier its outcome gets. At a Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle complained of being rushed to pass legislation or else risk financial meltdown.
“The secretary and the administration need to know that what they have sent to us is not acceptable,” says Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn. The committee’s top Republican, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, says he’s concerned about its cost and whether it will even work.
In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.
“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”
Wow. If it wants to see a bailout bill passed soon, the administration’s going to have to come up with some hard answers to hard questions. Public support for it already seems to be waning. According to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Tuesday, 44% of those surveyed oppose the administration’s plan, up from 37% Monday.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who testified before the Senate committee Tuesday, will get a chance to fine tune their answers Wednesday afternoon, when they appear before the House Financial Services Committee.
A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., says she is optimistic that the House will pass a bill this week. But that doesn’t mean the Senate, which is by nature more sluggish than its larger counterpart on the other side of Capitol Hill, will be so quick to act.
“They will act first,” says Sen. Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “Many of our members today were just beginning to have interaction with Secretary Paulson.”
Dodd proposed his own counter-proposal to Paulson’s plan earlier this week. Among other things, it calls for limits on executive compensation at troubled firms and for the Treasury to take a contingent equity stake in those firms. On Tuesday, Paulson rebuffed both ideas, as it might discourage firms from participating in the bailout program.
Those things aside, lawmakers have plenty of other concerns with Treasury’s proposal. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., suggested the bailout be doled out perhaps $150 billion at a time, instead of $700 billion all at once. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., says it has an initial cost of $2,300 for every man, woman and child in the country. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., calls it a “financial socialism and it’s un-American.”
Dodd says that in speaking with his Senate colleagues, all are agreed on three issues: that a bailout bill include some oversight accountability for the Treasury, protection for taxpayers and that it address the continuing foreclosure problem.
He also points to one other concern: Paulson, the bill’s chief architect, is scheduled to leave office in just four months.
“I’m not about to give a $700 billion appropriation to a secretary I don’t know yet,” says Dodd.
–Senior writer Liz Moyer contributed to this article.
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The New York Herald Sun 