Political Insider reports:
The day before, Sunday, at a caucus of Georgia Democrats, [Jim] Marshall was adamant that he and other Democrats should support the [bailout] measure. "I am willing to give up my seat over this," he told his colleagues. It was that important, he thought, to the national economy and national security.
For those keeping score at home:
$700 billion bailout = Marshall willing to lose his seat
torture = eh, not so much
25 Responses to “Jim Marshall’s Line in the Sand”
Apples and Oranges.
Anyway, reading his other statements on this issue as well simply reinforce the reason why I am such a fan of Jim Marshall.
And I'm not even in support of the idea, yet, I completly respect and understand where he's coming from.
Here's a link to some more quotes from Marshall: http://www.ajc.com/...leven_of_13_georgia_congressm.html
I just wonder if Marshall knows he got pimped by Newt Gingrich.
There are many things to accuse Marshall of being (most of them rightly so) but dumb is not one of them.
Didn't say dumb, said pimped.. totally different.
How is it that 60% of the supposedly budget-conscious Blue Dog Caucus voted for this hundreds o'billions bill, while most of the supposedly budget-busting Progressive Caucus voted against it?
I am so confused.
Because the Progressive caucus didn't get the breaks like bankruptcy protection like they wanted?
Bad bills are bad bills.. pick your ideology and you can find something to hate in a bill that gives oodles of power and money to folks I wouldn't trust with a paper route.
It's really interesting that Wall Street is digesting this today and it's not caused a run on banks, grocery stores, duct tape, bottled water.
All I'm saying is no one makes good choice in a panic.
We didn't just wake up to this problem it's been building.
The meme about Main street being angry over this is twisted, it has more to do with the rising cost of food, gas and housing and NO change in salaries -provided you have a job.
It's pretty hard to relate to the numbers being thrown around at failed brokerage and banks when it seems like it's hard enought to plan out a month on main street.
Pardon my simple explanation but government has never worked well in the dark, and the taxpayers and voters are not taking you in DC for your word anymore cause many of us have been screwed without lube and are tired of it.
Garbage in equals garbage out.. go back to the drawing board kids.. come back when you have a bill that you can explain to me actually helps me, and my employer.. The bank can get theirs after..
Jules you had me at "government has never worked well"
"in the dark", grift! "in the dark"!
Hee
I supposed I should have quit while I was ahead.
"Apples and Oranges."
Um, yeah, it is. One is defending the Constitution and human rights, America as shining beacon in the world, and so on.
The other is cowering when the big scary Wall Street guy comes up and says "boo."
I know we all think that Macon is somehow considered important beyond a sixty mile radius of its city limits, but perhaps both the conservatives and the liberals on this one saw that the mess took a few months to create, and it may be worth a couple of weeks to figure out properly.
Yeah, something will have to be done. We're still in the process of haggling out just what.
The American people made themselves heard - no $700B blank check for Wall Street. No golden parachutes, and they themselves want some help.
Congress now has some basic parameters - the question is just what they will do with them. This is where we see just how well (and it may not be that well) modern democracy works, however messy it is.
Also to Paula's equation, I add healthcare for kids.
Got this in my email last week, just found it, don't know who wrote it, so can't credit it:
Dear American:
I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.
I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you many know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation mevement in the 1990's. This transaction is 100% safe.
This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be trasferred.
Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to
wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.
Yours faithfully,
Minister of Treasury Paulson
Almost every representative in a close race voted against it. No matter their stripe.
Tom Price and John Lewis are hardly in close races and they dissed it.
I did not say that almost every representative who voted against it was in a close race. I said that "almost every representative [who] is in a close race voted against it."
Do you want to hear my opinion?
My letter to John Lewis:
Greetings Congressman Lewis,
Thank you for all you do and representing us so well.
I would like to add my 2 cents for what I would like to see for this economic crisis.
If the basic problem is that financial institutions have too many mortgages that are (and will be) defaulting, then they should be willing to practically GIVE them away. As a small business owner, I know I would like to give away MY debt. So the government should be able to acquire these mortgages for practically nothing. If those companies have borrowed heavily using those mortgages as assets/collateral, that might be too bad for them. Then we hire 10,000 (or however many we need) mortgage writers to re-write those mortgages with more favorable terms for the homeowner. Doesn't matter if it's 1% or 2% interest, as long as we don't lose money if they don't default. Those homeowners get a lucky break; they get a much better chance of keeping their home, but the mortgage company also has unloaded a bunch of potential debt, and the government might even get to make some money. (I don't understand why the mortgage companies aren't doing this on their own. It seems like they should be frantically offering all their high risk mortgage holders better deals to keep them from defaulting.)
This other part I don't understand too well, but if we need to inject some capital into "the market", then OK. But set up a commission to oversee all of this, and Paulson must NOT be in charge. A couple of Congresspeople, maybe a couple from the private sector, Paulson and Cox and Bernanke, but put somebody like Chris Dodd or even Joe Biden in charge. Maybe Hillary Clinton. Disperse the money in segments, to be approved by the Board.
I know this is complicated, but we don't have to solve everything at once. We just have to get some people making decisions who we can trust to do the right thing.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
JerryT
"Apples and Oranges.
Anyway, reading his other statements on this issue as well simply reinforce the reason why I am such a fan of Jim Marshall."
Reasons other than not having a brain?
I reccomend supporters of the bill read this:
http://www.alternet.org/...ons_that%27s_bad_news_for_you
I'd like to explain my brain comment further, as I could say that those who support torture are insensitive assholes too, now just brainless.
I'm not a supporter of the bill (yet), but I do want to say: If Bernie Sanders didn't like the bonus packages those Wall Street guys were getting, he was in a position to do something about it. It's pretty damn hard to go back and say "Oh, you played by the rules but we're changing the rules retroactively, so pay up". It gets to the point where you can't count on anything. The whim of every new Congressman, every new burp in world events, and we're going to reach back in time and try to create a new reality? I am wary of that. Not good conditions for stability. If WE didn't like what was happening, WE should have demanded change. At this point, we may have to suck it up and fix things going forward.
I also have a problem with trying to stick too much into whatever they are going to do. Just because bankruptcy protection isn't in there doesn't mean we can't EVER do it. Some of these things are complicated and may take weeks or months to design, otherwise, we get unintended consequences. In the meantime, retirees are seeing their assets disappear before their eyes.
Everybody sees this as a golden opportunity to get whatever they want because of the desperation in the air, but we could screw this up and make it a lot worse than it has to be if we're not thoughtful about it.
Don't feed the trolls...
Don't feed the trolls...
Ack. A weak moment.
But, as you can probably tell, I'm really trying to convince myself more than anyone else.
I gotta say though, I think torture has its place. I mean, we have to protect Americans you know?
Someone used the analogy today that it was like Wall Street was holding a gun to their own head and saying "Give us $700 billion or we'll shoot!"
Reminds me of Blazing Saddles. In fact, the whole past 8 years seems like Blazing Saddles. Except not funny.