Reassessing Ronald Reagan's "Government Is The Problem" Declaration

Ronald Reagan, in his first inaugural address, famously declared that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Twenty-eight years later, in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Reagan's conservative anti-government philosophy of governance and his call for deregulation on all fronts must be critically reassessed. (Video - Speaker Nancy Pelosi 9/29 on the conservative anti-government approach to governance. This is the speech that so offended Republican House members that they felt compelled to voted against Pres. Bush's financial bailout.)

McCain has often quoted Reagan saying, "government is not the solution, it is the problem" and "I'm fundamentally a deregulator." Does McCain Still Agree with Reagan that Government is the Problem? The 2008 candidates' view of the role of government should be one of the central questions during the last few weeks of the campaign. This and other questions on their philosophy of governance should be put to the presidential and vice presidential candidates during their next debate:

"Senator McCain, given the part deregulation has played in the current economic crisis and your support of a massive government bailout of the financial industry, are you now ready to reassess your support of legislation that deregulated the banking system and financial industry?"

"Senator Obama, given the part deregulation played in the current economic crisis would you support eliminating the Enron-Loophole legislation and support restoring the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, the 1956 Bank Holding Company Act, the 1968 Truth In Lending Act and other financial system regulatory legislation that John McCain has actively sought to eliminate during his time in Congress?"

Similarly, other candidates who will appear on Collin County ballots should be question whether they firmly accept or now question Pres. Reagan's anti-government and anti-regulation philosophy of governance. Conservatives like Republican incumbent for the U.S. 3rd Texas Congressional District, Sam Johnson, age 78, Republican incumbent for the U.S. 4th Texas Congressional District, Ralph Hall, age 85, and Republican incumbent Senator John Cornyn have all joined Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain, in an avid push to fully deregulate the American financial system and return it to a 1920s-era environment. Johnson, Hall and Cornyn should be asked if they are ready to reassess their votes to deregulate the banking system and financial industry or do they continue to favor yet more deregulation.

Rick Noriega, the Democratic Candidate running for the U.S. Senate seat to replace incumbent John Cornyn, Tom Daley, the Democratic Candidate running for the U.S. House of Representatives 3rd Congressional District seat to replace incumbent Sam Johnson, and Glenn Melançon the Democratic Candidate running for the U.S. House of Representatives 4th Congressional District seat to replace incumbent Ralph Moody Hall each state in their campaign literature that they believe Republican deregulation has gone too far and some regulatory oversight should be restored.

Related postings:
McCain Advocates Deregulating Health Care
Republicans Spending Borrowed Money Worse Than Drunken Sailors
Obama's Economic Blueprint for Change
Joe Biden On The Economy
Republican Deregulation To Cost Taxpayers $1.5 Trillion
A New "New Deal" For America
A Republican Legacy To America

Rick Noriega Wins ActBlue's Blue America Contest

Rick Noriega, the Democratic nominee to replace Bush enabler John Cornyn for the U.S. Senate seat for Texas, this weekend won the Blue America Senate contest with 947 donors who contributed $20,500.

On Sunday I attended the "Vote Democratic to Fix Our Future" dinner hosted by the Texas Democratic Women of Collin County where Col. Noriega was one of the speakers. In his remarks about the financial mess George Bush, John McCain the Republican Party have given American taxpayers Noriega said, “I am outraged that taxpayers are having to foot the $700 billion bill to clean up the mess made by greedy Wall Street investors and mortgage lenders. This is what happens when John Cornyn takes nearly $1.5 million from the perpetrators of the crisis, spends six years championing an anything goes culture on Wall Street, and abdicates his duty to protect Texans from Wall Street greed. Cornyn’s special interest record is something Texans have come to expect but can no longer afford."

John Cornyn has new campaign ad out where he says, "No one is happy with the way things are being done in Washington" and America needs real change. Senator Cornyn is right, we do need real change - Texans need to change the political leaders who have taken America down the wrong road for the last eight years.

Cafferty: If Palin "Doesn't Scare The Hell Out Of You, It Should"

"If John McCain wins, this woman will be one 72-year-old's heartbeat away from being president of the United States, and if that doesn't scare the hell out of you, it should," CNN's Jack Cafferty said.

National Review's Kathleen Parker writes that the hockey mom / Governor Palin actually might not be ready to be a heartbeat from the presidency.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

In her column on the conservative magazine's Web site Friday, Parker notes Palin's life story sets her apart from traditional feminists, but she realizes that those superficialities alone aren't enough to prepare her for the White House. Unfortunately, as Palin's recent appearances reveal, she doesn't have much else to offer.

Indeed, no presidential nominee of either party in the last century has seemed so willing to endanger the country's security as McCain in his reckless choice of such an unqualified running mate. McCain is 72 years old; has had four melanomas, a particularly voracious form of cancer; and he refuses to release his complete medical records.

Bush Risks Wrath of Main Street To Save Banks

The Independent UK
Friday, 26 September 2008

A fictional scenario of financial collapse could not improve on the perfect storm that is battering the US economy. The crisis has been a decade or more in the making, but the hurricane has struck with its full fury at the worst imaginable moment.

The least trusted and most unpopular president in the country's modern history is serving his final months, his credibility and moral authority close to zero as he tackles a disaster partly, at least, of his own making. In the partisan heat of the campaign to replace him, politics cannot but intrude on the most sober judgment.

Proof of that came last night when, after a bailout deal seemed close, Republican Congressmen rebelled – against a measure urged by a Republican president. Suspicions were rife that their resistance was largely aimed at giving cover to John McCain, who had rushed back to Washington only for an outline agreement to be reached without him.

Read the rest of the story

Votes Are Lost As Homes Are Lost In Foreclosure

As homes are lost in U.S., fears that votes will be, too
International Herald Tribune
By Ian Urbina
September 25, 2008

More than a million people have lost their homes through foreclosure in the last two years, and many of them are still registered to vote at the address of the home they lost. Now election officials and voting rights groups are struggling to prevent thousands of them from losing their vote when they go to the polls in November.

Many of these voters will be disqualified at the polls because, in the tumult of their foreclosure, they neglected to tell their election board of their new address. Some could be forced to vote with a provisional ballot or challenged by partisan poll watchers, a particular concern among Democrats who fear that low-income voters will be singled out. That could add confusion and stretch out lines that are already expected to be long because of unprecedented turnout.

Federal election officials say they are concerned that voters are not being properly informed of how to update their addresses.

"Our biggest concern is that many of these voters will stay home or that poll workers will give misinformation," said Rosemary Rodriguez, the chairwoman of the federal Election Assistance Commission, which oversees voting.

Todd Haupt, a home builder, lost his home in Josephville, Missouri, to foreclosure last year, and said he had since become much more interested in politics. But asked whether he had remembered to update his voter registration information when he moved into his parents' home in St. Charles, Missouri, Haupt, 33, paused silently. "Is that required?" he said. "I had no idea."

Read the full story

Bush Administration’s Fuzzy Bailout Proposal

Peter Orszag, the Congressional Budget Office director, tells Congress that the proposed $700 billion bailout may worsen the current financial crisis. Orszag says, “. . . intervention on a massive scale is not without risks to taxpayers and to the economy. Almost by definition, the intervention cannot solve insolvency problems without shifting costs to the taxpayers. Ironically, the intervention could even trigger additional failures of large institutions, because some institutions may be carrying troubled [junk] assets on their books at inflated values. Establishing clearer prices [through the proposed bailout process] might reveal those institutions to be insolvent.”

Forbes writes that the Bush administration’s bailout proposal was thrown together in a rush without thinking it through:

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.

"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.”

Barack's Press Conference

In this time of economic crisis, Barack approached John McCain to suggest a joint statement of principles to guide a recovery plan. McCain then announced he would suspend his campaign and requested a postponement of Friday’s debate. In his press conference, Barack made it clear that a debate is needed now more than ever. Watch the video

Washington Helped Drag Europe into the Credit Crisis

Spiegel Online

Response to Washington's multi-billion dollar Wall Street bailout has involved a lot of skeptical grumbling in Germany and the UK. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the Bush administration has mishandled Wall Street, and that its refusal to adopt stricter rules led to the current crisis.

The United States government is campaigning around the world for support for its multi-billion dollar Wall Street rescue package. The reaction has been skeptical at best -- and in Europe the plan has been met with bare-knuckled criticism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has accused the US government of serious failures which she believes contributed to the current credit crisis. In particular she blamed Washington for resisting stricter regulation.

On Monday she also said the crisis could hurt the German economy. "The whole thing is going to set the pace for the economy in the coming months and perhaps years," Merkel said at a meeting of her party, the conservative Christian Democrats.

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Americans Abroad Rushing to Fill Out Ballots

Spiegel Online
By Ira Porter in Berlin

In countries outside the US, teams of volunteers and organizers are working long hours to make sure Americans living abroad can vote if they want to. The traditionally low number of overseas voters may skyrocket this year. There are no reliable statistics for the number of expatriated Americans hoping to participate in this November's election. An estimated 5 to 7 million Americans live abroad, including military personnel.

Observers have noticed a change in sentiment. Jody Couser, a spokeswoman for the registration group Democrats Abroad, said, "We don't have exact statistics, but I can tell you we're signing up thousands of people every week."

Read the full story

Democrats Widen Lead In Battle For Congress

In a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Tuesday Sept. 23, 56 percent of those questioned are backing the Democratic candidate for Congress, while 42 percent support the Republicans. The "generic ballot" question asked voters to choose between an unnamed Democratic candidate versus an unnamed Republican in the House race in their district. The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll was taken Friday through sunday, with 1,020 adult Americans questioned by telephone.

Related post: Democratic Candidates Showing Strength In Southern States