Most of our current economic woes have been precipitated by congressional meddling. This is factually confirmed for many Americans, and eventually will be proven to all Americans if news media will be so candid.
THE ECONOMY
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Crisis caused by Congress
Most of our current economic woes have been precipitated by congressional meddling. This is factually confirmed for many Americans, and eventually will be proven to all Americans if news media will be so candid.
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The housing crisis and resulting lender bailouts are directly correlated to earlier political pressure by Congress forcing lenders to make untold numbers of poorly underwritten loans.
The same can be said for the energy crisis and the ills on Wall Street; issues that would have been earlier addressed if needed actions had not been thwarted by those same meddlers in the House and Senate. There are dozens more examples of meddling that caused an unexpected by-product of economic harm, going all the way back to the war on poverty and the Great Depression.
It’s neither a lie nor an exaggeration to state that no governing body, through its political motivations, has so frequently activated the law of unintended consequences with more disastrous results to its intended beneficiaries than Congress.
Without considering the records of their senators and representatives, many voters will opt for returning those notorious meddlers to Congress to continue their mischief.
They may even ask for more government meddling in hopes that it will help. What nonsense! Can you really count on Barney Frank, Charles Schumer, Christopher Dodd, Charles Rangel, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to “fix” economic problems? Totally absurd! They are problem causers, not fixers.
We were once a nation of rugged and discerning individuals who mostly voted wisely, but are becoming a nation of fools following pied pipers of political mischief whose repeated re-election to the U.S. House and Senate is worse than monotonous; it’s suicidal.
BOB PATONI
GILBERT
Downturn caused by government-coerced debt
In 1977, Jimmy Carter rams this act through a Democratic Congress so low-income people could get mortgages and other loans even though they had no savings, no down payment and lousy credit. In 1992, the feds cranked up the “discrimination” aspect and used that to help lower-income minority applicants to secure loans without regard to their financial standing. This forced lenders, under penalty of law, to lend to those who had no ability to pay back and the surge of bad loans accelerated.
In 1995, enters Bill Clinton. Knowing it would enhance his voter base, he used “discrimination” to revise the Community Reinvestment Act mandating Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to increase their purchases of mortgages for low-income borrowers. Congress quickly passed the revisions.
In 1999, Countrywide Financial exploded with loans to low-income people and the sand started to sift out of the glass. In 2001, the Bush administration warned that Fannie and Freddie loans to unqualified borrowers were creating a large risk for the entire financial system. This was pooh-poohed by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. Congress went along with him and did nothing.
In 2003, again the Bush administration saw things getting worse, including evidence of fraud and urged Congress to pass a bill increasing oversight on the two companies. Again, Congress failed to act. The simple truth is this crisis was engineered and implemented by Democrats.
F.S. WRIGHT
SUN LAKES
OIL
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Drilling for real solutions
What we need for the 21st century is not financial engineers but real engineers who create the new exciting businesses and jobs in the green technologies. Let’s drill our brains to realize that clean technologies are the answer, and not buy into comments that we can drill in the Arctic refuge, when we only get 2 percent to 3 percent of our domestic oil from Alaska.
There is not enough oil on this planet anymore when we will have an additional 1 billion people in 12 years wanting to consume like us, coming from mostly China, India and a growing Third World. We need a carbon tax as Thomas Friedman says we must have. People will complain for two weeks but accept it and then the capital and investment will move us into a green economy, creating new businesses and jobs.
Later, with fewer petro dollars going to the Middle East, they will forced to invest in education and free enterprise or else stay in the dark ages. Oil is the only thing keeping them afloat. For too long we have supported this insanity with energy policies that failed to have had us using clean electron energy, efficiency and conservation. The time is now, and not buying into the catch phrase “drill, baby, drill” when oil companies only invest 0.15 percent in clean energies and use green wash ads to keep the public ignorant.
By the way, I drive a hybrid car and live green and it saves me money, and I feel I am patriotic.
WILLIAM ZAFFER
SCOTTSDALE
