Political Jackass

Gov. Sarah Palin is refusing to accept more than 30 percent of the federal economic stimulus money being offered to Alaska, including dollars for schools, energy assistance and social services.

The news Thursday drew anger from those who accused Palin of putting her national political aspirations ahead of the state’s interests, and admiration from others who say she has courage to turn down money that would expand government. The state Legislature will have an opportunity to override her decision.

Palin is not taking about $288 million of the $930.7 million that Alaska is due in the federal stimulus. Palin said she is accepting the federal stimulus money that would go for construction projects, but not funding directed at government operations.

The Anchorage Daily news is even reporting that the biggest single chunk of stimulus money that Palin is turning down is $160 million for education. There’s also $17 million in Department of Labor funds (vocational rehabilitation services, unemployment services, etc.), about $9 million for Health and Social Services and about $7 million for Public Safety.

Doesn’t she realize she’s not relevant anymore? Even the Republican Party can’t be stupid enough to see her as their future. Someone needs to tell her. Really, how dumb is this woman? I guess she thinks that if she turns down the education money her constituents will be as dumb as her and keep electing her and supporting her. What a joke.

There is a new ad being put out by the Obama campaign that hits McCain on the economy and Sarah Palin. More specifically, it uses McCain’s own words about how he knows nothing about the economy and how he might have to rely on his Vice President for economic issues. Of course, he said that before picking Sarah Palin as VP. We all know the only thing he can rely on her for is shooting wolf pups from helicopters.

The ad is in McCain’s own words with several quotes about his expertise on economic issues. “I’m going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.” Then the second: “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.” And the third: “‘I might have to rely on a vice president that I select’ for expertise on economic issues.” Watch the ad below.

Not only does McCain want to give huge tax breaks to the richest people and companies and tax your health insurance, now he wants the American people to pick up the tab on his new mortgage plan. As details emerge, we see just how bad his plan is for the American tax payer. McCain has the nerve to say Obama is going to raise taxes when it’s his own policies that are doing all the taxing. Obama wants to cut taxes for 95% of the people in this country, for the middle class, the people who need it most. From CNN:

McCain’s original plan called for lenders to write down the value of these mortgages and take those losses. But the Republican presidential candidate unveiled a new $300 billion plan in response to the first question of the debate.

He said, “I would order the Secretary of Treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of those homes, at the diminished values of those homes, and let people make those – be able to make those payments and stay in their homes.”

The government would convert failing mortgages into low-interest, FHA-insured loans.

“Millions of borrowers” would be eligible for the program, dubbed the American Homeownership Resurgence Plan, according to McCain economic advisor Doug Holtz-Eakin.

To qualify, homeowners would have to be delinquent in their payments already, or be likely to fall behind in the near future. They would have to live in the home in question – no investment properties would be eligible – and have had demonstrated their credit-worthiness when they purchased the property by making a substantial down payment and by providing documentation of their income and assets – no liar loans.

Holtz-Eakin said on a conference call Wednesday that the McCain plan could be put into place quickly because the groundwork and the authority for it has already been provided by last week’s $700 billion bailout bill, the Hope for Homeowners program authorized by the housing rescue bill passed in July and the government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
A change of heart

This proposal is strikingly different from both McCain’s original idea, and from the housing rescue bill adopted by Congress in July.

Congress struggled for months to pass the Hope for Homeowners rescue plan for mortgage borrowers – a bill that neither McCain nor Democratic candidate Senator Barack Obama voted on. To make it palatable to both conservative Republicans and ordinary taxpayers, Hope for Homeowners requires that lenders write down mortgage balances to 90% of a home’s current market value to qualify for a FHA-insured refinancing. The lenders would then take the loss on the difference between the current value and the mortgage balance.

“[McCain's] original plan relied on lenders taking the hit,” said Holtz-Eakin. “This bypasses that step.”

Instead, taxpayers pay for it, with the funding already provided by the $700 billion bailout bill.

Some Washington analysts were perplexed by the McCain proposal.

“The proposal is hard to understand,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. For one thing, Baker pointed out, it provides even less help for targeted borrowers than the Hope for Homeowners program does. In that plan, lenders must lower mortgage balances down to 90% of the home’s current value, while McCain’s plan will reduce loans to 100% of a home’s current value.

And, of course, under McCain, the cost of the write-down is picked up by taxpayers rather than by the lenders. That is a radical departure from McCain’s earlier responses to the housing crisis.

Is this really change we can believe in? How many times is he going to change his policies to suit whoever he is talking to at the time. He is a joke.

Just a quick thought. I really can’t believe the bill that the Bush administration is pushing Congress to pass is 3 pages in length. Doesn’t that seem, I don’t know, a little short when they are requesting $700 billion for a bailout? Shouldn’t there be a lot more to it? Shouldn’t there be pages upon pages of details on where this money is going, what’s going to happen to the companies, what will happen to the profits, regulation ideas so this won’t happen again? But it doesn’t. It’s three pages. My cell phone contract was at least twice as long. They want a blank check and what we get in return is a slip that says I.O.U. Pathetic.

This has got to be one of the best speeches I’ve heard on a bill. Sadly, not many people will see it and it will probably have little influence on the outcome. Bravo to Marcy Kaptur though.

McCain is running ads linking Obama to heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as if Obama is the cause for this. He’s not. McCain’s chief economic adviser, Phil Gramm, was a major player in the deregulation of Wall Street and now it’s come out that McCain’s campaign manager has recieved nearly $2 million by advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations.

Several current and former executives of the companies came forward to discuss the role that Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager and longtime adviser, played in helping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac beat back regulatory challenges when he served as president of their advocacy group, the Homeownership Alliance, formed in the summer of 2000. Some who came forward were Democrats, but Republicans, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed their descriptions.

“The value that he brought to the relationship was the closeness to Senator McCain and the possibility that Senator McCain was going to run for president again,” said Robert McCarson, a former spokesman for Fannie Mae, who said that while he worked there from 2000 to 2002, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together paid Mr. Davis’s firm $35,000 a month. Mr. Davis “didn’t really do anything,” Mr. McCarson, a Democrat, said. Continue Reading

John McCain on 60 Minutes, 9/21/08. Scott Pelley: In 1999, you were one of the senators who helped pass deregulation of Wall Street. Do you regret that now? John McCain: No, I think the deregulation was probably helpful to the growth of our economy. This is the guy that says he’s going to bring change to Washington. Sounds like the past 8 years to me.

Barack Obama has come out with an extended ad that is dedicated to the economy. The two minute long ad outlines the major points of his economic plan. What’s interesting to note is that this isn’t like any other ad. There are no fancy graphics, quotes, and photo op shots. It’s just Obama, talking into the camera, outlining his plan. I think it’s a great ad and I hope to see it air nationally as much as possible. It’s a very powerful ad. Of course, a 2 minute ad won’t come cheap, so make sure you help out the campaign by donating today. Here is the ad: