Yesterday, Mike Huckabee penned a diatribe against the “people who pilloried me during the Presidential campaign,” managing somehow to fit into his self-serving, egotistical rant a strong rebuke of the proposed taxpayer-funded bailout. Noticeably missing, however, was the notion that Congress is to blame for the vast majority of the financial crisis. Who did the Huckster blame instead?
Frankly, I’m disappointed and disgusted with my own Republican party as I watch them attempt to strong-arm a bailout of some of America’s biggest corporations by asking the taxpayers to suck up the staggering results of the hubris, greed, and arrogance of those who sought to make a quick buck by throwing the dice. They lost, but want the rest of us to cover their bets so they won’t be effected in their lavish lifestyles as they figure out how to spend their tens of millions and in some cases, hundreds of millions in bonuses and compensation which was their reward for not only sinking their companies, but basically doing the same to the entire American economy …
Will there be far-reaching consequences without some intervention? Probably, but we honestly don’t know since we’ve really never seen this level of greed and stupidity all rolled into one massive move. But may I suggest that letting “Uncle Sugar” step in and bail out the billionaires who made the mess will be far worse …
Wall Street has become Las Vegas east, but at least in Vegas, people KNOW they are gambling and they don’t expect the government to cover their losses at the tables. In Wall Street, they do …
Demand that the executives who steered their ships into the ground be forced to pay back the losses of their companies. Of course, they can’t, so let them work and give back to the government and they can live like the people they put on the streets or kept there. It makes no sense to put them in jail—that’s just more they will cost you and me. I’d rather them go out and earn money—just not get to keep so much of it this time. I’m not talking about limiting CEO salaries—just those of the people who now are up in Washington begging for help because they ruined their companies.
Attempts by Democrats and Republicans to blame each other is nonsense. They are both guilty and ought to own up and admit it. They all lived off big campaign contributions and the swill of the lobbyists who strong armed them into permission to steal.
Now, I don’t pretend to understand everything about our current economic woes, but there is so much wrong with this piece it’s hard to know where to start.
Begin by comparing it to Mike Pence’s well-reasoned, non-vindictive article I highlighted earlier. Pence primarily faults the government for creating the mess we are in–which is right where the blame lies. He never mentionsstupid corporate cronies, greedy Wall Street, dirty lobbyists, or billionaire CEOs. Pence knows that the government is to blame first and foremost for stepping in to the mortgage and housing industries in the first place. Government mandates are what nationalized Fannie and Freddie to begin with and government mandates are exactly what is threatening to drag this country under now.
Next, read this lampooning of Chuck Schumer by Rush Limbaugh in his Tuesday show. Is the problem private property? Capitalism? Huckabee’s piece comes dangerously close, in my opinion, to seeming to fault exactly that. Can government really run everything better? Huck seems to think so.
Huckabee faults the “billionaires who made the mess.” How many billionaires in Congress are there? None.
Huckabee says that these executives should be forced to “live like the people they put on the streets or kept there.” But wasn’t this entire crisis sparked by mortgages being given to people who never in a million years should have received a cent? And weren’t those subprime mortgages encouraged by the federal government?Can Huckabee explain how government-led corporate tandems that handed out loans like candy amount to evil executives forcing people onto the streets out of greed?
As for the notion that both Republicans and Democrats are equally to blame for being strong armed by corporate lobbyists into “permission to steal,” well, that’s just twisted. Anyone who thinks that Congress is an innocent bystander in all of this is clearly divorced from reality. The same goes for those who believe Republicans and Democrats had an equal hand in letting this financial sore fester.
Memo to Huck: Just because your bitter over your primary loss doesn’t mean that the Bush administration didn’t try 17 times to reform the oversight of Fannie and Freddie. It’s doesn’t mean that Barny “there is no crisis” Frank and his fellow Democrats didn’t exacerbate the problem just last year with a bogus piece of legislation. It doesn’t mean that John McCain didn’t try to tackle the coming bubble in 2005. It doesn’t mean that the Barack Obama didn’t take the second highest total number of campaign contributions from Fannie and Freddie, right behind Democrat Chris Dodd and right in front of Democrat John Kerry.
Starting to notice a pattern here, Huck? We. Know. Who’s. Responsible. Why the heck don’t you?
Actually, we know that too. Turns out, you are, in fact, a Wall Street-bashing populist.
