John McCain: Inactaction is Not An Option

My Friends,

We are in the greatest financial crisis of our lifetimes. Congressional inaction has put every American and the entire economy at the gravest risk. Yesterday the country and the world looked to Washington for leadership, and Congress once again came up empty-handed.

I am disappointed at the lack of resolve and bipartisan good will among members of both parties to fix this problem. Bipartisanship is a tough thing; never more so when you're trying to take necessary but publicly unpopular action. But inaction is not an option.

If we do nothing, many businesses may fail.

Sonic Corporation, a drive-in restaurant chain based in Oklahoma, learned on Thursday that one of its lenders, GE Capital, had stopped extending new loans to the chain's franchisees. That will block plans to rebuild restaurants, add equipment and open new locations.

When financing dries up, students can't get loans. In Wisconsin, more than 100 Milwaukee Area Technical College students couldn't access private loans to fund their education. Fortunately the school was able to come up with emergency loans, but this temporary arrangement cannot continue. Markets need to work so that people can get financial help and students can be educated. Again, inaction is not an option.

In light of the House's failure to act, this morning, I spoke to the President about two things that the administration has not done, but should do following the inaction of Congress.

First, the Treasury has already used its Exchange Stabilization Fund to back money market accounts. I encourage it to use it this fund as creatively as possible to provide backstop for accounts across our financial system to maintain confidence on the part of savers and investors.

And second, the recent housing bill gave the government nearly $1 trillion in authority to purchase mortgages. Housing and mortgages are at the root of this crisis. The Administration can take these actions with the stroke of the pen to help alleviate the crisis gripping our economy. I urge them to do so.

The FDIC should quickly be granted the authority to increase the deposit insurance cap from $100,000 to $250,000 so that families do not have to worry about their money. We cannot allow a crisis in our financial system to become a crisis in confidence.

I call on everyone in Washington to come together in a bipartisan way to address this crisis. I know that many of the solutions to this problem may be unpopular, but the dire consequences of inaction will be far more damaging to the economic security of American families and the fault will be all ours. And to my supporters, I assure you I will continue to do whatever I can to aid in a constructive answer to the challenge before us.

Sincerely,
John McCain

P.S. I'm asking you to pass this email along to your friends, family, neighbors and colleagues. We must spread the word that inaction is not an option.

Nancy Pelosi Calls Republicans Unpatriotic

I have started a sentence ten times and just can't find the words on this one, mostly because I can't say out loud what I'm thinking. I will have to do penance.

OMG: Nancy Pelosi calls House GOP "Unpatriotic"! - Sean Hannity ...
Sep 27, 2008 ... OMG: Nancy Pelosi calls House GOP "Unpatriotic"! Washington Politics.forums.hannity.com/showthread.php?t=910221 - 54k - 14 hours ago - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

OMG: Nancy Pelosi calls House GOP "Unpatriotic"! - Sean Hannity ...
Sep 27, 2008 ... OMG: Nancy Pelosi calls House GOP "Unpatriotic"! ... Unpatriotic like turning off the lights in the senate and going on vacation during an ...forums.hannity.com/showthread.php?p=36922661 - 14 hours ago - Similar pages - Note this

"Unpatriotic" - Nancy Pelosi, Congress
"Unpatriotic" - Pelosi unloads on House Republicans. Why is it always OK for Democrats to call Republicans 'unpatriotic'?beltwayblips.com/story/unpatriotic/ - 33k - 17 hours ago - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Video: Pelosi calls House GOP “unpatriotic” - Republican National ...
Despicable Nancy Pelosi calls GOP Unpatriotic for missing a meeting-- A meeting they were not invited to. Here's some behind the scenes politicking by ...beltwayblips.com/story/video_pelosi_calls_house_gop_unpatriotic/ - 39k - 14 hours ago - Cached - Similar pages - Note thisMore results from beltwayblips.com »

Name calling from Nancy Pelosi: Republicans ‘very unpatriotic ...
Sep 28, 2008 ... Unpatriotic because they are taking more time to make the very best of a horrible situation? When Nancy Pelosi labels the very Republicans ...iowadefense.wordpress.com/2008/09/28/name-calling-from-nancy-pelosi-republicans-very-unpatriotic/ - 1 hour ago - Similar pages - Note this

Gateway Pundit: Speaker Pelosi Blasts "Unpatriotic" Republicans ...
Sep 27, 2008 ... Despicable Nancy Pelosi calls GOP Unpatriotic for missing a meeting-- A meeting they were not invited to. Keep that in mind while you watch ...gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/09/speaker-pelosi-blasts-unpatriotic.html - 59k - 17 hours ago - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Video: Pelosi calls House GOP “unpatriotic” - Blogrunner
Is Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi running around like a headless chook blathering about the 'unpatriotic' - during bail out negotiations? ...www.blogrunner.com/snapshot/D/0/1/video_pelosi_calls_house_gop_unpatriotic/ - 54k - 8 hours ago - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Video: Pelosi calls House GOP “unpatriotic”
Sep 27, 2008 ... Nancy Pelosi, idiot, liar, unpatriotic assh*le, and gambler of American lives in combat. Don’t let this Liar anywhere near your nation’s ...hotair.com/archives/2008/09/27/video-pelosi-calls-house-gop-unpatriotic/ - 108k - 16 hours ago - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

From Office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- Sept. 28, 2008

REINVEST, REIMBURSE, REFORM
IMPROVING THE FINANCIAL RESCUE LEGISLATION

Significant bipartisan work has built consensus around dramatic improvements to the original Bush-Paulson plan to stabilize American financial markets -- including cutting in half the Administration's initial request for $700 billion and requiring Congressional review for any future commitment of taxpayers' funds. If the government loses money, the financial industry will pay back the taxpayers.3 Phases of a Financial Rescue with Strong Taxpayer Protections
Reinvest in the troubled financial markets … to stabilize our economy and insulate Main Street from Wall Street

Reimburse the taxpayer … through ownership of shares and appreciation in the value of purchased assets
Reform business-as-usual on Wall Street … strong Congressional oversight and no golden parachutes
CRITICAL IMPROVEMENTS TO THE RESCUE PLAN
Democrats have insisted from day one on substantial changes to make the Bush-Paulson plan acceptable -- protecting American taxpayers and Main Street -- and these elements will be included in the legislation
Protection for taxpayers, ensuring THEY share IN ANY profits
Cuts the payment of $700 billion in half and conditions future payments on Congressional review
Gives taxpayers an ownership stake and profit-making opportunities with participating companies
Puts taxpayers first in line to recover assets if participating company fails
Guarantees taxpayers are repaid in full -- if other protections have not actually produced a profit
Allows the government to purchase troubled assets from pension plans, local governments, and small banks that serve low- and middle-income families
Limits on excessive compensation for CEOs and executives
New restrictions on CEO and executive compensation for participating companies:
No multi-million dollar golden parachutes
Limits CEO compensation that encourages unnecessary risk-taking
Recovers bonuses paid based on promised gains that later turn out to be false or inaccurate
Strong independent oversight and transparency
Four separate independent oversight entities or processes to protect the taxpayer
A strong oversight board appointed by bipartisan leaders of Congress
A GAO presence at Treasury to oversee the program and conduct audits to ensure strong internal controls, and to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse
An independent Inspector General to monitor the Treasury Secretary's decisions
Transparency -- requiring posting of transactions online -- to help jump start private sector demand
Meaningful judicial review of the Treasury Secretary's actions
Help to prevent home foreclosures crippling the American economy
The government can use its power as the owner of mortgages and mortgage backed securities to facilitate loan modifications (such as, reduced principal or interest rate, lengthened time to pay back the mortgage) to help reduce the 2 million projected foreclosures in the next year
Extends provision (passed earlier in this Congress) to stop tax liability on mortgage foreclosures
Helps save small businesses that need credit by aiding small community banks hurt by the mortgage crisis—allowing these banks to deduct losses from investments in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stocks

Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Franklin Raines, the TRUTH

Saw this video on http://scaredofsarah.blogspot.com posted earlier today, then say it posted later on another one of our Read My Lipstick Network blogs! We ALL need to post this and get everyone possible to watch it. Great actual video footage of the real culprits in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacle. Hear as the Republicans try to get the Dems to sign onto more regulation and point out the potential problems and watch as the Dems stand up for their buddy Franklin Raines and the agencies which are pushing money to them.

Deal or No Deal, Dems Continue the Lie

There's a comment on another one of my posts, which I'm not going to bother to approve*, saying they had a bailout deal before John McCain showed up and the deal fell through because the Republicans were just supporting their candidate, it was just politics, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Give it up.

Even conservative Democrats are saying there wasn't a deal. The rest of the Dem crew are just twisting and avoiding and will never say they were wrong.

The Democrats had the votes to go ahead if they wanted, John McCain or no John McCain. They didn't have the guts to cram their so-called deal down the throats of the American public without the support of Republicans. No guts. They didn't want to be the ones to be blamed if their version fell thought. House Republicans had NOT signed onto it, and many conservative Democrats were relieved when John McCain came in to save the day.

At least John McCain cared enough to be there. He took a huge risk when he put his campaign aside and I appreciate the fact that he was willing to attempt to help, regardless of how much of an impact it may or may not have had. I love how he's handling this, especially his comments this morning about whether to take credit or not! He simply did what he felt was right and Obamababy felt like a phone call or two was sufficient. Some leadership.

It's a proven fact that there was no deal. Nada. The Democrats made a huge mistake in their rush to come out and say there was a deal and they blew it. The only people who are believing their twisting of reality are Obama zombies who'd believe anything that came out of the mouth of their chosen one or his chosen representatives.

* yes, I'm censoring 'cause it's just more twisting of facts and not worth anyone's time.

"Patently False" - the truth about McCain's roll in the bailout dealings

"This sort of clumsy attempt by Harry Reid and the Democrats to say that a deal had been reached at one o'clock yesterday afternoon and suddenly, to put it in Harry Reid's words, 'and then guess who came to town and it completely fell apart?' I mean that is a patently false explanation of what happened." -- The Examiner's Bill Sammon

"There wasn't a deal. You have to first have to accept a predicate that there was an arrangement agreed to by all of the necessary lawmakers and authorities -- that was essentially a piece of paper and a proposal that had been discussed and agreed to by one senate committee that's not the same as a deal."-- Fox News' Carl Cameron

Fox News
September 26, 2008

Fox News' Jon Scott: "Carl, give us your assessment of the statement that Harry Reid made a little bit earlier during that news conference. He didn't use John McCain's name, but he said that things were proceeding along swimmingly, essentially. And they were, you know, getting close. And then he said a certain person came to Washington and the wheels fell off. Is that an accurate description of what happened?"

Fox News' Carl Cameron: "No. There wasn't a deal. You have to first accept a predicate that there was an arrangement agreed to by all the necessary lawmakers and authorities -- that was essentially a piece of paper and a proposal that had been discussed and agreed to by one senate committee -- that's not the same as a deal. A deal in budget parlance and bailout parlance requires the White House, the regulators, the House and Senate Republicans and Democrats.

And because House Republicans were not given an adequate seat at the table, Republicans had great misgivings about this -- the American people have great misgivings about this -- I mean 60% and more in many polls say that the public just doesn't like this. They think its way to big a bailout with not enough insurance that the Devil is not in those details. So McCain's role in this was to bring about progress for a deal, which as of this hour has not yet existed. They are getting clo ser, they say, but yesterday because there was a commerce committee deal does not constitute finality, that was McCain's point and he has been making it since Monday. And Harry Reid saying that we shouldn't inject Presidential politics into this and then immediately turn to John McCain raises some questions. Everybody is playing politics, with less than 40 days before the election, of course this was going to be looked at through partisan prisms, but how about looking at it through taxpayer prisms, taxpayer glasses. All of this discussion about we're worried about Wall Street, but more about main street -- taxpayers are included in both of those places, and Republicans in the House say they were not brought to the table adequately, and these aren't John McCain's idea's per se, he just brought all the people together so that these ideas could be articulated and if Democrats buy into them, that will be part of the deal as yet uncut." ...

The Examiner's Bill Sammon: "First of all I just wanted to say, I want to echo what Carl said, this sort of clumsy attempt by Harry Reid and the Democrats to say that a deal had been reached at one o'clock yesterday afternoon and suddenly, to put it in Harry Reid's words, 'and then guess who came to town and it completely fell apart?' I mean that is a patently false explanation of what happened. And it would seem to be an attempt to preemptively set up John McCain for blame when he did arrive in town because there wasn't a deal."

Watch Bill Sammon Call Harry Reid's Attack "Patently False"