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Political notes from Free Press staff writers Terri Hallenbeck, Sam Hemingway and Nancy Remsen


9.29.2008

 

Peter's Welch's vote

Rep. Peter Welch, D-VT, voted against the bailout bill. Here's his explanation.

“The economic crisis we face is real. However, I voted against the bailout because it isn’t paid for and because I don’t believe it will work.

“First, the Paulsen plan does not offer a path to a strong economic future. Quite simply, it is the biggest taxpayer bailout in American history. It proposes to solve a problem caused by reckless borrowing and reckless lending by borrowing $700 billion more.

“Second, it is appalling that the plan is not funded. It is yet another expense put on the taxpayers’ credit card. Just as President Bush told us his tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans would pay for themselves, and Secretary Rumsfeld told us the Iraqi oil revenues would pay for the Iraq war, now Secretary Paulsen is telling us he can sell toxic debt securities that Wall Street can’t.

“Since the administration first proposed its Wall Street bailout, I have heard from thousands of Vermonters concerned about their hard earned tax dollars rewarding Wall Street’s reckless behavior. Vermonters are furious about the financial crisis and they have every right to be. They bitterly resent being asked to pay $10,000 each for a $700 billion Wall Street rescue.”


“Chairman Frank, Chairman Dodd, and House and Senate leadership did a good job making a bad proposal better, but it is still a bad plan. I cannot in good conscience vote for a fundamentally flawed plan that puts so much financial risk on the backs of the already stretched middle class.


“There are responsible ways to accomplish stabilizing our markets without leaving the middle class holding the bag. Many of us proposed to pay for an economic stability plan by establishing a financial stabilization escrow account paid for by a small transaction fee on security trades. This would protect the taxpayer and give any plan the financial muscle required for success.


“Instead, total responsibility for this crisis is transferred to the middle class. The risk of this proposal is simply too great. The burden on Vermonters is simply too heavy. Vermonters should not get caught in the undertow of greed on Wall Street.

“Resolving our economic problems will take more than a quick-fix, taxpayer funded bailout. It will take a return to the core truth Vermonters know: our economic policies must focus on building and preserving our middle class. We must reward work and entrepreneurship, not speculation, market manipulation and corporate self dealing.”


-- Nancy Remsen

Comments:
Well, if Welch is right then Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi are wrong! Pelosi seems to be as stupid as Gaye Symington. Given a majority, they can't do ANYTHING and then blame the Republicans, even though the dimocrat votes are there. Can hardly wait for idiots like jw to somehow absolve BOTH Welch AND Pelosi/Frank!
 
Typical Republican - The world is black and white.
 
Unlike "non-partisan" dimocrats that blame the financial disaster on Bush and Republicans when THE MAIN REASON for the whole mess is the liberals insistence that unqualified borrowers be given loans they couldn't possibly pay off! Well, if the dims have their way, working people and those that are financially prudent and responsible will pay off these deadbeat loans, thanks to Frank Raines, Johnson, Gorelick, Barney Frank, not to mention their favorite cash cows, Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac! John McCain warned us years ago!
 
How is the weather in La La Land, Bubba.
 
Just like the stupid Vermont Legislature. Dems can't muster enough votes on their own to pass a bill so they blame Republicans for not coming through for them. The US Congress has enough Dems to pass anything they want w/o a single Republican vote...same as in Montpelier. These fools can't get their act together so they pass the buck!! We should pass on Welch/Leahy & Bernard...fools all.
 
This isn't a Democratic Bill. It isn't a Republican Bill.

It's a bill that was forged by both the Bush White House and the leadership of both parties in Congress.

To blame one side for it's failure is foolish.
 
Pelosi is a total idiot. Just before the vote she tells 13 or so freshmen dims to cover their butts and vote AGAINST her bill - then spends 5 minutes blasting the Republicans for causing the problem! (Where was Barney Frank for the last two years?)Those 13 dim votes would have made the difference.
 
They all failed us, R's and D's alike. The baby boom generation has proven, once again, their incapacity to govern. This is not an R or D issue, folks - over $1 TRILLION in wealth evaporated yesterday. Those are your retirement savings, your investments by non-profits, your college endowments. $1 TRILLION gone. All wiped away because the most selfish, incompetent generation of political leaders in American history can't see past D and R.

Off with their heads! The whole lot of them!
 
I agree it is time to throw the bums out.

Blame doesn't fall on just one party. There is plenty to go around...the Dems under Clinton for pushing Fannie and Freddie into making uncreditworthy loans (which the banks could otherwise not have made)so the Congress could push its social programs on the country, the Corporate goverance of the financial institutions for caving to the shareholders and market demands for continued quarterly improvement in operating results just to grow its stock price, to the House and Senate banking committees for turning their back on these emerging problem 2 or 3 years ago, to Paulsen for not raising the flag earlier and, to Nancy Pelosi for letting her personal hatred enter into the debate and then for secretly letting her friends in the D's vote against it for their personal political gains. What she has done is given the R's additional time and leverage to get what they want into the new version of the bill(Coop should take a lesson on how effective hate talk is in advancing positive change).

Shame on Peter Welch for not doing what was best for the country and voting for the bill. He says how interested he is in helping us with the cost of living, the cost of heating oil, etc. then he casts a vote that has cost us all thousands in personal savings. Again he shows the true colors of the personal injury attorney he is at heart...doing what is best for him and his re-election and not what was best for the country.

Throw the bums out.
Captain America
 
Welch said: "They bitterly resent being asked to pay $10,000 each for a $700 billion Wall Street rescue.”

Welch needs a course in basic math. 150 million individual taxpayers times $10,000 is $1.5 trillion, not $700 billion.

He also said: "“Instead, total responsibility for this crisis is transferred to the middle class. The risk of this proposal is simply too great. The burden on Vermonters is simply too heavy. Vermonters should not get caught in the undertow of greed on Wall Street."

Peter to be honest about who really pays taxes and will be burden with this. 40% of individual wage earners pay no tax and the highest 10% of income earners pay 70% of the total federal tax. Unless the middle class has been redefined to include the top 10% of all earners (which they aren't) how is the middle class shouldering the tax burden of this.

It all sounds good as a sound bite but it really is time to end the factually wrong rhetoric and tell the truth on why he voted as he did.

Captain America
 
Vote for Tom Costello for Lt Gov!

Do not vote for Gaye Symington.
 
Jim Douglas supports his buddy (after all, Jim was Bush's Vt Campaign Chair), Pres Bush's, fiscal policies.

Douglas is trying hard to manage VT the same way as Bush does - only he can't operate in a deficit - or he would!

So, Jim DOuglas puts off Highway projects because we have no money - but what he is really doing is hopefully delaying those costs to the day he is no longer in office.

Then it would be someone else's problem.

Right now, Vt has federal dollars available to the tune of $135-140 million dollars that only needs the state match of between $15-30 million and highway projects all over the state could begin.

The longer we wait, the more these projects cost - and the more the state has to pay, and the more the towns have to raise property taxes to pay their share.

All it would take is a small one time bond kick in.

We could then put Vermonters to work and improve our infrastructure.

But because of political ideology, Jim Douglas will not move.

JIM DOUGLAS HAS TO GO!!!
 
Bubba:

Your right-wing Republicans voted against the legislation in far greater numbers than Democrats did.
Look it up.
 
Does anybody in this state do any indpendent polling? I don't trust WGOP's numbers, or WPTZZZZZZZZZZZ's for that matter.
 
Besides, according to your view, anyone who takes help from the state because their job has been sacrificed to improved return on investment for the investing classes is a leech feeding on welfare. How would you classify the corporations and their golden parachuted executives who made these great decisions and now expect to bailed out?
 
"Anonymous said...
Bubba:

Your right-wing Republicans voted against the legislation in far greater numbers than Democrats did.
Look it up."

...and 13 Dems on Barney Frank's Banking committee voted against the legislation they negotiated.


Look it up.


Captain America
 
Welch's vote contributed to a loss of $1.2 trillion in market value of public companies including the investments held in your 401K, pension and individual investment accounts.

And he says he is working in your best interest. Sure, I believe that. Peter has to go.
 
This proves that the deregulation of the banking industry was stupid and it hasn't worked.
 
Said like a socialist....
 
When the bank turns down your next loan for a car, or the credit card company lowers the credit limit on your VISA card or you can't get your next mortgage, feel free to thank Peter Welch for his vote against the Rescue package.

He is not working in your best interest. He has to go.
 
Captain America:

I never said that Democrats didn't vote against the bill. Bubba was
passisng along the Republican line that the Democrats were responsible for the failure of the bill to pass when in fact many more Republicans voted against it as you well know if you have checked the votes. How about a little intellectual honesty.
 
When you fail to get the loans you need blame those responsible for the financial condition in the first place. The wildly unregulated and unscrupulous corporations with the support of republican administrations from Reagan to the present.
 
Oh boo hoo hoo. What a bunch of babies the GOP are. So now you're paying attention to what Pelosi says? Give us a break. It's worse grandstanding then McInsane riding in on a white horse to save Congress from itself. The GOP is now trying to run away from itself and it's own policies. It's comical.
 
Who has to go?
 
I realize that but Bubba makes an interesting point off of something JWCOOP has said is the issue here in VT.

Coop lays Symington's ineptness on the fact that she doesn't have a veto-proof majority. If she did she would always get her way.

Pelosi HAD the majority yesterday and the ability to pass this bill but couldn't. If she wanted it passed, she should have (1) not let her friends running for re-election vote against it and (2) should not have launched into a Republican bashing rant just before the vote.

The problem is simple... the main platform of the Dems is playing the victim card....'it was Bush'...'it was those greedy fat cats', and on and on. Fact is Pelosi is the leader of the House and is unable to demonstrate the basic skills of an accomplished politican..the ability to work across the aisle for the good of the country. And to think Dems want us to give them even more responsibility to work across the aisle, if you will, on a global basis with people that really don't like us, like Al Quada, Iran, et al. Its time to get real.

Apparently Coopy is wrong(tough to believe). Having a majority isn't necessarily the antidote for incompetence.

Captain America
 
When this mess is settled I hope reasonable people realize that home and car loans, not to mention credit cards should only be given to people with a reasonable ability to pay them back. This is what caused most of the problem to begin with, and guess what? Dims still wanted to hand out millions to criminal enterprises like Obama's former employer ACORN! I guess so they can go back to intimidating banks to lend MORE bad money to bad people!
 
Put the crack pipe down for a minute Bubba and admit that it was failed GOP economic policy that got us to where we're at. You and the Captain look silly trying to spin this back on the Democrats. Not that it's a first for either of you.
 
Exactly WHAT failed economic policy? And where was the majority-dim House and Senate during all of this? Details, please.
 
Do you honestly think that the current bare majority of two years could derail something that has been ongoing since the deregulation and acquisition fever of the Reagan administration? Guess you are smoking from the proverbial pipe.
 
Who issued the credit cards, knowing full well that individuals would get in financial trouble as a result but didn't care because it opened up new markets for them? Democrats didn't do this; corporations did. It fed the consumer markets. What was it that Bush advised after 9/11? Go out and spend to rescue the downturn of the market that occurred after the tragedy.
 
Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae were dimocrat cash cows set up to give loans to borrowers that couldn't repay and contributions to the likes of Obama, Dodd, and Kerry.
 
Republican economic policy: Let's raid the Treasury while we can and let the next guy worry about it.
 
The DemocRATS forced the banks to give loans to black people and latinos. These people defaulted on thier loans and now here we are.

Here is what we get for our social engineering experiments.
 
Both Bush and McCain have warned Congress of the sub-prime mortgage debacle and Dodd's banking committee and Frank's house committee have refused to change the lending practices. Bush was wrong by not going public and Dodds, Obama, Kerry and Hillary, who collectively received $500,000 in campaign contributions, were all wrong by not letting the Senate here the case.
This started with Jimmy Carter's CRA and organizations like ACORN have been buying off politicians ever since. Everyone since Carter has let the CRA get further out of hand, mostly the liberals.
 
And as is always the case, the guy that earned is own way is handed the bill for the dim's LATEST social engineering project.
 
C'mon NEK you know facts don't matter.....we just hate Bush.
 
Did anyone see Nancy Pelosi do her Bernie Sanders "I'm outraged" impersonation? Pelosi is demanding that all these failed companies and their CEO's be investigated. This should be done and Fannie and Freddie as well- but she stopped there and didn't think it was necessary to investigate them. How convenient!
Maybe Obama's financial advisors' would have to spend time in jail.
Where's leaky Leahy with the subpoenas when you need him?? Oh, he is still after Alberto!
Alberto fired a couple lawyers who reported to him and we make a federal case out of it while Raines, Gorlick and Johnson steal $200 million from the taxpayers by overstating the assets of Fannie Mae by $6 billion and that doesn't even make the press!!
 
Yeah but NEK, we hate Bush...facts don't matter. Don't you get it, we are Vermonters.
 
Bubba, NEK, Wonder Woman and all the rest are Mississipi transplants who try daily to impart their cracker values on Vermonters. Keep whistling in the wind boys (and woman).
 
Only someone who followed Bernie, Howie or Kunin to Vermont would make that kind of idiotic statement.
Some Vermonters still have values, some come here for the "free ride", I'll bet your in the later category.
 
And what state did you come here from? Massachusetts? New York? Connecticut?
 
so what are Vermonter values?

Apparently they don't include a sense of family, the ability to listen and accept contrary points of view, the ability to treat others with respect, a desire to achieve and not be a burden to society, the belief that small gov't is better than large and that you should be able to decide how to spend the money you earn rather than be told how to re-allocate it by the State.

Are you sure its not you with the bigoted sense of values?
 
So what's the point- I agree with you- where have I posted anything contrary to what you just stated?
 
Whose getting the"free ride" in this instance?
 
Loans should depend on the color of your skin? How despicable.
 
What is dispicable is a $1 trillion bailout because banks were forced to give loans to blacks.

It's a new world order and a lot of Americans don't like where its headed.
 
Your racism is despicable. Do you really believe that no whites received similar loans and also defaulted on them?
 
And yes, as Peter Welch, said above the bailout of Wall Street fat cats and the investor class who played fast and lose with investments is a ripoff at the expense of the American people. There are other ways, some suggested above, that hold those who created this situation and profited from it more responsible.
 
Including Chris Dodd, Barack Obama, John Kerry, Frank Raines, Johnson, Gorlick, Barney Frank?
 
Virtually all of John McCain's campaign staff are lobbyist who made their livings advocating on behalf of fat cats--so where is McCain's name and that of his wife?
 
Anonymous said...

"Your racism is despicable. Do you really believe that no whites received similar loans and also defaulted on them?"

Racism and brain-dead bigotry are all the coalition of the clueless have.

If ya take that away from them and start confusin' 'em with the facts, you're not leavin' 'em much to work with.
 
NEK said...

"Did anyone see Nancy Pelosi do her Bernie Sanders "I'm outraged" impersonation? Pelosi is demanding that all these failed companies and their CEO's be investigated."

She's right. They should. They're getting taxpayer funds, nekwit. There should be strings attached.

"This should be done and Fannie and Freddie as well- but she stopped there and didn't think it was necessary to investigate them."

Investigate all of them, nekkie boy. If you've got anything on Raines and Gorelick, prosecute 'em.

If ya don't, stuff a sock in it.

Apart from the Congressional Record and a total lack of evidence, what's stoppin' ya, nekwit?

You've still got the Bush Injustice Department. Make their day, moron. Make mine.

Knock yourself out, nekwit.


"How convenient!
Maybe Obama's financial advisors' would have to spend time in jail."

If you've got a case, bring it.

Where's leaky Leahy with the subpoenas when you need him?? Oh, he is still after Alberto!

"Alberto fired a couple lawyers who reported to him and we make a federal case out of it while Raines, Gorlick and Johnson steal $200 million from the taxpayers by overstating the assets of Fannie Mae by $6 billion and that doesn't even make the press!!"

If you've got evidence, cough it up. That's the only thing that;s gonna save the gops this year.

If they had a case, they'd bring it. Clearly, they don't.

Dismissed.
 
Anonymous said...

"I realize that but Bubba makes an interesting point off of something JWCOOP has said is the issue here in VT."

"Coop lays Symington's ineptness on the fact that she doesn't have a veto-proof majority. If she did she would always get her way."

Nice try, auntie amerika.

No, I lay Vermont's plight on doogie's ineptness and a gop-scum legislative minority who cares more about party than they do about their constituents and the State of Vermont.

If Symington had been able to override doogie's vetoes, the Legislature would bear some responsibility for the decay Vermont has experienced under six years of the doogie/dubie debacle.

She hasn't and outside of the gop-scum minority, they don't.

This is a doogie/dubie debacle/gop-scum inflicted disaster from start to finish.

No sale, crazy lady.

"Pelosi HAD the majority yesterday and the ability to pass this bill but couldn't."

No, bush and the gop-scum House leadership lacked the ability to muster more than 33 percent of their own clueless-cretin caucus to vote for their own President's proposal.

It's not Pelosi's job to save this incompetent-trash, gop-scum President and the incompetent-trash, gop-scum House leadership to save them from a mutiny on the part of 66 percent of their own gop-scum membership.

Symington never failed to override a doogie veto because she couldn't muster more than 33 percent of Vermont's Dem Legislative Majority to vote her way.

That's a rather significant detail and difference, auntie amerika.

Nice try, crazy lady. Get your ignorant anonymous ass some new horsebrit talking points.

Pelosi was able to deliver 60 percent of her Caucus to vote in favor of bailing out an incompetent gop-trash President and the mess he created.

Bonehead Boehner, on the other hand, could only deliver 33 percent of his gop-scum minority to vote in favor of their own President's bailout package.

This isn't Pelosi's fault. It's bush, boehner and blunt's.

So much for Mcsame's "suspending his campaign, putting Country first savin' the day" song and dance.

Anyone who seriously changed their vote to punish the Country because Pelosi told the truth and hurt their feelings has no business being in Congress in the first place.

Moreover, not only should they be voted out of office immediately, they should be taken out and shot and the rnc should be billed for the ammo and the firing squad's time.

Incompetent gop trash in the White House and Congress and their brain-dead policies started this fire and refused to put it out because Pelosi told the truth and hurt their damned feelings when she called the arsonists responsible for this mess the arsonists responsible for this mess and your ignorant anonymous auntie-amerikan ass want me to feel sorry for them.

Like you and the rest of the ignorant anonymous trash community, they're scum, and when incompetent gop-scum can't carry the scum vote, that's not my problem.

It is, however, a tremendous source of amusement and amazement, crazy lady.

Always a pleasure.
 
Anonymous said...

"I agree it is time to throw the bums out.

Blame doesn't fall on just one party."

Yeah, it does. Like the party and policies that gave us the Stock Market Crash of '29 and the Great Depression that followed, this is a gop-scum disaster from start to finish.

Nice try, auntie amerika. Get your ignorant anonymous ass some new fascist fairy tales to tell.

Once again, the Dems have to rescue the Country from a gop-scum-inflicted disaster.

The bums will continue to be thrown out in November and the incompetent scum will be removed from the White House and the Pavilion, as well.

Always a pleasure.
 
The depression started officially in 1932 and ended in 1942. FDR had 10 years to try to figure out a fix but only WWII ended the depression. The dims controlled almost everything for the majority of those 10 years. So how could the Republicans be blamed for FDR's incompetence? The root of today's mess is the housing failures initiated by the criminal activities of the Clinton administration, in particular ACORN, Fanny Mae, and Freddy Mac. Politically correct loans were made to people without the ability to pay them back as rewards for voting in the dimocrat big-city blocks, and key dims such as Raines, Johnson, and Gorlick were rewarded for their participation in this crime. And then Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Maxine Watters, Meeks, etc. told us for years that nothing was wrong! Just who's the crook here? But don't worry, jw, only working stiffs will have to pay for this all!
 
Bubba

You are confusing cause and effect. FDR dealt with the effect of the previous president's policies. That he had to deal with Depression doesn't mean he was the cause of it.
 
I never said he was - he had NOTHING to do with the cause, only his ineffective remedies for a solution!
 
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