Sioux City Journal

Obama shows economic 'leadership and foresight'

Posted: Tuesday, September 30, 2008

SIOUX CITY -- In 2005, Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives worked together to pass a bill that would have seriously reformed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But it faced hostility from the Bush administration and died in the Republican-controlled Senate.

From my reading of things, Barack Obama has shown the leadership and foresight on this issue that we desperately need in the White House. Obama introduced a bill to stop risky and fraudulent mortgages, way back in February 2006, and he warned Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke about the gathering storm in March 2007. He even applied the pressure that stopped the fired CEOs of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae from walking away with golden parachutes. John McCain? He’s been pushing for the minimal oversight that led to the crisis, and he didn’t even realize it hit until we were knee-deep. On the day the Dow dropped 500 points, he said, “The fundamentals of our economy are strong.” And the day after Bush asked Congress for a $700 billion bailout package, McCain said he did not “regret” championing the deregulation of Wall Street, arguing that “the deregulation was probably helpful to the growth of our economy.”

If this is the help McCain is going to give our economy, I’ll pass. -- Linda Taube

Story Comments

Flimflam wrote on Oct 8, 2008 5:21 AM:

" Ruth K. wrote on Oct 1, 2008 12:21 AM:
" I'm responding mostly to Pariah: ...What's this about Obama's conduct at the White House meeting? What was reported was that the Democratic leaders deferred to Sen. Obama ...

That is true, Obama's temper tantrum was not reported by the major News Networks, it was reported by people in the room at the time. You should know that the major News Networks are not going to report anything bad about Obama. "

VegasRage wrote on Oct 7, 2008 1:51 AM:

" Linda neither candidate have a clue. The next president cannot fix this. At the heart of this problem is a gold crisis, we would never have gotten this far out if their were a baseline gold standard which Nixon took us off in 71, sabotage is more like it.

Gold stabilizes interest rates, we lost that and this time bomb was known about for the last 30 years. Angering to see congress act shell shocked, they were warned again and again.

If Obama is change we can believe in, then we are going to need to point it out to him because as of now he doesn't doesn't understand the half quadrillion derivatives monster about to blow up this month along with that bogus insurance a.k.a. "credit-default swaps", nor does he understand the ARM loans set to balloon start ballooning in April, goodbye home owners hello repo-man. Wait until the retiring baby boomers who have all their 401k's and IRA's retirement wrapped up in the stock market panic and pull, never before in history have so many bet their retirement on Wall Street.

Don't worry McCain is more clueless than Obama "

jon wrote on Oct 3, 2008 12:14 PM:

" UM...MC CAIN WAS FOR THE BAILOUT...voted FOR it..yes he did...spoke several times about how important it was to pass it. The "maverick" want the original form of the bill to pass. Obama was for it, but wanted to put some safeguards in to make sure it wasn't just a blank check to corporations.

Please, come to reality and actually pay attention to what is going on here, not to what you wish was happening. "

bobf wrote on Oct 2, 2008 2:12 PM:

" hey fivereasonstovotedemocrat, you left one out. farming (agricultural subsidies/welfare). "

Tom P wrote on Oct 1, 2008 12:56 PM:

" Hey Keith, Im not saying the bailout plan is a good thing. What Ive heard and read about the bill (that didnt go through) stinks. And I dont give a rats rear end what Jim McDermott says either. He, like most Dems, probably voted for war before he was against it. I find it amusing that you are siding with the Repubs in the House on the bailout though. "