{"id":3785,"date":"2008-10-01T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-01T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/10\/catch-700-billion\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:08:45","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:08:45","slug":"catch-700-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/10\/catch-700-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"Catch-700 Billion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Carter Bundy<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Most of us who follow politics, lobby, campaign or even just talk back to political TV ads would love to have a vote in Congress or in Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> on any number of issues. On rare occasion, though, there\u2019s an incredibly difficult vote that no one wants to cast. The bailout bill is one of them.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

There seem to be very few economists or financial analysts of any political persuasion who don\u2019t think some kind of temporary rescue is necessary to avoid crippling our credit markets. You almost never see this kind of unanimity among economists and policy analysts, much less among leading political figures in both major parties.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

On the other hand, the American public is, rightly, feeling that Wall Street has already gotten the benefit of the last eight years of economic policy, and they\u2019ve been promised by conservatives for 30 years that what\u2019s good for big business and Wall Street is good for them. So why do they now get put on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars per household?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In other words, it\u2019s a political loser. But it\u2019s also something that probably has to be done in some way. To their credit, each presidential candidate has prepared for the blowback and stepped up to endorse doing something substantial. It works because they both jumped off that political bridge together. If one were opposed, the other would have to be, too.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Privatize profits, socialize risk<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

With the Republicans controlling the executive branch for the last eight years and for 20 of the last 28 years, the House for 12 of the last 14, and the Senate for almost 11 of the last 14, it\u2019s hard to put it all on Jimmy Carter<\/a>, as Rush<\/a> and Sean<\/a> desperately try to do every day. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s even harder to put it on Obama<\/a>, when the vast majority of the bad loans were made prior to his even being elected to the U.S. Senate (Fannie\u2019s and Freddie\u2019s bad loans went up tenfold during W\u2019s<\/a> first few years).<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

On the other hand, it\u2019s pretty easy to pin it on an economic philosophy and actual policies that essentially removed any government oversight or regulations of financial markets. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just a philosophy: It\u2019s a series of deregulations, lack of enforcement and votes by hard-core laissez-faire guys like McCain<\/a> to \u201cget government off the back of Wall Street.\u201d Except, of course, when Wall Street needs help. Privatize profits, socialize risk. The great GOP way.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bad medicine<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But no matter how we got here, almost everyone agrees that without some government help, credit is going to dry up in America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. Businesses won\u2019t be able to borrow, jobs will be lost and good mortgages, which are key to getting the housing market back on track, will be very difficult to come by. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Too much debt is bad, but almost no one would ever own a home or car, and very few businesses would exist, if they weren\u2019t able to take on some debt initially. What percentage of people buy a car or home with one big check? What percentage of business start-ups are 100 percent funded with cash? Credit, in moderation, is a necessary fuel for the American economy.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

So the question is, do you let the cancer of evaporating credit spread throughout the business and consumer world, or do you administer some really bad medicine? <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The bailout looks and feels a lot like financial chemo. Anyone who has had the misfortune of knowing people suffering with cancer knows that the cure is pretty damn awful, too, and there\u2019s not even a guarantee it will work.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Congress is being asked to administer a heavy dose of painful medicine to arrest the cancer of dying credit. It\u2019s easier to be the person who grabs the hand of the patient and says \u201cI\u2019m not going to let them hurt you anymore\u201d than it is to say \u201cthis is going to hurt a lot, but it\u2019ll be worse if we don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I personally don\u2019t know that it will be worse without a bailout. It\u2019s very tempting to go with fellow columnist\u2019s Jim Scarantino\u2019s well-written, powerful argument<\/a> that everyone just needs to suck it up. But I do know that most every serious economist, regardless of political viewpoint, thinks we\u2019re heading for something far worse than \u201csucking it up\u201d if government doesn\u2019t address the credit crisis.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This is one of those votes when I\u2019m happy not to be an elected official. There\u2019s hell to pay with voters if you vote for this, and there\u2019s not even a guarantee it will work in any event. But it might be the best thing to do. Maybe. Ugh.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Debating patriotism<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The GOP has a surreal talent for taking any Dem questioning of limitless war and painting Dems as unpatriotic. John McCain shamefully tried to do that during the first debate, when he accused Barack Obama of not supporting the troops because he voted against funding without a timeline. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Obama quickly called out McCain\u2019s faux-patriotism drivel by pointing out that McCain also voted against funding the troops, but in the reverse situation (when the bill had a timeline). <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Kerry<\/a> wasn\u2019t able to fend off these vicious GOP attacks (remember \u201cI voted for it before I voted against it?\u201d) but Obama can and does.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

One of my absolute favorite things about Barack, and something that will be an excellent trait if he\u2019s president, is that he calmly calls out phony claims and explains the underlying facts succinctly. Obama looks — and is — presidential when he does it, and McCain looks small, petty and political for having attempted the deceitful smear.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME<\/a> in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. The opinions in his column are personal and do not necessarily reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here<\/a>. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carter Bundy Most of us who follow politics, lobby, campaign or even just talk back to political TV ads would love to have a vote in Congress or in Santa Fe on any number of issues. On rare occasion, though, there\u2019s an incredibly difficult vote that no one wants to cast. The bailout bill […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bundy-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}