Geithner and the Obama administration: Seizing business for the common good?
By JR Hoeft | Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 | PolicyI’m really not an alarmist or conspiracy theorist. I truly believe we live in a Constitutional Republic and most Americans still believe in limited government and personal responsibility. But good Lord, what is this from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner:
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner today told Congress the administration will seek unprecedented power to seize non-bank financial companies whose collapse could jeopardize the economy, a move Geithner said would have allowed the government to bail out insurance giant American International Group at a far lower cost to taxpayers.
Is this a bit extreme? I know we all wanted “hope” and “change”…but the complete dismantling of our economic system? Folks…this is centrally controlled economy crap…yes, you know what that is: socialism.
For those of you who were unconvinced before, please wake up before it’s too late for our country. Read more tales of woe regarding how the government is failing us on the economy in this week’s commentary by Pat Buchanan.
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Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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15 Responses to "Geithner and the Obama administration: Seizing business for the common good?"
And this is a surprise? These are socialists. BUT DON”T FORGET – all they are doing is feeding the monster that Eric Cantor, et al let out of the cage by supporting the first bail-out bill. That move represented an unprecedented departure from free market principles, and it happened under a Republican watch. We will suffer the consequences of that surrender for a long time …
So JR and Kirwin and everyone else, remember months ago when I warned you all this would happen, remember when I said the dollar was done for, that everyone was going to push for a new world currency? Remember the mean and degrading things you said about me in public and private?
I was right..I’ll take my apologies in the checks you write to my candidate, Jason Call. Thanks.
Max,
Please show me my comments that degraded you with specificity on this issue. Thanks.
For what it’s worth, I called Obama a communist during an interview I did last summer on Sirius radio’s “Blog Bunker”.
Everything coming out of the Treasury Sec. mouth piece is demonstrative of the wishes of Team Obama. The wording is what is most disturbing:
“unprecedented power to seize non-bank financial companies “. Plum quote you pulled out there! Very scary.
“Too Big to Fail” will be an excuse to take the road to centralized government.
What is bankruptcy and forced liquidation for? Companies picking up those assets at cut rates is a natural phenomena. Govt. aquisition is not.
If it really is “Too Big to Fail” and the government wants to guarantee loans picked up by companies BUYING toxic assets, that is a much better route to take. This rewarding of failure and a doomed financial process has got to stop!
Jim – it’s a bit silly to call something socialist when it is done to protect capitalism.
The government does this all the time to banks – and has done so under Republican and Democratic administrations. Do you recall the Savings and Loan scandal, was that socialism too, or does the Executive Branch get a pass because Reagan was in office – and of course the messiah would never do anything which was “socialistic” (like nationalizing part of an auto company – or raising taxes…)
Frankly, I don’t like seeing you joining in this reactionary and emotional chorus – although I have grown to expect nothing but emotion on these issues from the right’s talking heads, the insane Glenn Beck (crying, really?), the uneducated Rush (maybe if he’d passed a college class he might have a better understanding of economics…), and the moronic Hannity (seriously, to this guy if the GOP was doing the same stuff we’d be hearing how great it was – he’s nothing but a propagandist).
Mark, all political bias aside, how many S&Ls are out there now? Were they not mostly absorbed by banks?
That is the opposite of keeping the dead weight alive and allowing those companies to live beyond their time of death.
The result of the S&L meltdown bailed out the FSLIC and paid the insurance to depositors but, how many “Savings and Loans” on name plates do you see on financial institutions now? Somehow the world didn’t explode. With the S&L mess thing, individual financial entities needed to be and were brought to extinction. There are some current exceptions, Wachovia for example has been repackaged and sold off to Wells Fargo.
I don’t believe in “too big” to liquidate. “Too Big” to not ‘government back’ loans sold to other companies might be different. Weed out the failure.
With these current bank/finanicial firm bailouts, failure and corruption are rewarded. Banks like BB&T get screwed by by solvent and being forced to compete with companies that deserved to die a humiliating forced liquidation.
Back in the day, the S&Ls had political clout too. Due to that, our government, always seeking re-election, worsened and artificially lengthened the problem. Some comparison can be made there.
If you want to talk about the Keating Five and say some Republicans have been known to break the law in the past, we can agree on that! However, corruption was what took place after the problem started as vultures took advantage of insolvent companies trying to survive with numbers games and regulation tailored to a failed business model. Those crooks didn’t start the problem.
You speak of emotion but, one does get a little emotional when you see things happen like this. However, aren’t you calling the kettle black? All this “Rush scape goating” is an emotional reaction and appeal. I’ve already heard that the Dems have said the “usefulness” of the focus on Rush has been used up. Did you not get the memo?
Does Talk Radio take advantage of stuff like this? Of course they do! It is good for ratings just as dramatic political sniping is good for Dem blogs. Talk Radio doesn’t run the GOP and the blogosphere will never run the Democrats. Influence to a degree and even offer a different means of communication, yes. Run and orchestrate, no.
Centralized control to the level talked about is BAD. I don’t care if it is Democrat or Republican driven, that is socialism and it fails everyone except for politicians and lobbyists.
JR, im not going to go search through posts from months back to find an example of someone calling me crazy or stupid, but I think you know the point I was making.
My last words on this…anyone who thinks this crisis was a mistake or some random happening is totally clueless. Wake up people, seriously. You do not have much time left.
Max,
There is such a difference between intelligent people who have serious differences of opinion on the nature of government (Mark and me) — and others who believe this is a plot by those seeking our precious bodily fluids.
There…I’ll save you the trouble of looking.
Your post makes no sense? Seeking our bodily fluids? Dude, seriously, wake up. Do the math. A fractional reserve banking system does one thing, transmit wealth upwards while wrecking the lower classes with inflation. Proven fact. Read some history. Economic crises such as these have been created artificially for hundreds of years. This was no mistake. This was a plot. I have given loads of evidence to that effect. No one has EVER even attempted to disprove anything I have said. Your comment above shows just how childish your world view is.
Max,
There’s a classic movie called “Dr. Strangelove” in which a base commander, with nuclear war plans, goes nuts and orders a nuclear strike on Russia – he does so to protect our “precious bodily fluids”. He believes fluoridation is a Communist plot.
Your theories are just as paranoid. No one has bothered to counter them because no one wants to waste their time with you.
JR, Max has made his points on video many times
Since Max has been deprived of one of the most brilliant movies ever made:
“Geithner, at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the U.S. is “open” to a headline-grabbing proposal by the governor of the China’s central bank, which was widely reported as being a call for a new global currency to replace the dollar, but which Geithner described as more modest and “evolutionary.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0309/Geithner_open_to_China_proposal.html?showall
That is from our secretary of the treasury, who used to be the in charge of the New York Federal Reserve. He is from the same group of people who artificially created the housing bubble through easy credit policies. You all are a bunch of little kids. Playing games and too scared to realize what is really going on.
Max,
No one is saying this stuff isn’t going on and that Geithner isn’t a threat…but your whole Illuminati/Mensa/Plot against humanity schtick is what’s childish and causes the whole argument to fall apart.
How about sticking with facts and illustrating how these individuals currently serving in the administration are doing things contrary to the free market and our founding principles.
Conspiracy theories make you out to be a crack-pot…and I do believe you’re smarter than that.
However, if you keep insisting on hurling insults, we’ll be more than happy to return fire.
Jim -
It seems that I missed a great example of what’s wrong with political debate these days, you just can’t have a debate about the issues anymore people have to hurl insults, conspriacy theories, etc. sigh…
I do worry for the future of our country at times.
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