I’m watching C-SPAN live. At 2pm today, they report the vote on H.R. 3997 is 205 yea (94 R, 141 D) to 228 nay (132 R, 66 D). Full results here. The Republicans have stopped Bush’s plan. I’m very happy to see some fiscal conservatives sticking to their principles. Could it have had something to do with the leadership of a true conservative in their ranks, Congressman Paul? I watched several of the speeches right before the vote from Pelosi to Frank, Democrats and Republicans, and was impressed by their lack of content and use of fear tactics. Watching C-SPAN for any amount of time reveals a lot about these folks. Most of the speakers I saw repeated the same sentiment: We know this is not the best idea, but to do nothing would be even worse.
The best quote I heard was from Congressman Flake of Arizona:
“Those who think they can force the market’s invisible hand run the risk of being slapped by it.”
Normal text is my paraphrase, quotes are actual wordings, brackets are my commentary.
[Interesting: Only two candidates of the half dozen running for President, the others must have had a scheduling conflict. Moderator makes a few remarks, mentions the Wall St. - Main St. dichotomy. Wow, I'm tired of this.]
Q: Eisenhower said, “The foundation of military strength is economic strength.” [Glad to see a connection between the two off the bat!] What do you think about our economic crisis?
Obama: 700 billion is “potentially a lot of money”. Avoiding padding the golden parachute is highest priority. This is 8 years of Bush’s fault. “Shredding” regulations and letting it trickle down hasn’t worked. [Rich vs. poor, populism. Everybody loves the idea of sticking it to those stinking rich people. How on earth can you bail out banks and then somehow make sure the bankers don't benefit greatly from it, seriously?]
McCain: For the first time in a long time Reps and Dems are coming together. Main St. will benefit, people will lose their homes if we don’t fix this! “This is the end of the beginning of this crisis.” (more…)
Dr. Paul is continuing to oppose the dangerous status quo platforms of the major candidate(s) by endorsing Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party. My initial reaction is to do whatever Ron Paul says, but that’s the last thing Ron Paul would want me to do! So my research continues. Honestly, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my vote yet, but I’m quite convinced it’s not going to Dumb or Dumber. Meanwhile, here are some jewels from G. K. Chesterton circa 1920:
While the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.
He is a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of a conservative.
When men have come to the edge of a precipice, it is the lover of life who has the spirit to leap backwards, and only the pessimist who continues to believe in progress.
The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.
The house is supposed to “vote” on Thurs and the senate Friday on this particular act of lunacy. Since they’ve been so nice to include our representative government this time (in formality at least) I decided I’d let my legislators know my thoughts on it:
I wrote you a handwritten letter last year in reference to the fair tax. This is my second communication with your office and it would also be written by hand, except for the urgency of this issue.
I strongly urge you NOT to support the current $700 billion bailout for the mortgage industry. It would be a grave violation of your duty to uphold the Constitution of the United States to authorize the spending of $9,000 of my family’s resources in this manner. It is ethically unjustifiable to provide a safety net from public funds for greed in the private sector. The consequences of malinvestment must be allowed to run their course.
Please reply to the message to let me know that you have received it and are taking my voice into consideration. If you feel otherwise, please help me understand your position.
Thank you for your diligent attention to how our tax money is best spent.
David Williams
Dan Flynn adequately summarizes our nation’s pending foolishness in a recent post:
A capitalism without risk soon morphs into a capitalism without reward… The free market needs to be free of state intervention. There are enough incentives and disincentives to guide behavior in a manner that is beneficial to society. Creating artificial carrots and sticks only transforms rational behavior into irrational behavior. Coercion warps the market into doing things like lending money to people who don’t seem to have the capacity to pay it back. A free market, free of government coercion and government bailouts, generally does not behave in this way.
I’m surprised it has taken 60 years to go from the concept of Rosie the Riveter to Sarah the Campaigner. The idea of a woman in charge is taking our land opportunity by storm when places like Pakistan got there long before us. (At this point in the race, I wonder if Hillary still considers her run to be actually closer to the White House than Sarah’s? As far as energy exerted towards the goal, Hillary’s has been tenfold.) If we were ready for it, the Green Party has an impressively strong dual woman ticket this year with Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente—talk about bulldogs!
In an effort to dissect the differences offered this November, I’ve spent some time arranging a side-by-side content comparison of Obama and McCain’s respective party nomination acceptance speeches. The goal is to eliminate the production value and see the content for what it is and/or what it is not. Without a TV, I’ve been blessed to watch and read them both on the web without Hannity, Colmes or any other punditry spin. Please take a few moments to skim the brief topic synopses and selected callout quotations, then post a comment here of your observations.
Tim Keller is rapidly becoming my hero. In his book, The Reason for God, he writes:
When my personal grasp of the gospel was very weak, my self-view swung wildly between two poles. When I was performing up to my standards—in academic work, professional achievement, or relationships—I felt confident but not humble. When I was not living up to standards, I felt humble but not confident, a failure. I discovered, however, that the gospel contained the resources to build a unique identity. In Christ I could know I was accepted by grace not only despite my flaws, but because I was willing to admit them. The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time.
