Republicans Invite Bad Press Coverage
By Cliff Kincaid
November 18, 2008
Page 2 of 3
Both Senators are being inconsistent. Kyl voted for the Wall Street bailout but opposes the auto bailout. Dorgan opposed the Wall Street bailout but supports the auto bailout. But Dorgan comes out of the exchange looking far better because he's correct that the proposed Detroit bailout is only a very small part of the money that has already been spent on or committed to Wall Street.
How can Republicans look good by opposing using a small percentage of the bailout money for car companies when they have already bailed out Wall Street? If the "business model" of the car companies is bad and they deserve to fail, what about the "business model" for the incompetent or corrupt Wall Street firms that are getting bailed out? Why weren't they allowed to fail?
The basic problem for the Republicans is that too many of them betrayed their principles when they voted for the Wall Street bailout. They blindly trusted Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and thought that the costly bailout would work. Plus, the media became cheerleaders for the plan, and this added to the pressure.
On Fox News Sunday, Kyl was asked about another federal "stimulus" plan for the economy and sounded like he had rediscovered his conservative principles. He replied, in part: "Washington doesn't grow money on trees. It gets it from the American people." But this was also true in regard to the $700-billion Wall Street bailout that he voted for.
Yet Kyl wouldn't even concede at the time that the legislation was a bailout. In an October 6 press release, (web site) he defended the plan, saying that Paulson "and many other experts believe that the federal government should buy mortgage-backed and other distressed securities that are clogging the balance sheets of financial institutions." This was, of course, the story line that was sold by Paulson, before he abruptly changed the plan and gave up the idea of buying and selling the troubled assets. He left senators like Kyl, who usually vote the conservative way, looking foolish.
Kyl should have followed the lead of his colleague, Senator James Inhofe, who voted against the bailout because of his belief that it wouldn't work and that it would lead to more bailouts. Proven right on both counts, Inhofe is now proposing (web site) to "roll back the bailout" and stop the spending of another $350 billion of bailout money through congressional legislation. On the other side of the aisle, socialist Senator Bernie Sanders also wants to do the same. "Stop the Bailout" is the headline over a press release (web site) on his Senate website.
The difference between the two approaches is what has traditionally separated Republicans and Democrats. Sanders still wants to spend the money but on different things than banks. Inhofe says, "It is imperative that we not allow that amount of money to be added to a deficit approaching $1 trillion this year without any input from the legislative branch."
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