Bashing The Banks

“Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.” –James Madison

Finance: The White House thinks it can jawbone banks into lending to people they don’t want to lend to. We’ve been down this road before, and it led all the way to the 2007 financial meltdown.

The president on Monday gave a tongue-lashing to the “fat-cat bankers on Wall Street,” as he called them the day before. He wants them to make more loans to small businesses and consumers to give the economy a boost.

But should banks be lending just because a politician tells them to? We tried this before. Indeed, it’s the very source of the financial and economic calamity of the past two years.

President Obama may think dressing down the top dogs at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and others is good politics. But it’s demoralizing and will only lead to more bank write-offs, more bank failures and less lending.

Besides, as economist Thomas Sowell noted in a recent series in IBD, our current economic ills are largely due to just the kind of government meddling we now see in the financial markets.

In this, President Obama is treading the very same ground as President Clinton and President Bush in pushing banks to make risky loans they shouldn’t make. And it will have the same dire results.

For those who don’t remember, the federal government became more involved than ever in determining how banks make their loans — and to what customers — thanks to the creation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out of the wreckage of the Great Depression.

They were followed by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975, the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 and the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992.

Go back to the 1970s and early 1990s you’ll see that, just as today, bankers were criticized heavily for their alleged racism and lack of concern for the poor. President after president lambasted them for not lending more to support presidential social policies.

By 2000, President Clinton’s HUD required half of Fannie Mae’s loan originations to go to poor and moderate-income borrowers — whether they could pay on the loans or not. It marked the triumph of leftist politics over financial common sense.

This is how the subprime meltdown, the source of our current financial troubles, came about. Not by “greedy” banks or by “deregulation.” Banks had a choice: make bad loans or face more scrutiny when it came time to raise capital or to merge with other banks.

As such, President Obama must know his attack on banks is dishonest. Plans for a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the $700 billion TARP bailout and the creation of a “pay czar” who determines the pay of the top officers at companies that took bailout funds, have created a timid, risk-averse financial sector.

Banks have nearly $1 trillion in reserves. So why don’t they lend them? Simply put, they can’t sneeze without government permission. Worse, they don’t know what taxes or regulations they’ll face in coming years. If the House’s vote on Friday to impose a $150 billion “fee” on Wall Street is any indicator, they can expect far lower profits and much more destructive government control — not less.

Justice Denied

“The circumstances that endanger the safety of nations are infinite.” –Alexander Hamilton

“[Attorney General] Eric Holder’s move to try the 9/11 masterminds in Manhattan makes it official: This administration has reverted to pre-9/11 ‘crime’ fighting. Amid all the talk during the attorney general’s surreal press conference of the ‘crime’ committed eight years ago, the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon wasn’t even mentioned. Lest anyone forget, the military headquarters of the United States was attacked that day along with the Twin Towers. An entire wedge of the Ring was gutted when the Saudi hijackers slammed American Airlines Flight 77 into it. Nearly 200 military personnel were killed, along with the passengers and crew of the hijacked jet. The jet was a weapon used to attack the very center of our military. That was not a ‘crime,’ as some say. It was an act of war. And 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, along with the four other al-Qa’ida terrorist co-conspirators Holder wants to try, are no mere criminals. They are enemy combatants — and should be treated as such. … Holder clucked that the ‘trials will be open to the public and the world.’ And they will turn into circuses, playing right into the hands of the enemy. These trials will drag on for years, perhaps even decades, as defense lawyers file endless motions and appeals. Meanwhile, valuable intelligence about interrogation techniques and other methods we’ve used against al-Qa’ida will be revealed to the enemy during trial discovery. This move to a civilian court makes no sense at all, except viewed through a political prism. … It will only remind people how much America has shrunk in the last nine months.” –Investor’s Business Daily

Jihad’s 5th Column

“The Fort Hood terrorist is being portrayed as an ‘anomaly,’ an ‘aberration,’ a ‘lone wolf.’ Sadly, [Nidal Hasan is] just one of many examples of jihadist traitors in the ranks of the military. Together they form a dangerous Fifth Column, and the Pentagon — thanks to institutionalized political correctness — is doing next to nothing to root them out. Instead, brass are actively recruiting Muslim soldiers — whose ranks have swelled to more than 15,000 — and catering to their faith by erecting mosques even at Marine headquarters in Quantico, Va. More, they’re hiring Muslim chaplains endorsed by radical Islamic front groups, who convert and radicalize soldiers. In the wake of the worst domestic military-base massacre in U.S. history, this is an outrage to say the least. And the PC blinders explain how Fort Hood commanders could have failed so horrifically in protecting their force from the internal threat there. The terrorist suspect, an Islamic fanatic, penetrated deep into the Army’s officer corps before gunning down, execution-style, more than 40 of his fellow soldiers. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly killed 13 at the Texas post, which boasts some 40 Muslims. Witnesses say he shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ — Allah is great! — before opening fire in a crowded building where troops were sitting ducks, waiting to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan, both wars that Hasan angrily opposed. ‘Muslims should stand up and fight the aggressor,’ he reportedly said earlier this year, referring to the U.S. — the country he swore to protect.” –Investor’s Business Daily

China, India Cancel Out Copenhagen

“Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government.” –George Washington

“The Copenhagen Conference is about the world’s Lilliputians tying down its Gullivers.”
“With less than two months to go before the big Copenhagen Conference on global warming, two major nations have said ‘no thanks’ to the no-growth agenda. For that reason alone, so should we. Following a deal signed late Thursday between China and India, anything we might agree to do in Copenhagen is likely moot anyway. The two mega-nations — which together account for nearly a third of the world’s population — said they won’t go along with a new climate treaty being drafted in Copenhagen to replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012. They’re basically saying no to anything that forces them to impose mandatory limits on their output of greenhouse gas emissions. Other developing nations, including Mexico, Brazil and South Africa, will likely reject any proposals as well. The deal was already in trouble. Three weeks ago, the Group of 77 developing nations met in Thailand to discuss what they wanted to do about global warming. Their answer: nothing. William Hawkins, writing in the American Thinker, quotes a piece in China’s Science Times journal that sums up how China — and other developing nations — feel: ‘Why do the developed countries put an arguable scientific problem on the international negotiations table?’ the article’s author, Wang Jin, asks. ‘The real intention is not for the global temperature increase, but for the restriction of the economic development of the developing countries.’ They see clearly what the rest of us seem to miss — that, for all its bad science, the Copenhagen Conference is about the world’s Lilliputians tying down its Gullivers, not about global warming at all. So, thanks to China and India, Copenhagen is dead — just as Kyoto was when it was signed in 1992, though no one knew it at the time. Without them, no global treaty on climate change will be workable.” –Investor’s Business Daily

Thugs, Tea Parties And Treacle

“The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man.” –James Madison

G-20 protesters in Pittsburgh weren’t exactly “right-wing extremists”

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi berated town hall and tea party protesters this month, tearfully warning they’d incite violence. Well, there’s been violence all right, at Pittsburgh’s G-20. But it wasn’t the tea partiers. It takes gall to characterize ordinary Americans, freely exercising their rights of speech and assembly in civic forums, as ‘mobs’ while ignoring a pack of leftist thugs now smashing a U.S. city. But that’s what Pelosi did, directing her righteous tocsin to the Norman Rockwell-like gatherings of Americans who opposed her expansion of government this past summer. ‘I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw … I saw this myself in the late ’70s in San Francisco,’ Pelosi said, choking up, her eyes brimming with tears. ‘This kind of rhetoric is just, is really frightening and it created a climate in which we, violence took place and … I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made,’ she told a congressional forum Sept. 17 in a bid to silence peaceful protesters. Scroll ahead one week to the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh: Some 1,000 hooded rioters descend on the city waving signs such as ‘Smash the G-20′ and ‘Eat the Rich.’ Many take ‘direct action’ to ‘challenge capitalism’ in what organizers brazenly call an ‘unpermitted protest.’ Unlike the town hall citizens, they didn’t ‘hurl’ statements — just tire irons, bricks and rocks, in an effort to damage private businesses. … This kind of violence is nothing new. It was found in Seattle in 1999, where former Obama administration green czar Van Jones got himself arrested. It was repeated at other summits in Turin, Italy; Washington, D.C.; and London. These leftists detest capitalism, abhor private property — and have ties to the Democratic Party. The unwillingness of the Democratic establishment to defend free markets emboldens the rioters. In destroying private property and impeding trade, these anarchists prove their aims aren’t democratic. They resemble the mobs of Castro’s Cuba who engage in violence against citizens to enforce conformity. The outrage of it all raises questions about Pelosi’s real agenda in her one-sided criticism of tea partiers. By criticizing only tea partiers and ignoring rampant thugs, she seeks to repress peaceful dissent. With that setup, it’s no surprise that there’s a mudslide of violence now rolling down on us from an energized radical left.” –Investor’s Business Daily

Acorn’s Cash For Hookers

“[T]here is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust.” –James Madison

Undercover conservatives catch ACORN in a tight spot

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“After Acorn workers were caught on tape in three cities allegedly abetting what they believed was a fraudulent-mortgage and sex-trafficking scheme, the Senate has voted overwhelmingly to strip the group of funding in the Transportation/Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. The amendment, offered by Nebraska Republican Sen. Mike Johanns, passed by an 83-to-7 margin and marked the third time this year that Republicans have tried to block the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now from feeding at the federal trough. Seven Democrats refused to do the right thing. The magnificent seven are Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.; Bob Casey, D-Pa.; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; both Vermont Democrats, Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy, as well as both Illinois Democrats, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin and Roland Burris. This vote comes after the release of three hidden-camera videos showing Acorn housing staff in its Baltimore, Washington and New York offices apparently helping a couple posing as a pimp and a prostitute evade the IRS and apply for an illegal housing loan to set up a brothel. (Insert stimulus joke here.) The Census Bureau immediately severed ties with Acorn, unconcerned that prostitutes and tax evaders might be undercounted in the 2010 census.” –Investor’s Business Daily

Are We In America Or Amerika?

“Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage on them.” –Thomas Jefferson

The pinkos are coming — with health “care”

“Democrats, bloodied over their attempt to force health care ‘reform’ on Americans, are looking more unreasonable and hysterical by the day. This isn’t healthy for the republic. Their increasing anxiety and fear of failure are typified in the words of the leader of their party, who wants Republicans to keep their mouths shut while he ‘fixes’ health care. ‘I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking,’ the president said Thursday at a political rally in Virginia. ‘I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess.’ So much for the promises of bipartisan lawmaking. So much for open discussion. So much for understanding who really caused the ‘mess’ in the first place. Like Al Gore claiming the debate about global warming is over, the White House simply wants to shut down dialogue over who controls more than one-seventh of the economy. … Truth is, there’s nothing more American than revolting against heavy-handed authority, be it a long train of abuses from a king or the lawmaking of elected officials with strong authoritarian urges. This is a nation founded on independence, and there is a large portion of it that wants to retain that priceless heritage. This seems to confuse some lawmakers. … Voters’ deep anger is justifiable. They have every right to disrupt and shout down public figures who, as the protesters can be heard chanting, work for them. At dispute is not a mere difference of opinion that can and should be discussed in a civil manner, but a fundamental question of who is in charge of peoples’ lives. We are not advocating violence, though coercive government is at its core violent as the state is required to resort to force to ensure that its directives aren’t violated. But we do support our fellow citizens’ right to express their rage at an injustice, particularly if it makes lawmakers uncomfortable. Shouldn’t Americans bristle when their independence is threatened, when a federal official, in this case White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, says party leaders ‘will punch back twice as hard’ when voters merely show their displeasure? The freedom the protesters are defending can sometimes be messy and imperfect. A lack of freedom, however, is eternally oppressive. It is an unrelenting prison that poisons the human spirit, even when cloaked in allegedly humane programs such as government-run health care.” –Investors’ Business Daily

Relentless Cuts Net 0.0025% In Savings

“The administration has fulfilled a promise to cut spending by trimming $100 million from the 2009 budget. That’s right — $100 million with an ‘m,’ an imponderably small slice of this year’s expenditures. Back in April, the White House stressed that President Obama, during his first Cabinet meeting, ‘made clear that relentlessly cutting out waste was part and parcel of their mission to make the investments necessary for recovery and long-term stability.’ Department heads were ‘to identify at least $100 million in additional cuts to their administrative budgets.’ Three months later, he has gotten his wish: The White House announced on Monday that the goal has been reached. To say such a cut is negligible is an exaggeration in the extreme. To fit that description, a cut first has to be visible. Though it was initially promoted as a seminal moment, this cut doesn’t come close to meeting even the most reachable of benchmarks. In fiscal 2009, our federal government will spend nearly $4 trillion, according to the Office of Management and Budget’s historical tables. The $100 million cut represents 0.0025% — less than one one-hundredth of 1% — of those outlays. … Now, thanks to the administration’s ‘relentless’ belt-tightening, the deficit will be $1.79999 trillion rather than $1.8 trillion.” –Investor’s Business Daily

Sotomayor’s Supreme Charade

“[T]he opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves, in their, own sphere of action, but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch.” –Thomas Jefferson

Sotomayor: “What I meant was…”

“Confronted with her disturbing racially oriented past statements, Judge Sonia Sotomayor had an excuse that only a liberal activist jurist could make: She meant the opposite of what she said. Sotomayor’s oft-repeated rhetorical riff on race is clear as a bell: ‘I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.’ She would sometimes leave out the ‘white male’ part, but the remark was always a pointed disagreement with former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s maxim: that a wise old man and wise old woman would agree on a judicial case’s outcome. Yet when the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, quoted Sotomayor’s own words to her, the response was basically: ‘I didn’t mean what I said.’ Kind of like how the Constitution doesn’t mean what it says, as so many judges believe? ‘What I was talking about was the obligation of judges to examine what they’re feeling as they’re adjudicating a case and to ensure that that’s not influencing the outcome,’ Sotomayor told Sessions. ‘We have to recognize those feelings and put them aside.’ Put it all together and it comes out something like this: The richness of a Latina’s experiences will help her reach a better conclusion than non-Latinos because she will ‘recognize those feelings and put them aside.’ That’s tough to swallow. … By claiming her ‘wise Latina’ comment meant the reverse of the plain meaning of her words, Judge Sotomayor has blemished herself on the first day of questions. If she dances around that, why should we believe her when she says ‘the task of a judge is not to make the law; it is to apply the law’?” –Investor’s Business Daily

Self-Serving Switch — Arlen Specter: A RINO no more.

Politics: In finally abandoning the Republican Party, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter showed his true colors not just ideologically, but personally. It’s all about the liberal Specter maximizing his own power.

The climax Tuesday of Arlen Specter’s long, drawn-out betrayal of his party may seem like it came out of nowhere — especially since it was only last month that he said he’d seek re-election as a Republican. But why be shocked when a hardened Machiavellian does what comes naturally after doing the math?

As a Democrat, Sen. Specter will now be Washington’s king power broker, since he is poised to be the 60th vote for Democrats in the U.S. Senate, constituting a filibuster-proof majority at a time when the federal government is undergoing an unprecedented expansion in size and power.

No one is falling for Specter’s hand-wringing rationale that “since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right.” He was just as uncomfortable with Reaganism back then as he is now, all along relishing his role as RINO — Republican In Name Only — whose vote was up for sale.

“Last year,” Specter added, “more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.”

He must not have been looking for that philosophy very hard, or he would have “found” it’s been that way for decades.

What Specter saw, in fact, as he looked at the people of Pennsylvania was that his days were numbered. Former congressman and Club for Growth president Pat Toomey, who nearly snatched the GOP nomination away from the longtime incumbent in 2004, has been organizing an encore effort that Specter obviously surmised was going to succeed in 2010.

The game that the former Philadelphia prosecutor has played for so long would no longer work. He got away with betraying party principles on everything from tax cuts to Supreme Court appointments because periodically his specialized abilities would come in handy — most memorably in grilling Justice Clarence Thomas accuser Anita Hill during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1991.

It will be a new dance now. As vote No. 60 in the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body (assuming vote No. 59 belongs to comedian Al Franken of Minnesota), Specter will be owed an incalculable debt by congressional Democrats and President Obama.

There will be no threats of party discipline against him on the occasions when he votes with Republicans, no warnings that campaign funds will be kept from him. (You think they want Toomey to beat him in 2010?) Each and every big vote in the Senate will be a bargaining opportunity for Specter. Riches and favors will be showered upon him for the power he prostitutes.

There has never been a more important time to temper the power being wielded in Washington, never a time when putting country before political ambition was so consequential. The system of economic freedom that built and sustains America is at stake, as are the fortunes of our children and grandchildren.

Thanks to Arlen Specter, that destructive power may now be absolute. Reserve a space for a new addition to history’s Rogues’ Gallery.