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Thursday, December 11, 2008
(Video) Ron Paul in Congress: "Eight trillion dollar bailout: on the road to nationalization without a wimper"
Congressman Ron Paul from Texas gets an interesting introduction before beginning this four-minute speech during the House of Representatives' debate on the auto bailout Wednesday night.
Ron Paul is explaining what many people only realize superficially: that the auto bailout, under which the President would have control over the business decisions of the Big 3 through a "car czar," amounts to nationalization.
Thought they tiptoe around the term, the folks on CNN and CNBC know it too and occasionally have to confront their rationalizations of Soviet-style central planning economics whenever an outspoken guest calls a spade a spade.
I'm glad that some Republican Senators and Fox News conservatives have been shaken awake after they rolled over for Henry Paulsen and George W. Bush's previous bailout billions. Matt Drudge is neither shy nor subtle; he postered the word "NATIONALIZATION" across the top of the Drudge Report on Tuesday when new details emerged about the proposed auto bailout.
In case anyone is trying to keep track of the magnitude of the 2008 bailouts to-date, the pie-chart highlighted by Shotgun blogger Omar Abu Hatem is illustrative (click for full size):
While some in the Grand Ol' Party have been making noise and a handful of Senators have proposed to filibuster a vote on the auto bailout, the latest news from Washington is that Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker is close to reaching a compromise deal for a $14-billion auto bailout with Senate Democrats which "would overwhelmingly pass" the chamber.
It's clear that Obama is dead set on bringing about a new era of even bigger spending and a possible "New New Deal," and all of this in an era of what Justin Raimondo is aptly calling the new "plutocratic socialism." Now that John McCain the pinko Republican is no longer the spokesman for the party, the remaining question is whether the opposition Republican Party will be obstructionists of the Obama-Reid-Pelosi Democratic agenda or repeat the mistakes of the past eight years and continue to be willing dupes to yet another big government presidency.
If the US government continues as they have, bailing out firms and sectors which are deemed "too big" or "too important" to fail, not only will this provide no lasting solution to unemployment and other economic problems and risk complete economic and currency collapse, but the US economy will be transformed into something completely contrary to the American ideal of free enterprise.
Update: Ding-dong the witch is dead! At least for now. Reuters reports:
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate failed on Thursday night to reach a last-ditch compromise to bail out automakers, effectively killing any chance of congressional action this year.
The $14 billion legislation officially died in the Senate late on Thursday after supporters failed to get enough support in a procedural vote.
Republican-brokered talks faltered, leaving the chamber at a dead end on an approach for extending $14 billion in loans to avert a threatened collapse of one or more automakers, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in remarks on the floor.
"It's over with," Reid said.
Posted by Kalim Kassam on December 11, 2008 in U.S. politics | Permalink
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Comments
CNN is reporting that the auto bailout has died in the Senate after compromise talks fail.
Posted by: Matthew Johnston | 2008-12-11 9:51:14 PM
Excellent post. I can't help but think this is the end of America as we know it. Socialism, militarism, imperialism, hyper-inflation (stay tuned). It's sad.
Posted by: Matthew Johnston | 2008-12-11 10:42:10 PM
i find it interesting that the republican party would be the ones who claim that they believe in the capitol system and yet help kill the bailout of the auto industry because there were not guarantees for the workers to take pay cuts more in line with Japanese auto makers in this country.if a capitalist believes that a person through hard work can get ahead why take away from the u.a.w. what they earned over decades of negotiated agreements? the cry is that they make to much.in a capitalist society how is that possible? i believe that the so called capitalists don't want there labor pool to get ahead by earning more through hard work. they just want the labor pool to work hard for their own capitalist gains.that is and was what it always is. the serf system.
its not the workers that should be the concern of congress and the public, its the so called leaders of industry and the banking heads who have brought us to where we are now.Joe the auto worker didn't create the financial mess that is what we call wall street, but he will be the first one expected to pay for it.people need to realize that the whole system might be broken and we might need to look at the whole picture and not just focus on one small piece.the bail out of the auto industry would have been paid back under agreement,will the "banks" be paying back the bail out money that they are receiving? the bail out for the banks was to increase credit circulation to help keep the economy doing and yet I've found it harder to get credit, which leads me to believe that they are holding on to the money that was meant to be an economic stimulus.
last point. we also have to be real careful about repeating the mistakes and missteps of the late 1920's where we lost so many jobs because the economy slowed down because people were loosing jobs and companies were loosing the quarterly earnings.if we have a consumer based economy the consumers need money in their hands to spend.that means they need jobs to earn money to spend.if companies cut jobs because they are beholden to the stock holders and not the overall health of the national economy then we will continue to spiral down towards a depression by repeating the same mistakes.learn from history. don't be stupid and greedy for the next quarter.take the pain now and heal for a stronger and better long term.
thank you
jess bernstein
Posted by: jess bernstein | 2008-12-12 6:31:18 AM
Once again RP makes me proud and tells it like it is. He has been so slandered, ignored and relegated to the side lines because he tells the truth, and that really is sad. Especially in light of the "fact" that he has been 100% correct with his analysis and predictions. He's been advocating more responsible fiscal habits for the Government of the USA and everyone in general. He's been advocating that the western world stop manipulating the rest of the world and return to more Constitutional ways. How can any of that be wrong?
And Matthew? I'm not sure I understand your last post. If the bail out has died, would that not be a reversal of the trend towards socialism and government "buy in's"? I would think this is actually good news in the long run as painful as it might be in the short term.
Still the reversal of "militarism" seems a ways off....
Posted by: JC | 2008-12-12 6:35:26 AM
i find it interesting that the republican party would be the ones who claim that they believe in the capitol system and yet help kill the bailout of the auto industry
Posted by: jess bernstein | 12-Dec-08 6:31:18 AM
Jess, with all due respect...
A government bail out flies completely in the face of real capitalism by removing responsibility for one's own actions. If large corporations can be rewarded for ineptitude, failure to read the market and remain competitive,
grow top heavy with too many dollars going to the executive, production heavy by basically being run by a union, then what is the point?
We might as well by pass the executives and the unions and go straight to state run automobile manufacturing. That's socialism or maybe communism....but it sure isn't capitalism.
Capitalism comes with rewards for success, or consequences for failure. But running to mommy because we blew our allowance shouldn't be an option.
Be Well
Posted by: JC | 2008-12-12 6:43:52 AM
You have to hand it to Ron Paul, he tells it like it is. No holding back and no sugar coating.
Posted by: Tom | 2008-12-12 8:49:19 AM
The link below is of a lecture that Edward Griffin gave on the Federal Reserve. Audio only, it's nearly 1 hour long and broken up into 7 segments. Interesting listen. Maybe someone has the unbroken version.
The Creature from Jekyll Island - A Second Look at the Federal Reserve by G Edward Griffin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3TAh1gy6rc
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-12-12 9:35:33 AM
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